At the first Temecula City Council meeting of 2004, the Three Amigos made a triumphant return with a 3-2 vote that changes Temecula's future election cycle to coincide with state and federal elections held in even-numbered years.

This change was done under the guise of increasing voter participation by making voting more convenient for the overburdened masses. More residents will vote in the next city election in 2006, not because more residents have been drawn into the electoral process, but because the city leaders have moved the election to a larger pool of voters.

While this change in the election schedule is supposed to somehow make democracy easier for residents, voting has never been such a hardship to justify adding city issues to the bottom of a lengthy ballot dealing with federal, state and county candidates and propositions.

Democracy is like a muscle -- use it or lose it. Since 75 percent of eligible Temecula voters couldn't be bothered with absentee ballots, early voting at the mall or electronic voting at the polls, democracy has been atrophied and damaged.

The days of grassroots City Council campaigns here will likely fade to memory, like an old tradition. The Sam Pratts, Henry Millers, Ed Dools and Carl Rosses will be part of Temecula's history. Some of us will remember the days when one could run for council with only a few thousand dollars. The next City Council race will likely see campaign war chests brimming above the $100,000 mark and those without financial backing won't even be a blip on the electorate's radar screen.

Temecula is a big city now, with big-league politics. Developers will likely fund some candidates while the local Republican Party will cull its preferred candidate or two. Perhaps some future candidates will come by way of the Chamber of Commerce, but there will be little room and even less visibility for independent candidates. Various interests will be sponsoring all the real contenders, with expectations of something in return from their investment.

It will take a decade or more before the ramifications, if any, are noticed from the change in the election schedule. I suppose if things in Temecula take a turn for the worse, many residents will do what they did before and just move to a more desirable community. Many of these people probably sat on their votes in the cities they came from and never made the connection between their lack of involvement and the downturn of the community. When people turn their back on a community, they often blame politicians and ignore their own failure in exercising democracy.

It is a good time for the power elite. Councilmen who decide not to run again will likely be able to hand-pick their own replacements and provide the support of their existing political machines. Incumbents will draw on their resources for re-election campaigns and City Hall will be effectively closed to those unwealthy and unwise to the ways of professional politics.

With an absence of participation, the populace cedes power to government. We'll fight and die for democracy in Iraq, but we don't lift a finger for it here.

Paul Jacobs of Temecula is a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: TemeculaPaul@aol.com.