The George of "Ask George" was initially our former lottery commissioner, George Weems. He was railroaded, in my opinion, into taking the fall for the "Sidewalks for Votes" scandal, which preceded our scratch-off ticket scandal by about ten weeks.
While holding the commissioner's chair, Mr. Weems was appointed comptroller for the city of East Chicago, presumably by Mayor Pastrick (who had no authority to appoint a state official to a local post). Clearly, Mr. Weems was hopelessly unqualified for either position. If I remember correctly, his degree was in horticulture, or some similar discipline, so it's obvious he got the job by association.
The "Sidewalks for Votes" scandal involved a group of Lake County contractors who would bid jobs for certain pillars of the community, such as the mayor, city officials, labor leaders and selected businessmen. These bids were for driveway resurfacing, new decks, sidewalk repair and other work which is normally prohibitively expensive for the average homeowner. Now, when the bids were received, only the ones from the participating contractors would be approved. When the work was finished, Mr. Weems was told to cut them a check drawn on the city's account.
The South Bend Tribune broke the story, and there stood George Weems, holding the bag all by himself. About three weeks later, Mayor Pastrick's son was indicted for running his own lottery (numbers game), and Weems found himself in the middle of that mess, too.
I haven't mentioned that George Weems was a 56-year-old black man, but I think it's relevant. Looking at the way these stories broke, and watching their progress as they developed, it was relatively easy to conclude that Mr. Weems was going to take the brunt of it. Not because he masterminded the scams, but because he was a lightning rod who was purposely installed in those key positions in case anything went wrong and someone was caught.
Indiana's lottery, indeed our entire government, can be likened to organized crime. We have our Capo di tutti Capi (Mitch Daniels), our Caporegimes (house leaders), our lieutenants (state representatives) and our expendable soldiers (lower-ranking appointments such as George Weems). Our state agencies are plagued with scandal after scandal, and the supply seems inexhaustible. Somehow, though, it always winds up that some hourly employee or lower-ranking appointed official is solely responsible.
If our government representatives were as adept at solving problems as they are at avoiding them, this state would be a much better place to live. As it stands, Indiana's not even a nice place to visit.