RALEIGH – I’m getting ready to board a plane for California, where I’ll give a speech at the Pacific Research Institute, our sister think tank in San Francisco, and make the media rounds in Los Angeles. My first destination, the Bay area, prompted a thought about political makeovers.

The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, used to be speaker of the California Assembly. He was a powerful leader, to put it mildly. Secure in a safe seat and a mostly gerrymandered Democratic majority, Brown lorded over Sacramento to a greater degree than, for example, N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight does in our capital city. Brown played the race card whenever it was promising, ate Democratic “mavericks” for lunch, and generally countenanced the kind of politics for which California has been justly despised.

Then came term limits. And Brown was out – not only out of his own safe seat, but out of stalwart lieutenants who could also count on never being defeated. Being a political animal to the core, he ended up running for and winning the job as chief executive of San Francisco. By all accounts, he’s actually been a somewhat less tyrannical mayor than he was a speaker. He remains, unfortunately, a hustler.

Across the Bay, Oakland also has a famous mayor. Once derided as “Governor Moonbeam” and twice a candidate for president, Jerry Brown moved to the decidedly downscale city of Oakland and surprised most political observers by running for and becoming mayor. He is an entirely different person than the governor who seemed (and was) in way over his head. Brown has focused on making the city more attractive to private-sector investment, on fighting crime, and on introducing innovation into such areas as fiscal policy (he’s for tax simplification) and education (he’s for parental choice and tough standards).

In very different ways, both mayors Brown exemplify the importance of expanding competition in politics. When people win political posts from which they likely cannot be removed except by retirement, death, or a morals charge (so long, Mr. Condit), they lose the need to listen and the drive to innovate. Their minds close, and so do the opportunities for their constituents to hold them accountable.

North Carolina should encourage politicians to move up, out – or, as Jerry Brown did, “down” from federal to state and from state to local office. Term limits, redistricting reform, and other changes in our political culture would help.