If that only worked.Oldgringo wrote:We have term limits for these people. Just don't re-elect 'em when their term expires.
Incumbents have a tremendous advantage in any election. First, they have "connections." A group that I belong to targeted one of Joe Strauss's strong supporters with another primary candidate and she called out support from a surprising cadre of other officials. I don't think that Wendy Davis from Ft Worth would have won re-election without drawing upon the power that she amassed in office among other elected officials.
Second, incumbents have things like ear marks, particularly at the Federal level. They do things with government funds for constituents and build their base. No challenger has that kind of advantage. Unless and until ear marks or anything like them can be eliminated, it is bloody hard to overcome the government money garnered influence.
For me, term limits are not a singular solution to governmental corruption but they are a good start.
How about this for a story? My brother worked for a phone company and one of his early jobs was collecting from pay phones (yes, it was a while ago.) The company would not allow anyone to hold that job very long because they believed that the longer they were there and saw the process, the easier it became for the employees to develop "light fingers." That only involved coins. Think how much worse it gets when the numbers are in $B. 'nuff said.