Testing-time for term limits
NOVAK, ROBERT D.
Testing-Time for Term Limits by Robert D. Novak While enumerating the sins of his opponent in his rambling closing statement at the second presidential debate, Bob Dole blurted out this...
...By this route, the movement seeks to achieve term limits without necessarily amending the Constitution (though the amending track is also being pursued...
...the other six judges on the court are up for retention by the voters in 1998...
...Consequently, it is giving him no help in a tough battle for reelection this year...
...An exception is Republican state representative Al Salvi, running an uphill battle in Illinois against Democratic representative Dick Durbin for the U.S...
...House speaker Newt Gingrich occasionally promises that passing term limits will be the first item of business in the 105th Congress, but he supports a generous limit for House members of 12 years—not six, as leaders of the term-limits movement insist on...
...So the reality is unchanged from what it was two years ago...
...Conservative Idaho might be the only state that defeats term limits this year...
...But Democrat Jill Docking has signed the U.S...
...This will send a message that the worst nightmare for office seekers who desire a long and comfortable life on Capitol Hill has not ended...
...Robert D. Novak is a syndicated columnist...
...New York City: Voters are being asked to add another four years to the eight-year limit on City Council members approved by voters in 1993...
...But the movement's leaders believe Nethercutt, once elected, undermined the congressional struggle for term limits...
...No longer can the politicians be taken by surprise...
...Two of the most dynamic Republicans on Capitol Hill, Senate majority leader Trent Lott and House majority whip Tom DeLay, are avowed and unapologetic opponents...
...Sam Brownback win a hotly contested primary for Dole's Senate seat...
...Term Limits predicts victory in two-thirds of those contests (though two-thirds of all ballot initiatives generally lose...
...The establishment, topped by a New York Times editorial endorsement, is in full cry for four-more-years...
...Granted that Bill Clinton opposes term limits, but when did Bob Dole start supporting them...
...North Dakota: This is the first state where voters are being asked to go the "direct application" route—calling for a constitutional convention to enact a term-limits amendment...
...Such backing was instrumental in Salvi's primary-election upset victory over lieutenant governor Bob Kustra, who was backed by the entire state GOP machine, headed by Gov...
...Here's how it works: If these initiatives carry, those congressmen who vote against strict six-year limits will have this notation next to their names on the 1998 ballot: "DISREGARDED VOTER INSTRUCTION ON TERM LIMITS...
...Nor of Jack Kemp's...
...Idaho: Right-wing opposition to term limits by the John Birch Society and other such organizations (which fear a constitutional convention) is concentrated here, where polls show more opposition from Republicans than Democrats...
...Nevertheless, as I sat in the University of San Diego theater, questions crossed my mind...
...Term Limits pledge...
...Indeed, the establishment is now fully mobilized, with "No" spending outdistancing "Yes" spending in the campaigns for this year's ballot initiatives...
...The state legislature tried to roll back limits in 1993 and succeeded in 1995...
...Initiatives instructing members of Congress to support three-term congressional limits are favored to pass in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and, yes, Tom Foley's state of Washington...
...Perhaps supporters of limiting congressional terms should have been grateful for those five little words, in a campaign where the issue has gone largely unmentioned by either side...
...One professional politician drowned in the 1994 term-limit tide was Foley himself, but it might seem that he will be among the last of his kind to be swamped by this movement...
...For in 1995, the U.S...
...This is a test election...
...The movement is repaying Docking by staying neutral...
...Howie Rich of U.S...
...There surely was no announcement of his conversion...
...Jim Edgar...
...Rather, the Republican vice-presidential nominee has been unrepentant in his insistence that he was a much better congressman at the end of his 18-year hitch in the House than at the beginning...
...With so many ballot initiatives on the table, the term-limits movement is not doing much in the way of voter education to boost individual candidates...
...The movement is still alive and moderately well...
...Republicans hate term limits and, for the most part, pretend to support them while working clandestinely to impede progress...
...In Washington state, term-limits commercials played a decisive role in Republican representative George Nethercutt's 1994 upset over Foley...
...The remaining question is whether former House speaker Thomas Foley was correct in predicting that the public's infatuation with term limits would gradually subside while politicians whose life work is at stake would persist in blocking them to the bitter end...
...In Kansas, term-limits voter education helped Rep...
...But the movement overcame Wyoming's rigorous requirement of collecting signatures from some 25 percent of its voters and was able to put a referendum on the ballot this year to repeal the state anti-limits law...
...Testing-Time for Term Limits by Robert D. Novak While enumerating the sins of his opponent in his rambling closing statement at the second presidential debate, Bob Dole blurted out this indictment: "President Clinton opposes term limits...
...Here are some of the sterner and more unusual tests for the term-limits movement on Election Day this year: Wyoming: This is a classic case of the determination of the political establishment to hold back term limits...
...He is likely to do better than that...
...Yet Foley and the lifers of both parties have always underestimated the staying power of the 70 percent-plus of voters who want limits...
...Two other instances show term-limits strategists following Samuel Gompers's old adage that labor should reward its friends and punish its enemies— with unfaithful friends placed in the category of enemies...
...Nebraska: The movement is pressing for the defeat of Supreme Court judge David Lanphier, who twice has voted with the court's majority in throwing out term limits passed by nearly 70 percent of the electorate...
...Evidence of how deeply the people care about this will be forthcoming on November 5. Voters in 13 states that day (it was 14 until the Arkansas Supreme Court recently blocked an initiative from appearing on the ballot) will have an opportunity to vote on a six-year limit for House members...
...Back in 1992, Wyoming was one of 14 states to pass congressional limits that year—by 77 percent of the vote...
...If most or all of the initiatives carry on Election Day, the professional politicians of both parties will have to confront the harsh reality that the public has not surrendered...
...Senate...
...When did this congressional "lifer" experience his epiphany...
...Democrats hate term limits and, for the most part, admit they will do everything in their power to defeat them...
...Supreme Court found—by a 5 to 4 vote—invisible writing in the Constitution to decree that voters cannot limit the terms of members of Congress...
Vol. 2 • November 1996 • No. 8
