They meant it

Operation Clean Sweep, one of the groups who carried the banner of the anti-pay-raise troops this past summer, has really stuck with their cause, and will be fielding 81 candidates for various state House and Senate seats (and with a couple weeks left to fulfill their goal of challenging every incumbent in the state).

The slate announced yesterday is a mix of Democrats, Republicans, and a few minor-party candidates who have taken the group's pledge to require voter approval for future pay raises and to support a 10-day "cooling-off period" for legislation so bills are not rammed through the two houses.

[Founder Russ] Diamond said there was a backlog of more than 70 other potential candidates waiting to be screened by the group. "This is just the first wave."

Two-thirds of this number will be making a primary run or contesting an open seat; the rest will be mounting challenges to sitting legislators. Always good to bring new blood into the political process, although I hope that the individual candidates can find more than this to justify support...