Chicago's unlucky office

CHICAGO - They elected a Harvard-educated Rhodes Scholar and ended up with a congressman convicted of having sex with an underage campaign worker. They voted for the son of a famous civil rights leader and got someone who illegally spent campaign money on everything from furniture to Bruce Lee memorabilia.

Call it Chicago corruption at its worst or uncanny coincidence, but residents of Illinois' Second Congressional District haven't been represented in Congress in more than three decades by someone who didn't end up in serious ethical or legal trouble. That hangs over them as they go to the polls Tuesday in a special primary to begin picking a replacement for former U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr.

It began with Gus Savage, who took office in 1981 and was defeated a decade later over allegations of sexual misconduct with a Peace Corps worker. Then there was Mel Reynolds, elected in 1992 and convicted of fraud and having sex with a minor. Last week, after 17 years in office, Jackson pleaded guilty to spending $750,000 in campaign money on personal items.

"They all drank from the same cup," said Charles Hill, an unemployed Chicago father of five. He once supported Jackson, but is now not even paying attention to the nearly 20 candidates vying for the spot. "It's a sad commentary."

Even by Illinois' corruption standards - four of the last seven governors went to jail - troubles in the district are astonishing. Efforts to explain it - among voters, experts, and the most recent candidates for the seat - range from a culture of corruption to pure coincidence.

Corruption in Chicago politics dates to at least 1869, when city commissioners were snagged in a City Hall painting-contract scheme. More than 1,000 Illinois public officials, mostly in the Chicago area, have been convicted of corruption since the 1970s, according to Dick Simpson, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In a study, he ranked the city No. 1 in corruption among U.S. metro areas.

Jackson's grip on the Second District seat - he won every election since 1995 in landslides - created conditions ripe for wrongdoing, Simpson said. Even so, he's slightly baffled by why the Second seems to have more problems than others that have similar demographics and longtime congressmen.

"Unfortunately, the Second Congressional District seems to be an epicenter for these mistakes by public officials," he said.

The district includes part of Chicago's South Side, south suburbs, and some rural areas.

Its shady history has fueled cynicism among some voters.

Grocery worker Pnakara Nealy, 32, of Calumet Park, has supported Jackson, but now she's disillusioned with politics.

"He's not the only one doing it," she said. "He just got caught."

Talk of ethics has been a secondary issue in the race after jobs and guns, as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee has poured money into ads criticizing those it deems weak on gun control. The candidates - 14 Democrats and four Republicans - are running in a largely Democratic district, and the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary is widely expected to sail through the April 9 election.