Judy Jacobs is not to be underestimated. She's a civic activist turned elected official and a seasoned politician. She cannot be taken lightly.

You are going to have election law as it relates to campaign financing revamped and revitalized. He is not the only one who leases a car out of their campaign moneys. It bodes for a much larger problem.

What becomes emblematic is that they raise so much money nobody wants to run against them. It becomes cost prohibitive. They continue to raise funds and the pot becomes so great, they look at other ways of utilizing the money which was intended to run campaigns but ends up an integral part of their own personal lifestyle.

It's very difficult to project yourself on a statewide basis when you can't deal with 19 legislators in your own county.

I don't want to sound Pollyannish about this. I understand that poverty is never just poverty. It's often this collection of maladies, this compounded adversity. I'm not naive about the problem. But I think that stable, steady housing is one of the surest footholds we could have on the road to financial stability.

These days, there are sheriff squads whose full-time job is to carry out eviction and foreclosure orders. There are moving companies specializing in evictions, their crews working all day, every weekday.