Maggie Brooks and Her Husband: Sociological Analysis

The main purpose of the paper is to study and analyze the story of the county executive Maggie Brooks and her husband Robert Wiesner, who has been arrested after the sweeping indictment that was connected with the bid-rigging scheme that is claimed to be present in the ongoing serious investigation of the local corporations’ case about business schemes. In particular, Wiesner and several other businessmen were accused of being connected with the hidden schemes which were aimed on the falsification of the contracts of the Monroe County projects and were accused of stealing the money with the help of these agreements. This case represents the broad framework for the research of the number of social factors and issues that have a serious impact on the participants and the general social and political environment within the American society.

This case is the perfect example of the research as it has attracted the attention of the biggest part of the contemporary American people because of the unique character of the issue and the specific attitude towards such cases in the state political life. The main conflict that can be seen within the situation is the social position of the politician Maggie Brooks who is connected with the serious financial machinations of her husband. This creates serious harm for the image of the politician and therefore it becomes the reason for the changes in her claims and actions, as well as it influences the general political course of the county executive. The four men that are now involved in the case are all  well-known members of the society who have occupied the serious positions within the departments of the government institutions. They are now accused of stealing the state money and spending them on the private needs or the election campaigns that is considered to be the example of the typical political hidden machination. The image of the whole political structure is today under the severe criticism and therefore such cases are especially harmful for the general attitude to the political leaders and the level of reliability of the social position of the local representatives of the authorities. Wiesner claims that the contracts were aimed to be signed legally in order to improve the effectiveness and the financial profit of the organizations (Riley & Craig n.p.).

 This case produces the grate influence on the future development of the political career of Maggie Brooks as the social role that she plays as the wife of the financial criminal diminishes the possibility of the positive outcome of her actions as the government official. Being a Republican, she also represents the potential danger for the social position of the party that might lose it rates in the region. That is why she refuses to talk about the issue, connecting it with the fact that her husband is the part of her private life that is not the topic for the discussion. This fact shows that the situation is really serious and that she tries to escape any possible shifts that can result in the increase of the social dissatisfaction with her on the position of the representative of the government authorities and that can be followed by the loss of her position in the office. She therefore distanced herself from the possible allegations of the crime and laid the blame on the Navitech Services Corp that was responsible for the contracts arranged and signed by LDC – the company that is now considered to be the victim in the case with the financial schemes. With the help of these accusations Brooks tries to reduce the negative social image of her husband and to involve the other participants to the process. The possible shift of the role of the main criminal of the case can help her to partly restore the image of the good politician and to be able to continue her political career (Brean, Davidsen & Adams n.p.).

The highest importance of the social dimension of the case is proved by the fact that the first public interview that Brooks gave after the scandal got spread in the media, she gave with the former New York State Attorney that has been invited to assist her and be able to provide her with the professional advise on the most favorable reaction on the series of complicated questions. That is why the former Attorney used to be the one that spoke the most part of the interview and tried to escape all the harsh moments in order to reduce the negative reaction of the society and distance the county executive from this case and make it possible for her to consternate on the other issues that were connected with her role in the society as an individual, with no connection to her husband.

As it can be seen, the case with the arrest of Robert Wiesner, who is not only the well-known businessman and active member of the society, but also a husband of the representative of the government authority, the county executive Maggie Brooks,  has got the serious attention of the social masses. Because of the importance of the issue a huge campaign was held in order to reduce the financial machinations launched by the government and here we can see that the representative of the government authority got involved in the conflict. In this case the series of social issues arise as the social role of the general executive that has to have an image of the fair, trustful and reliable politician, uses the series of social techniques in order to reduce the harm to her image. In fact, all of them are not effective as the most favorable would have been the official proof of the innocence of Wiesner.