Sunday, March 02, 2008

We Have Your Answer, Mr. Cross

Al Cross gives an interesting history lesson about part of what plagues Frankfort in today's Courier-Journal.

In it, he lodges a valid complaint about how incumbent legislators a generation ago rigged the game for themselves so that they could more easily get over on their constituents. Inexplicably, this outrage persists:
"(That led to a series of wholly selfish acts; lawmakers made the primary filing deadline one of the earliest in the nation, so they could gauge their opposition before casting controversial votes.)"

It doesn't serve the public interest to arrange our elections with the sole purpose of unfairly protecting incumbents. Given the mess our incumbents have put us in, it should be pretty easy to see that unraveling any part of this twisted tizzy would help democratize the power base in the state.

Senate Bill 3 would move the legislative filing deadline to after even-year sessions, to enhance citizens' ability to protect themselves from legislators who lose sight of their purpose in Frankfort.

Seems to be a bit of that going around.