Pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen wanted to be Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, and was going pretty well. Until it emerged that he'd once held a knife to the throat of a then-hooker girlfriend and had injected anabolic steroids.

He also and failed to pay child support and taxes, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Democratic Party, who suspected this might come up in the campaign, asked him to step down after he unexpectedly won the party's primary to run with Governor Pat Quinn. This despite a media appearance with his former-hooker ex ex-wife, pictured above, to 'clear the air' about his troubled past. Quinn is himself in office because of the allegations against Rod Blagojevich. Ah, Chicago.