Bakersfield Republican doesn’t think she has been using her time productively.



by Brian Leubitz

If you are like me, you don’t really know who Shannon Grove is.  But if you are also like me, you are going to be rather confused when you hear the message that she brings to you courtesy of the Inter-tubes.

See, she’s a member of the Assembly who wants to go back to the idyllic days of a “citizen legislature” who aren’t “professional politicians.”  What Shannon apparently doesn’t remember from her California history classes or didn’t bother to look at in Texas, the state closest to us in size that has a part-time legislature, is that a part-time legislature breeds corruption and conflicts of interests galore.

Sure, it would be great if the state could be governed in a period of 90 days every other year, but things aren’t really that easy.  Leaving California to a part-time legislature means that while the lobbyists never go away, the legislators do.  Guess what that means for the relative power between the groups? The last thing we need is a further increase in power in unelected staffers and lobbyists.

But, you know, what the heck, why not have people who are in industry vote on that industry? Sounds great!

If Shannon Grove thinks she’s not busy enough, maybe she should find a different line of work. One that she finds more satisfying.  Maybe she doesn’t like regulating fonts (that would be so we have better campaign finance disclosure) or shark fins (so we stop torturing sharks), but these are important issues.  That she is so flippant about them, makes me think that perhaps she could find work that is more satisfying.