>Texans, they're nothing ;-) Illinois and Louisiana, to name two, are both much worse. And New Jersey has fully earned a place in the conversation.

I did some business for a while that required me to work with Chicago officials.
They didn't even pretend to be honest.

I moved to NJ from Long Island several years ago.
Long Island was bad enough, but it's worse here.
The corruption here starts at the local level - school systems, town and county governments, etc. Those people then graduate to state jobs and carry it along with them.
It's ironic that Chris Christie, who got his chops as one of those people and as a lobbyist, is running as someone who is trying to roll back the cost of government.
Based on what I see in Hamilton and neighboring towns, I'd estimate that an honest government (an oxymoron?) here would cost about 2/3 of what it now costs.
From what I've heard, up where Christie comes from, it's worse.