For jaded Rhode Islanders, House Speaker Gordon Fox’s abrupt resignation after a government raid on his State House office called to mind any of a zillion other political scandals in the nation’s smallest state — and furthered its reputation as an endless well of undifferentiated corruption. As one resident told a Globe reporter, “This General Assembly of ours needs a good enema. But the reality of this situation is, it’s not going to happen.” Taking a fatalistic, to-hell-with-them-all attitude toward the state’s political class might be an understandable reaction to the news about Fox. But it’s also worth noting some underlying dynamics that may make highly damaging scandals more likely in the Ocean State.
In Fox’s case, it’s not entirely clear what state and federal investigators are looking for; there’s been some speculation around private work he did, while serving as House majority leader, for a Providence economic-development agency. In any case, a tiny state like Rhode Island can’t easily prohibit its legislators from doing outside work, and when everyone knows everyone the possibility of dubious entanglements multiplies exponentially. Meanwhile, the concentration of power in a few top posts makes it easier for their occupants to wink-wink-nudge-nudge their way into ethical red zones — or, cynics might say, to march gleefully into them.