Chapter 9.4, Problem 28MS

Roving report. In 2006 there was a scandal involving the firing of 9 U.S. attorneys. In fact, 12 U.S. attorneys had been on a list for replacement, and another 3 resigned under pressure without being fired. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, in 2007, “I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons....” However, in 2006 White House advisor Karl Rove mentioned 12 states as being especially important in the 2008 presid ential election. Six of the 12 attorneys on the list were from these states.

Overall there were 93 U.S. attorneys in 2006, of whom 12 were replaced. Seventeen of the 93 attorneys were in the states mentioned by Rove; and 6 of these were replaced. The remaining 76 U.S. attorneys in the other 38 states were not mentioned by Rove, and 6 of these were replaced.

1. Compute the proportion of attorneys from states mentioned by Rove who resigned or were fired. Compute the analogous proportion from states not mentioned by Rove.
2. Does the difference in the two proportions from part (a) seem unusually large, or might it have happened due to chance alone? If the difference seems too large to be due to chance alone, what does that suggest about the decision making with regard to replacing U.S. attorneys?