Poll: Illinois Voters Believe Political Corruption Is The Norm

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 2, 2014 2:45PM

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich—our most obvious example of political corruption in Illinois. (Photo credit: Frank Polich/Getty Images)

If perception is reality, then Illinois voters expect their politicians to make backdoor deals, ignore their constituencies and seek to enrich themselves on the sly once they’ve been elected to office. A recent study by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows most Illinois voters believe, if not expect, a little bit of corruption in politics. More disconcerting, few of the respondents outside Chicago believe political corruption on a local level affects their lives.

The poll of 1,001 registered voters found that 89 percent believed there’s some form of political corruption, with 53 percent responding it’s very common. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents believe there’s some form of political corruption on a federal level with 45 percent believing it’s very common. On a local level, 62 percent of Illinoisans believe there’s some form of political corruption.

However, of the respondents that hailed from Chicago, 85 percent believe there is some form of corruption on a city or county level, with 55 percent believing it’s very common. See, Chicagoans know what’s up.

The truly sad part of the poll is when respondents were asked if political corruption has an impact on their daily lives. Only 60 percent of the voters who participated in the poll believed federal or state corruption had an impact on their daily lives. The numbers decreased when broken down by areas of the state. Sixty percent of Chicagoans believe city or county corruption has a good deal of impact on their everyday lives. Those numbers dropped to 45 percent in the collar counties and 35 percent downstate.

Simon Institute director David Yepsen said the poll is an indicator of voter apathy in Illinois. “No wonder many people don’t vote and participation in civic affairs seems limited. It’s unhealthy for a society to have such little confidence in the integrity of government. It makes Illinois an unattractive place to live.”

Read the report (PDF) here.