Why One Political Office Is So Mired in Scandals

"In his new memoir, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania shows little love for his current job, but he's even more dismissive of his previous gig: serving as lieutenant governor. It was, he writes, "the easiest job in all of America, with few mandated duties." Yet despite the minimal requirements-or perhaps because of them-the nation's lieutenant governorships have seemed to produce an inordinate number of recent scandals. Power corrupts, but idle hands may be even more dangerous."

"Micah Beckwith, the lieutenant governor of Indiana, is currently being investigated by a grand jury. The probe focuses on payroll fraud allegations as well as claims that a Beckwith staffer distributed a deepfake porn video depicting the wife of a state legislator. (The lieutenant governor has denied any wrongdoing.) Beckwith is also a pastor; the church where he works is in the middle of a serious sex scandal, though he is not accused of misconduct there."

Lieutenant-governor offices often have minimal mandated duties, which has coincided with a string of recent scandals. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman described the lieutenant-governorship as the easiest job in America with few mandated duties. Indiana lieutenant governor Micah Beckwith faces a grand-jury probe into alleged payroll fraud and claims that a staffer distributed a deepfake porn video of a legislator’s wife; Beckwith denies wrongdoing. Beckwith is also a pastor tied to a church sex scandal and received a written reprimand for social-media posts and wearing AI glasses on the senate floor. Virginia’s John Reid and North Carolina’s Mark Robinson both faced controversies tied to alleged pornographic blogs, racial slurs, Nazi fetishism, and online accounts.

Read at The Atlantic