Someone educate me.

[WNYresident]

From all the politicians we have in WNY which ones basically made it a career? And from those which are basically in-effective for the tax payer? Now I dont want to know which ones were good to thier controling special interest groups, I mean the ones which work for the taxpayer.

[absolivious]

Taking a quick mental inventory of our elected pols, at all levels in WNY, I think it would be fair to say that generally the only effective ones -"the ones who work for the taxpayer"- are the ones who have NOT made a career of politics but actually still have other jobs.
Didn't used to be that way.

[WNYresident]

So the majority of them used to acutally have a real job and politicing was done on the side. Which decade did it start to become a career?

[absolivious]

Originally posted by WNYresident
So the majority of them used to acutally have a real job and politicing was done on the side. Which decade did it start to become a career?

ANSWER: It had to be during the '70s, when the mass media (mostly via TV "news" and other paid political commercials) became the foremost purveyor of "form above substance" as the predominant decision-making criteria for voters.

"Sound-bites," "drive-through-journalism," and "the dumbing-down of America" have since become part of everyday lexicon.

[Night Owl]

I mean the ones which work for the taxpayer.

Maybe I'm just misreading the question- WNYresident, are you looking for specific individuals (names) that have helped the taxpayers in any way?