One way to clean up the financial quagmire that is so rampant at all levels of our government today is to replace habitual office holders.

We should be dubious of incumbents who serve more than two four-year terms. There are too many long-term office holders who “own” the system.

They should be given the gate at the polls. They often lose their effectiveness after prolonged experience in government and are conspicuous by their absence from public access between elections.

Voting the big spenders and the hangers-on out of office – local, state and national – sends a message from voters to the remaining public servants, “It’s our money!”

Dick Ekins, Kirkland