Reformer gives up after one year in Harrisburg

The Political Class in Harrisburg must be smiling.

After one year in office, state Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Allegheny, one of 55 new lawmakers who took office in January 2007, has announced she will not seek re-election when her term expires at the end of 2008.

"I have been frustrated with the pace of productivity," Bennington told The Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Including Bennington, 17 incumbent state lawmakers have announced so far they will not seek re-election.

Unlike Bennington, most of the dropouts are longtime veterans of the Harrisburg scene who have secured lucrative pensions for their time in the state Capitol.

Reporter Brad Bumstead notes that Bennington came into the House with one of the largest freshman classes in recent history. Fifty-five new lawmakers were sworn into office last year. Many of them won House or Senate seats that were open through retirements or by beating incumbents in the aftermath of the 2005 legislative pay raise, Bumstead writes.

To her credit, Bennington did not accept the $2,549 annual, automatic cost of living increase for legislators that kicked in Dec. 1.

But her quick departure from the House is a victory for the status quo. Bennington, a lawyer, should have been smart enough to realize that reforming state government is not an overnight process. She should have stuck it out.

From Bumstead's article: Robert P. Strauss, a public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said he hears from many people that lawmakers who go to Harrisburg to make a difference end up disillusioned.

"People from the private sector used to things being logical, ethical, go nuts," Strauss said.

While many of the 55 freshman lawmakers have expressed disappointment at the snail's pace of change, they need to stick it out and form a reform coalition that can overcome the entrenched Political Class that has ruined this state.