No doubt there will be another Bill Allen – the question is, what can we do to reduce his chances of success? For a start, we can move the capitol off what is, essentially, a remote island and closer to where more of us actually live.

Doing so, could reduce corruption by over 52%. How can I be so exact? Well, I ran the numbers. With some help.

Using Department of Justice and U.S. Census Bureau figures, USA Today ranked all the states according to how many public officials were convicted of corruption between 1998 and 2007. I added some geographic data and happened upon these fun facts:

- The three most corrupt states in the country (North Dakota, Louisiana, Alaska) all have capitols more than 100 miles from their state’s largest city.

- The five most-honest states are located, on average, only 26 miles from their largest cities.

- Overall, the farther a state’s capitol is from its major population center, the more likely its officials are to be convicted of corruption.

The greater the distance between a state's largest city and its capitol, the more officials convicted for corruption.

But wait, two Alaskan officials convicted in 2007, Pete Kott and Vic Koring, might have their cases overturned. That would help our standing. Unfortunately, since then three others have been convicted: Jim Clark (2008), John Cowdery (2008), and Bevery Masek (2009). (And Ted Stevens wasn’t included in USA Today’s first analysis because he wasn’t charged until 2008. )

But what about concentrating political power in Anchorage? Well, it isn’t ideal, but right now power is concentrated among those select special interests who can afford to fly representatives to Juneau for three months at a time. In order to hold power accountable in the day-to-day way it needs to be held accountable, it needs to be nearby.

Why does it matter where the capitol is - all politicians are bad anyway? A lot of them are crooks, but probably not all of them. My own theory, though, is that even decent people are more easily corrupted if separated from their usual social networks. Move the capitol to Anchorage, however, and almost half our state’s legislators would go home to their families at night, attend their usual church or synagogue on weekends, perhaps run into a neighbor at the grocery store.

As it stands, unless it's a weekend, 95% of our legislators can't go home after a day in session - instead many find there way to a hotel bar where a highly-paid lobbyist is most-likely staying in the room upstairs. We can only hope they remember their constituents the next morning.

Bottom line: If you send okay kids to school in a bad neighborhood far from home, some of them are going to get into trouble. Stuff the pockets of those same kids with a few billion dollars to hand out and before you know it, the FBI is getting involved. And until we move the capitol, staying involved.

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OFFICIALS CONVICTED OF CORRUPTION PER 100,000 PEOPLE

North Dakota 8.30
Louisiana 7.70
Alaska 7.50
Mississippi 7.30
Montana 6.20
Kentucky 5.70
Alabama 5.40
South Dakota 5.10
Delaware 5.10
New Jersey 4.80
Ohio 4.80
West Virginia 4.80
Florida 4.50
Pennsylvania 4.50
Tennessee 4.00
Hawaii 4.00
Illinois 3.90
Virginia 3.90
New York 3.60
Connecticut 3.20
Oklahoma 3.00
Massachusetts 2.90
Arkansas 2.80
Missouri 2.70
Wyoming 2.70
Maryland 2.60
Idaho 2.50
Rhode Island 2.50
Texas 2.40
Arizona 2.20
Michigan 2.10
Wisconsin 2.10
Vermont 2.10
North Carolina 2.00
Maine 1.90
Indiana 1.90
Nevada 1.80
Georgia 1.70
South Carolina 1.70
Colorado 1.60
California 1.50
New Mexico 1.50
Washington 1.50
Kansas 1.40
Utah 1.40
Minnesota 1.30
Iowa 1.20
New Hampshire 1.10
Oregon 1.00
Nebraska 0.70

Source: "North Dakota Tops Analysis of State Corruption" John Fritze, USA TODAY12/11/08
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-10-corruptstates_N.htm

Correction: This piece initially stated that "90% of legislators live in hotels." In fact, 95% do not live year-round in Juneau. Most rent apartments or find other accommodations.

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Special thanks to Brendan Babb for his help with the statistics.