N.J. moving up in corruption rankings

New Jersey is the 9th most corrupt state in the nation, according to a newly released ranking from Corporate Crime Reporter. That's up from 14th in 2004. It would be higher still if it was based on more recent data. The Corporate Crime Reporter uses 2006 federal prosecution data from the U.S. Department of Justice to come up with its rankings. It divides a state's population by the number of federal prosecutions over the past 10 years.

If the rankings were based on a five-year analysis, instead of 10 years, New Jersey would fare even worse. It has been five years since crimebuster Christopher Christie has come on the scene. From 2002 to 2006, according to DoJ data, there have been 199 federal prosecutions in New Jersey - more than in any of the four most corrupt states cited by Corporate Crime Reporter - Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama. New Jersey still has a higher rate than those four, because it has far larger populations. But using the five-year numbers, New Jersey would jump ahead of three other states ahead of it in the latest rankings - Ohio, Illinois and Florida.

Put another way, no large state in the union has had more corruption during the past five years than New Jersey. And Christie says his job is far from being completed.