It looks like we've finally figured out how to get decent policy out of Senator Jeff Denham. All it took was to directly threaten his own political wellbeing. In response to being targeted for recall, Denham has embarked on a rather elaborate woe-is-me defense campaign, part of which is legislation to reform the signature gathering process. This sort of reform- which would make the law much tougher on out-of-state sig gatherers, might have been quite relevant back when the Dirty Tricksters were bending the law to the breaking point. But Senator Denham waited until his own butt was on the block to suddenly take an interest in the integrity of the signature gathering process. This is a solid bit of legislation, and as the first article notes, Don Perata was one of the aye votes today.

It's just a shame that Denham's personal interests don't appear to coincide more often with the people in his district or the state of California. He ran strong on education to get into office, but once his personal career was better served by toeing the CRP line, he blew that one off. He talks a big game about opposing pay raises, but then he accepts them. That one is obviously the most literal of personal profit trumping good policy. So as Denham's reform of signature gathering works its way towards passage, it's an opportunity to appreciate the potential for good policy. It would just be nice if Senator Denham would do the right thing because it's the right thing once in a while.