The indictment of a Brooklyn assemblywoman, Diane Gordon — the seventh member of the 80-person New York City delegation to Albany to face charges from prosecutors — put us in mind of a front-page column written in the Sun in January of 2003. Written by Jack Newfield, it expressed concern that greedy local politicians, the real “gangs of New York,” were threatening singlehandedly to ruin New York’s national reputation for low crime rates. He wrote of a “political crime wave sweeping New York.” Another Sun columnist, John Avlon, picked up Newfield’s banner after Newfield died on December 21, 2004. In a January 2005 column, Mr. Avlon picked up Mark Twain’s remark — “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress” — and applied it to the politicians of New York City and New York State.

We don’t think politicians in New York are any less honest than politicians anywhere else, or than the general population of New Yorkers, but it’s certainly possible to imagine ways to reduce the crime rate. For one thing, the one-party monopoly that obtains over many state offices in New York City, where Democrats dominate and districts are gerrymandered to protect the few Republicans, tends to insulate politicians from ethical scrutiny from political opponents. When the only person who can catch a politician is a prosecutor, not a political opponent, temptation has its way. More competitive elections might bring more honest politicians.

What’s more, the salaries for lawmakers — less than $80,000 a year — may well be too low to attract honest people who intend to make it their full time work.True, lawmakers earn more than other public servants whose honesty is essential, including a lot of prosecutors and police officers. But lawmakers are allowed to moonlight in other jobs, which creates lots of opportunities for conflicts. Ms. Gordon is accused of soliciting a bribe from a developer in the form of a house in New York more fancy than she’d be able to afford on just her salary. If the charges, which she denies, are accurate, they are a grave violation, but at the same time, why not pay lawmakers enough so that they can afford a decent home in New York without having to hold up a developer or seek a paymaster other than the people of the state of New York, as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has done by moonlighting as a lawyer at Weitz & Luxenberg?

Prosecutors such as Robert Morgenthau and Charles Hynes and the city’s commissioner of investigation, Rose Gill Hearn, have done a heroic job of fighting corruption. Some politicians are honest, and others are crooks. But there is some middle band of those who might succumb to temptation but might not. It’s worth trying to craft a system of laws that makes it easier for that middle band of politicians to choose the route of honesty.