Several factors made it difficult for individuals from unknown families to be elected to high office, in particular the very presence of a long-standing nobility, as this appealed to the deeply rooted Roman respect for the past.
I can only hope that both Whitman and the California news media draw some lessons from the Oakland debacle: For Whitman, that if she wants to be elected to high office, she needs to start acting like a public servant and not a corporate chieftain.
And I said to myself, if they can stay so poor for so many generations, maybe this isn't the kind of person we want to be electing to higher office.
Indeed, there will probably have to be a special election early next year anyway if, as expected, some council members are elected to higher office in November and voters need to decide who will fill those vacant seats.
A disproportionate number of Mormons have been elected to higher office in America; although Mormons account for only 1.8percentnt of the country's population, five of the hundred United States senators are Latter-day Saints.
Egypt's leading private broadsheet, al-Masry al-Youm, published last week an interview with a Republican "senator", one Maurice Bonamigo, a man very approving of Egypt's controversial new domestic direction – but one who also sadly later emerged to have never been elected to higher office.
In fact, no sitting New York City mayor has been elected to higher office since the 19th century.
9. Linda McMahon, Candidate for U.S. Senate Connecticut: Thanks to Jesse Ventura, the idea of a wrestler being elected to higher office is not as shocking or laughable as it may have once been, but there was still something a bit unsettling about seeing someone trying to combine the image of a cuddly, suburban soccer mom with the persona of a badass, body-slamming, toughie.
All have been elected to high office more than once, and all are serious public servants.
