California, no longer the land of prosperity and new beginnings, has also lost its edge when it comes to beauty in the hallowed halls of Sacramento.
Once a year, The Hill, which generally writes about U.S. Congress, politics and reform on Capitol Hill, turns its attention to skin-deep matters.
In 2010, California dominated their annual list of the nation's “50 Most Beautiful People." This year, just two Californians rated inclusion in the 8th annual assessment.
What gives?
Well, for one thing there's the shrinking gene pool.
The list bars repeats from one year to the next. Despite term limits, the staff and legislature in Sacramento see minimal turnover. There's even less on the federal level, observes Kris Kitto, features editor for The Hill.
That means that each year the Golden State has fewer “beautiful people” to choose from.
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Some long-time pols have never made it onto the list, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein among them.
All is not lost, though. Of the two Californians who ranked this year, one is Feinstein staffer Manoucheka Attime, the senator's correspondence director.
The other is L.A.-native Ameilia Wang, chief of staff to Rep. Judy Chu, (D-El Monte). Chu, by the way, was on the 2010 list.
The list doesn’t offer up anything deep or heavy in the way of information, just a subjective assement of physical attractiveness and photogenic chops.
What the list does provide, is the marital status of each individual, a nugget of information that has put Kitto in the awkward position of matchmaker more than once.
There’s an old saying: "Politics is Hollywood for ugly people."
When it comes to California, we'll have to rely on Wang and Attime to prove that saying wrong.
