Here's how life is supposed to be when you run for political office: You beat somebody in your party's primary, beat someone else in the general election, and you're in.

Here's the way it works in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Once you're in, you're in.

Of the 193 incumbent representatives who stood for re-election in 2004, only 16 faced opponents in both the primary and the general election.

Of the 24 incumbent senators, only three had opponents in both elections.

In all of Pennsylvania, only two incumbent representatives and one senator, Allen Kukovich, D-Westmoreland, lost in 2004. That's three of 217.

Is it any wonder legislators have grown indifferent to the people they purportedly represent, and contemptuous of the spirit of the state constitution they have sworn to uphold?

Or that they have fashioned themselves into America's Most Expensive Legislature?

The story goes than in 1787, a Philadelphia woman approached Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the Constitutional Convention and asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

"A republic," Franklin told her, "if you can keep it."

Today, Franklin might answer: "A republic, if you can retrieve it."

Tim Potts, director of communications for the House Democrats for most of the 1990s and a bane to both major parties today, was telling the Franklin story to about 35 people the other night in a Point Park University lecture hall.

Despite the sparse crowd, this spokesman for an upstart coalition of do-gooders made the odds for reform seem decent.

More than 12 million people live in Pennsylvania, Potts said, and "there are only 129 people who stand between us and what we want."

That would be the majority needed to make new law: 102 state representatives, 26 senators and the governor. Potts says it's about time our leaders began treating us as "something more than a walking wallet."

His group is called Democracy Rising and its Web site is democracyrisingpa.com. It's a coalition of lefties and righties and in-betweenies, with organizations ranging from the conservative Commonwealth Foundation to the liberal Common Cause.

"We check all the things that divide us at the door," Potts said. "The only thing we talk about is what's good for democracy."

The Web site offers solid information on why the post-midnight, no-debate pay grab by America's Largest Full-Time Legislature was an affront and a challenge to all Pennsylvanians.

Potts, 56, grew up in Bethel Park before it was Bethel Park, and now lives outside Carlisle, and he has been criss-crossing the state with this direct message: "We are the sovereign."

Yet somehow we live in "the only state without a lobbyist disclosure law to control influence peddling by special interests."

We were "the only state in 2004 to enact more legislation after the election than before it, depriving voters of incumbents' complete records."

Such nuggets are sprinkled throughout the Democracy Rising site.

Something Potts said offhandedly, however, was what intrigued me.

He suggested that to become relevant to the powers in Harrisburg, people should change their party registration. If Democrats and Republicans begin losing loyal party members, "that's the teachable moment.

"We're saying, 'You don't get to take my vote for granted anymore. You're going to have to earn my vote and the way you earn it is by showing some integrity."'

It's not difficult to change your registration. Those with computer access can go to democracyrisingpa.com, click on the DRDS logo in the upper right hand corner of the screen, and then scroll down to a Pennsylvania Department of State link and change your party registration or register for the first time.

It took me 10 minutes to complete a form that will make me an independent, and I'm slow. (Don't worry about not knowing your voter identification number; an Allegheny County registration worker told me that's unnecessary if the rest of the information is accurate.) I printed the form, signed it and mailed it to the courthouse Friday.

Allegheny County citizens without computer access may write to the Allegheny County Voter Registration Office; 542 Forbes Ave. Suite 604; Pittsburgh, Pa. 15219-2953 to request a registration form. Nothing can be done over the phone. I trust neighboring counties work similarly.

How many changes of registration would make the ruling caste nervous? A few hundred? A few thousand? Ten thousand?

I have no idea. The move also has some risk, as many of us will now have to remember to re-register in one party or the other before March 7. Only party members can sign nominating petitions between Feb. 14 and March 7 to get challengers on the party primary ballots. (We hope.) Only party members can vote in primaries.

I'll sign up with the party that offers a real race this spring.