'Worst Governors' List Has Suspicious Deep Red Tinge
Of the 50 state governors in the U.S., 30 are Republicans, 20 are Democrats for a ratio of 3 to 2.
So when Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit watchdog group issued a report this week listing 18 governors it alleged are the "worst in America," it immediately raised eyebrows and partisan ire for the notable party tilt of its examples — only two were Democrats.
How could that be? Wouldn't you expect at least a few more Democrats on the list, at least based on that 3:2 ratio?
I put that question to Melanie Sloane, CREW's executive director.
"The thing is, we looked at all 50. And you just can't put people on the list just in order to have an even balance. You can't say, 'Here's the percentage of governors that are Republican and the percentage that are Democrat' — and there are significantly more that are Republicans right now — and say, 'We'll have the exact same balance.' I would instead suggest somebody ought to ask, 'Who did we leave off? because we looked at all 50 and we didn't find any Democrats, any others who we felt belonged on the list based on our criteria. I think that's the main question. While people are critical, they haven't said who's missing.
"And then if we were just so anxious to protect Democrats, I don't think naming one of the lead presidential candidates for 2016 would be such a smart move on our part."