I would tend to disagree. We’re still talking years of service here not months and I don’t think it would take much for the average reader/poster here on this site long to come to a decision whether a bill is for the good of the people or not.
JB
Speaking from experience, candidates run on hot button issues. I have seen County government contenders say that they are going to cut social services and give the money to cops, that they are going to get better education in the schools. Then they are voted in. They discover that they have no jurisdiction over schools. That the Sheriff, DA, Treasurer and Auditor are also elected officials with their own authorities over which they have little control. They discover that all those onerous codes the County has in building and planning are the state minimum and can’t be thrown out. They find out that social service programs are state and federally funded and there is little discretion over their budget. They discover that they need a majority of the Board to vote the way they want to make change.
Then they find out that they are expected to be experts enough to make decisions on many other things: natural resources and land use management, investment of reserve funds, reinsurance and finance, bond issuance, domestic violence, facilities building, jail management, disaster response, economic development, aging, air quality, genetic manipulation of seed, culvert sizes, dam relicensing and on and on.
For the first year new electeds are in shock. The second and third year they begin to know some of the vocabulary and perhaps understand one or two issues. It takes about six years to get their feet under them. Then they start forming alliances and networking with other county electeds. I can imagine it is only worse at the state and federal level in complexity.