In writing about Sen. Barack Obama’s real estate dealings with Antoin “Tony” Rezko–a big fundraiser in Illinois politics who’s currently under indictmnet for activities including allegedly “shaking down firms” with business before the state–Chicago Sun Times reporter Lynn Sweet draws an important distinction. Local Chicago reporters and columnists–including those from the Tribune (which broke the story), the Sun-Times, local radio and the local Associated Press crew–learn that Obama is involved with Rezko, and start asking hard questions. While other papers pick up the story, they’re in essence repeating what the local reporters have dug out.

Sweet sets the seen nicely, when the Senate Democrats’ ethics point man was confronted by reporters on Nov. 6, a day before the elections:

It was after a get-out-the-vote rally on Monday. Instead of the usual fawning Washington reporters tossing softballs as they worked up adoring stories about him running for president in 2008, Obama was taking questions from the City Hall news crew about his astoundingly bad judgment.

They drove up to Waukegan to find out for themselves why on earth Obama had anything to do with the shady, recently indicted Tony Rezko.

WLS radio reporter Bill Cameron put it this way in the lead-off question: “What in the world were you doing in a real estate deal with Tony Rezko?”

What indeed? John Kass of the Tribune offers an unflattering possibility (and also mentions Rezko’s relationship through real estate to another member of Congress, Rep. Luis Gutierrez). What interests me though is that we seem to have seen a lot of questionable ethical behavior arising not from the swarms of lobbyists that inhabit the Washington swamp, but rather from hometown entanglements. Like politics, an awful lot (though of course not all) of corruption is local, which may explain why local reporters are more inclined to ask Obama tough questions. A name like “Rezko” doesn’t mean much to most national reporters or people outside of Illinois (I’d certainly never heard of him). Those with local expertise, by contrast, know when to ask the tough questions.

Keeping tabs on a member of Congress’s local political supporters–and especially tracking whether fundraisers have other financial dealings with elected officials–would serve as a good early warning system that a member needs tougher citizen oversight.

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Here at The Sunlight Foundation we focus our attention at the federal government, in particular Congress, and the many officials, members, staffers, and hangers-on who engage in dubious, if not criminal, behavior. In doing this we often overlook some of the better corruption stories from across the nation. Today we have an Arkansas mayor who solicited sex from two women after they fell behind on their water bills:

Troy Anderson, 72, is accused of abusing the public trust and patronizing a prostitute. After hearing complaints about delinquent water bills, Anderson solicited sex from the women, authorities said.

In January, a woman who said she had refused Anderson’s requests went to the mayor for help in getting her granddaughter out of state Department of Health and Human Services custody. The mayor told the woman he might be able to help, and that she should meet him at an apartment, the affidavit said.
…
Another woman told investigators that she’d been having sex with Anderson for money for the past eight to 10 years. She said Anderson paid her $25 per encounter and that he allowed her to change the name on her overdue water bill, which kept her water turned on, the affidavit said.

The mayor also gave the woman $60 to pay a late water deposit in exchange for sex, the affidavit said. The woman’s bill was $617 overdue, the affidavit said.

It looks like Mayor Anderson is running for the Honorary Marion Barry Award.

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