Blagojevich Has Company!

Cross posted at Daily Kos.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted on Friday and charged with 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, office misconduct and fraud. No, she didn't try to sell a United States Senate seat (that's a shout out to you, Rod), but it's still a big deal.

But when one compares Sheila Dixon to past Baltimore mayors, one sees that she's actually not that bad in comparison. There was the Mayor J. Barry Mahool, who pushed the first local segregation ordinance through the City Council. There was Mayor James H. Preston, who collaborated with Chicago Mayor Fred A. Busse to implement the Chicago Plan, the most drastic example of racial zoning in U.S. history, in Baltimore. Compared to what these mayors did, Dixon doesn't actually look so bad.

None of these mayors were ever indicted because what they did was not illegal at the time. But the effects of their policies had much more negative consequences for the people of Baltimore than Dixon's alleged felonies have.

It's not clear whether or not Dixon is guilty. The Baltimore Sun points out that the investigation has been ongoing for about 2 years and the evidence is quite strong, but it also mentions that the Republican-appointed state prosecutor has allegedly had it in for the mayor.

Either way, Dixon presses on. And she has a right to - she is the first female African American mayor the city has ever elected, and she has brought the crime rate down to a 20 year low. If she is found guilty, she could be sentenced to more than 80 years in prison, something Mahool and Preston were never subjected to.