Jul 25, 2016 4 min read

Well, we’re not Illinois or Louisiana.

No, the last four of our seven governors have not gone to prison for offenses ranging from peddling a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder or accepting stock in return for favors, as the case was in the Land of Lincoln. And nor are we the home state of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, which bred storied corruption alongside its larger-than-life musicians. Edwin Edwards, a legendarily charming and unscrupulous Louisiana chief executive, once remarked an opponent had so incompetently run the state there wouldn’t be “any money left to steal” if his rival ended up being re-elected.

We may not produce figures who dip into the cookie jar or buy and sell influence with so much undisguised zest, but Pennsylvania managed pretty routinely in recent years to land on lists of the most corrupt states in the nation. A 2014 study looked at the number of public officials arrested and convicted for various offenses and put the commonwealth at No. 5. Events over the last 24 months have done nothing to edge us toward the states that were given cleaner bills of health, such as Utah, Vermont or Nebraska. Kathleen Kane, the state’s once-promising attorney general, will be going on trial next month on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Chaka Fattah, a Philadelphia-area congressman, was convicted on federal corruption charges in June. And Rob McCord, a gregarious state treasurer who, like Kane, once seemed to have an auspicious career ahead of him, stepped down after it was revealed he was trying to extort contributors for a failed 2014 gubernatorial bid.

There are other names in Pennsylvania’s rogues’ gallery from recent history: Bill DeWeese; Joan Orie Melvin; Steven Reed; George Hatalowich. The list is long and goes on and on.

And now comes Barbara Hafer. The onetime auditor general and former state treasurer was indicted on charges she lied to FBI and IRS investigators in May about receiving $675,000 in payments from Philadelphia money manager Richard Ireland after she stepped down as treasurer in 2005. Ireland allegedly gave the money to Hafer’s consulting firm, and Hafer told investigators her firm did not receive the payments, even though an initial payment of $500,000 was 73 percent of her consulting firm’s income for the year.

Hafer’s attorneys are saying her denial of receiving the payments is a result of a “memory lapse” and the 72-year-old was not being indicted for any acts committed while she was serving as treasurer and auditor general, or when she was Allegheny County commissioner or the 1990 Republican nominee for governor.

“We are confident that a proper examination of the facts surrounding this matter in forthcoming legal proceedings will fully exonerate her,” they said.

That could well happen, and Hafer, like all those accused of misdeeds, must be given the presumption of innocence. Still, for anyone who despairs about the operations of Pennsylvania’s government and the motives of some of its players, Hafer’s indictment is yet another dispiriting development. Some suggested Pennsylvania could reduce corruption by, among other things, reverting to a part-time legislature and reducing staff. And it could also be Pennsylvania is a state that retains its “old-school” ways and needs to emulate states that instituted reforms and cleaned up their political cultures. Creeping into the 21st century would surely be helpful.

And it must be emphasized there are many individuals in public life who are drawn to it by a sense of duty, play by the rules and seek to serve honestly. People who work conscientiously every day don’t make headlines. We just wish there were more public servants who operate that way in Pennsylvania.