Shop

Arizona is a state not that far removed from the frontier. It is a place to which someone can move and establish themselves anew, a place where a boy can come for college, make a fortune in business, enter politics, and be elected governor, without having to talk about his past. In Doug Ducey's case, it was as if his life began when he first signed up for classes at Arizona State University. Ducey, the Republican who became Arizona governor in November, talked continually during his campaign about his Midwestern family values, but even under questioning, only provided scant details about his upbringing. The Toledo-reared Arizona state treasurer at the time never talked about his family, except to say his father was a police officer and his mother was a homemaker back home. In their report, headlined "Sins of the Family," Phoenix New Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting discovered that Ducey's maternal relatives made up a powerful, organized-crime family in Toledo, Ohio, some having served prison time for their crimes. Indeed, his uncle has fled to a Caribbean island to escape prosecution. To this day, Ducey has not talked about his maternal family's criminal endeavors, though his reluctant campaign confirmed the facts of New Times and CIR's report after it was published. The report established that his convicted maternal grandparents played a big role in his upbringing. While running for governor, he said repeatedly that they taught him the meaning of family. This is a story of obfuscation by a political candidate, who claimed that everything about him was transparent, not of political corruption, since no evidence was uncovered that candidate Ducey benefited financially from the family business.