Watchdog group releases 'Worst Governors' list

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions, has released a report on the nation's "most incompetent and unethical governors."

CREW's Worst Governors report provides in-depth analyses of "11 elected officials who have pushed their states' best interests aside in favor of their supporters, families, political parties and bank accounts," according to a CREW press release.

CREW also launched a Web site, www.WorstGovernors.org, which offers concise summaries of each governor's offenses and links to their full profiles and exhibits.

I just have one question: Why isn't Ed Rendell's name on the list of the 11 worst governors in the U.S.?

Here is CREW's list of the 11 worst governors in alphabetical order:

-- Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS);
-- Gov. Donald Carcieri (R-RI);
-- Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV);
-- Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA);
-- Gov. David Paterson (D-NY);
-- Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA);
-- Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX);
-- Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM);
-- Gov. Mike Rounds (R-SD);
-- Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC); and
-- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)

More from CREW:

CREW's report also includes the Worst Governors Index, a Harper's Index-style compendium of statistics from the report.

Highlights include Gov. Perdue's $2,400 private plane ride to a NASCAR race 30 miles away, Gov. Gibbons' 867 state-billed text messages sent to his "alleged" mistress over six weeks in 2007, and Gov. Perry's minimum 17 former aides-turned-lobbyists.

CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said today, "From Gov. Jindal's hundreds of campaign-contributing state appointees to Gov. Paterson's efforts to pressure a domestic violence victim to stay silent - CREW's Worst Governors report leaves you wondering if these really are the people best equipped to handle the complicated problems faced across the nation."

Sloan continued, "There has been a great deal of focus on the ethics of Congress over the past few years, but CREW's report shows that state governments are not immune to ethics problems. Too often -- whether in Washington, D.C. or in South Dakota -- our country's political leaders are more focused on what's best for the favored few, rather than on improving the lives of Americans."

Click here to visit WorstGovernors.org

Click here to read CREW's full 40-page Worst Governors report in PDF Format

Click here to read CREW's Worst Governors Index in PDF Format

For more information about CREW, visit www.citizensforethics.org