There's a thoroughly remarkable piece in today's Albany Times-Union that New Yorkers interested in the reform of our notoriously un-small-D-democratic state government should read.

When Paul Newell and Luke Henry were toddlers just learning to talk 31 years ago, a young trial lawyer from the Lower East Side of Manhattan named Sheldon Silver was cutting his political teeth as a freshman assemblyman.

This year, Newell and Henry are challenging Assembly Speaker Silver, now one of state government's three most powerful politicians. It marks the first time in more than two decades that Silver has faced opposition in a primary.

Beautiful, but here's the real meat:

While Newell and Henry admit they're at a financial disadvantage, they think there's a desire for change in the district that will benefit them.

"I feel like change is in the air," Henry said. "I feel like I'm part of a citizenry that is saying to ourselves that we need more from our government, and we actually have the means to effect it."

Both argue Silver has been in Albany too long. They say he's lost touch with his electorate.

Newell believes the Legislature needs a 12-year term limit. This would give legislators enough time to develop expertise but not enough to become entrenched, he said.

Nothing, one can imagine, sends as chilly an air of discomfort through the enbalming chamber that is the state legislature than that horrific idea of term limits, implying as it does that seats in that body should not be lifetime sinecures. Blasphemy.

The Henry/Newell challenges are an undiluted good thing for the State of New York. This for several reasons, the first of which is that primaries are in themselves a good thing. We're seeing from the contested Democratic Presidential primary that contests, especially unexpected ones, do wonders for defining and growing the party. The second is simply that, in a system that lets legislators draw their own districts, in very concrete terms, it is not the case that the people choose their representative. The representative chooses the people.

The third is that this primary will inevitably lead to a broader discussion we need to have, not dedicated to a horserace - "Ooh, Hillary's up two points in Ohio!" - but to the issue of Sheldon Silver's performance for his district and this state. And there is no better time to have that discussion than in a campaign season transformed by the electorate's hunger for change.

More and better Democrats, please.

On the web: Paul Newell for Assembly

(h/t: Gatemouth)

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