Working Toward A Better Government

I would imagine that most of us are fed up with the performance of our Congressmen, Senators and President. The question is: how do we get rid of them; a recall or impeachment is not in the cards. Incumbency, particularly at the Congressional level, does bring substantial advantages; there is a sense that our Congressman is different, he's not done a bad job. California is doing something about bringing about change in our leadership. Last year they passed three citizen-initiated petitions that make a lot of sense to me.

One proposition directly affect incumbents by establishing sensible term limits. However, this applies only to state officers; it would require a national campaign to set term limits for federal offices. Propositions 14 and 20 go directly to unseating the incumbents. Proposition 14 gets rid of the party-based primaries, which in some states extends down to the municipal level; now in California there is a common primary from which the two top vote-getters survive to compete in the November election. Proposition 20 attacks gerrymandering; it takes the setting of congressional districts away from the legislators and establishes a separate, independent commission to define the geographical limits of a district.

Would that more states adopt these propositions.