First Illinois. Now North Dakota.

Plenty of head scratching was happening at the state Capitol on Thursday after USA Today ran a story with the headline: "North Dakota tops analysis of corruption."

Where's Patrick Fitzgerald, federal prosecutor, when you need him?

The story found that based on the 53 federal public corruption convictions between 1997 and 2007 in North Dakota there were 8.3 convictions per 100,000 people in the state - the most in the nation. Illinois had 3.9 per 100,000, according to the story, ranking it 18th overall.

A little context: North Dakota has about 635,000 people. Illinois: 12.8 million and 502 federal corruption convictions between 1997 and 2007.

As for North Dakota's company in USA Today's analysis: At No. 2 is Louisiana, with 7.7 convictions per 100,000 people and home to disgraced Democratic Rep. William Jefferson. And No. 3 is Alaska, with 7.5 convictions per 100,000 people and home to the recently convicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem called the article "patently ridiculous" on Thursday, adding among the most recent examples of high-profile federal convictions in North Dakota are the six Twin Butte school district members convicted of misusing school funds.

"I think everyone would agree that a group of local school board officials is far different than a governor accused of selling a U.S. Senate seat," said Stenehjem, referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who federal authorities arrested on Tuesday for trying to profit off of President-elect Obama's vacated Senate seat.

He's the second Illinois governor to wind up with federal charges this decade.

As for the article in USA Today: "This is what happens when you have somebody who takes statistics and doesn't do any analysis or comparison or puts anything into context," he said.

While U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley was unavailable for comment Thursday, other state officials expressed their confusion over the corruption article.

"You gotta be kidding me," said Secretary of State Al Jaeger. "Boy, I've lived here all my life. I can't think of anybody who's been nailed for something."

Russell Mokhiber, editor of the weekly Washington-based newsletter Corporate Crime Reporter, said his organization ran a similar story in 2004 that pegged North Dakota as a hotbed of public corruption with 45 federal convictions between 1993 and 2002.

Columnist and former Lt. Gov. Lloyd Omdahl responded with a column in 2004 critical of the newsletter's finding, writing that many of those federal convictions stemmed from Native American reservations based on a letter he received from the state's U.S attorney.

"First of all, Indian reservation are not state entities nor are they political subdivisions of the state, so employees of casinos are not public officials engaged in official public duties," Omdahl wrote.

In the Corporate Crime Reporter's 2007 report, Mokhiber said his newsletter only included the 35 most populated states because of the statistical unfairness on sparsely populated states such as North Dakota. The report found that Louisiana followed by Mississippi and Kentucky are the country's most corrupt states.

"We learned from our mistake when we crunched our numbers," he said. "What your columnist wrote we took to heart, we agree that North Dakota is not the most corrupt state."

Dana Harsell, a University of North Dakota political science professor, said calculating corruption on a per capita basis isn't exactly fair for states like North Dakota.

"I'm not sure if it gives a true measure of the extent of corruption," Harsell said. "We have one of the most accessible open access laws in the country."

As for corrupt North Dakota state officials, State Historical Society Editor Kathy Davidson could think of one outstanding North Dakota politician: Gov. William Langer.

He was convicted of federal corruption charges in the early 1930s for diverting federal funds to political matters. He was later exonerated of the charges, re-elected to the governor's office in 1935 and went on to the U.S. Senate and served there until 1959.

So what happened since then?

"We've just got boringly honest," Davidson said.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com)