Reply #13: CA Democratic Party is complacent

[Retrograde]

One of the side effects of term limits, IMHO, is that pols play musical offices, moving from one position to another when they're termed out rather than developing a strong, state-wide base: two terms than on to the next slot. Sure, it sounded like a good idea at the time, but what's happened is that the bureaucracy just became entrenched in a slightly different way, since people tend to vote on name recognition, and I don't think it's been good for the state in the long run.

So we're left with old party hacks (Brown) or people with enough money of their own to spend themselves into recognition (Whitman and Poisner). Neither party seems to be developing young statewide talent.