The worst governors (and the best true crime about them)
the true crime that's worth your time
Upon the inglorious occasion of Andrew Cuomo’s resignation from the governorship of New York State, Eve and I joked in Slack about forming a Terrible Governors’ Club. But seriously: it seems like a good time to ask a two-part question: 1) Which state, historically, has had the crookedest governors? And 2) what, if any, are your favorite true-crime properties about those governors?
The Empire State has had a remarkably crappish run in the last 15 years: Cuomo fils; Spitzer, obvs; and I forgot that Spitzie’s replacement, David Paterson, bailed on pursuing a full term amid allegations that his administration mishandled allegations of intimate-partner violence against one of his aides.
That said: New Jersey. Jim McGreevey said he left office to live his truth as “a gay American”; in fact, the entire state had known he was gay for years, and he actually left because a blackmail/payola scandal was coming down. Christie had Bridgegate (and then the pathetic Trump toadying, although technically that isn’t criminal). Jon Corzine — full disclosure: a friend of my family’s since the ‘70s — had serially poor judgment at best.
And then there’s Arkansas (Clinton, Troopergate, and creeperism that at the very least could have been charged as misdemeanors). And Kentucky at the turn of the last century. And Illinois (Blago) and Texas (Rick Perry) and Alaska makin’ up for lost time (Palin) (and no, the crime is not “dumb kid names,” alas) and Connecticut (Rowland), and and and.
I’ve linked a VF article above that’s a good longread on Corzine; Alex Gibney’s Client 9 was a fantastic, infuriating take on Eliot Spitzer’s rise and fall (it’s on Amazon Prime); what’re your favorite books/docs/pods on governors gone — or born — bad? — SDB