Soft Machine: Electing Staffers

From my latest column in City & State: 

Many of the current crop of New York City Council candidates, including incumbents, got their start as political staffers. In fact, a great many have no significant professional experience except as staffers for the City Council. In an era of seemingly ingrained corruption and political scandal, is it healthy for the political body to be constituted by what amounts to a kind of professional nepotism?

Read the rest of the article here.