POLITICAL NUMBERS: New Jersey The Political Close Their Eyes
Rappeport, Michael
POLITICAL NUMBERS: New Jersey The Political Close Their Eyes by Michael Rappeport New Jersey can pit its recent record of corruption against anybody’s. The following is a sample of those...
...One series of questions asked respondents to indicate the level of corruption they thought existed at various levels of government...
...The record of corruption is bipartisan...
...above...
...The results are shown in Table I. Despite the series of indictments and convictions handed down all through the summer of 197 1, state government was thought to be at least as clean as, if not cleaner than, the federal government...
...One example is that two weeks before the election of a completely new state legislature (both senate and assembly) only 18 per cent of the public could name any of the offices up for election...
...Moreover, this result was uniform across the state and among the various demographic’ groups...
...The following is a sample of those indicted or convicted of crimes related to their political activities in the last two years alone: *the minority leader of the state assembly ma prominent assemblyman and former speaker of the state assembly (he got a standing ovation from the assembly when he resigned to start a jail term) *the former secretary of state for eight years, who during that time was the state’s second most powerful political figure after the governor ma prominent state senator *the prosecutor of the state’s largest county *a commissioner of the Port of New York Authority rn county-level officials in seven of the state’s 11 urban counties in a state where county organizations are the Michael Rappeport is Director of Statistical Services at Opinion Research Corporation in Princeton, N. J. This article uses ORC research...
...Table I1 summarizes some of the results...
...However, in a fragmented state with inadequate media, even the best leaders have difficulty communicating with the people...
...An October, 1971, poll conducted by Eagleton Institute of Rutgers University and Opinion Research Corporation shows just how unaware the citizenry is...
...prime forces in state politics...
...It then becomes far harder to distinguish the good from the mediocre, and still harder for even the best to lead the people in the unpopular directions that conditions sometimes demand...
...New Jersey residents live in the only state without a single TV station of its own-they are totally dependent on New York newspapers and TV stations...
...The state’s image also fared better than that of local government, where the citizens of most urban areas were far more likely to see their local bodies as corrupt-which is not surprising, considering the recent multiple convictions of the mayors of both the state’s two largest cities (Newark and Jersey City) The poll indicated, however, that one shouldn’t be too surprised at this lack of agitation about state government corruption...
...Through it all, the people of New Jersey go blissfully on, unaware of any corruption problem...
...POLITICAL NUMBERS: New Jersey The Political Close Their Eyes by Michael Rappeport New Jersey can pit its recent record of corruption against anybody’s...
...In the final analysis, the quality of state government, like everything else, is very much a function of the leadership it attracts...
...While it is difficult to analyze the reasons for corruption in all states, in New Jersey, at least, two factorsinadequate media coverage and a dispersed population-seem to stand out...
...the opinions are solely the author’s...
...At least 20 cases, each involving different crimes, are included in just the partial lid...
...Another series of questions was asked about selfexpressed interest in various levels of government...
...State government runs a distant third across the board and also with the more educated part of the community...
...Other questions showed that aside from the governor’s name, few respondents know anything about state politics...
...The state is also highly fragmented-Newark, the largest city, has less than six per cent of the total population...
Vol. 3 • February 1972 • No. 12
