BIGGEST (OR BEST) SCANDAL

State Capitol doors

You know it’s bad when the arrest of a Lanphier High School teacher for allegedly having sex with students, one of whom collected a $100,000 settlement after claiming that school officials knew about it, doesn’t get a single vote from readers. Yes, it takes some doing to be the biggest (or best, however you choose to look at it) scandal in Springfield. Notable vote-getters in this year’s polling include Shredgate, the forced resignation of former parks director Mike Stratton amid questions about financial practices, the all-schools Mass at SHG in hotter-than-Hades weather and the train-wreck-in-slow-motion departure of Walter Milton as head of the Springfield School District. It amounts to a steaming, stinky dung pile of civic yuckiness, but still no match for the State of Illinois, which easily took the prize by spending nearly $670,000 on new doors for the Capitol, where scandal is a way of life. Runner-up: Our mayor not trying to help improve downtown and its businesses