New Mexico One of the Nation's LEAST CORRUPT States!

If you're waiting for a punchline, there isn't one.

According to a feature in The Daily Beast, New Mexico ranks 45th in the list of most corrupt states.

We are behind such corrupt cesspools as Minnesota, North Dakota. Kansas and Vermont.

Here's what they said about us:

Recent Scandal: New Mexico has a long history of public corruption (see: New Mexico state treasurers), and one of the more interesting characters to arise from its history is Manny Aragon. Aragon was a senator for the state for 29 years, but his legacy was marred in 2008 when he pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy and mail fraud related to a plan to steal $4.4 million from the state during the construction of the Albuquerque metro courthouse. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay a $750,000 fine and $649,000 in restitution.

The Beast looked at a decade's worth of FBI statistics for all 50 states plus Washington, D.C, in the areas of public corruption, racketeering and extortion, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud and embezzlement.

Here's how New Mexico ranked in those categories:

Public Corruption: 41
Racketeering & Extortion: 41
Fraud Rank: 47
Forgery & Counterfeiting: 40
Embezzlement: 10


At least we're in the top 10 for embezzlement.

Thanks to my friend Bob for tipping me to this. And congratulations to my former colleague Laura Husar whose photo of Manny in action was used to represent our state.