"Ed Pawlowski" wrote

Salary is one of the problems with many potential politicians. Unless
you've made your fortune, running for office is a big pay cut for many
potential well qualified candidates. The mayor in our town gets
something like $42k. Fine for a retired guy, but sucks for a qualified,
educated administrator making twice that at his private sector job.

IIRC, Senators are in the $170k range. While that is more than most of us
make, it is far less than an executive in a big corporation with lots of
responsibility.

I would suggest that perhaps we need to get people that would be happy to
work for 170k. We might have a person that was more of a normal Joe, and
not all hung up on power and prestige. That person would perhaps not be out
of touch with what is going on out there, for all of us normal Joes that
these same politicians are supposed to be representing.

First step, get rid of all lobbyists. Get rid of campaign contributions as
a way to fund elections. Give them all a certain sum of money (small) to be
used on elections, and make them stick to that amount as what they can spend
on getting elected.

Lots of other tweaks are possible, but that would be a start.
--
Jim in NC