Term Limits, Unlimited
BARNES, FRED
Term Limits, Unlimited Contrary to reports, the movement is alive and well. BY FRED BARNES ELECTED OFFICIALS loathe term limits (they’re forced to retire). Special interest groups don’t like...
...Many conservatives believe term limits will result, not immediately but over the long run, in conservative policies, since elected officials will be more responsive to voters and less to lobbyists and liberal elites who often dominate state capitals and local governments...
...Since the mid-1990s, when congressional term limits were defeated and courts struck down limits on legislators in three states, this effort has been both intense and bipartisan...
...The state Democratic party donated $3.2 million to the anti-limits effort, and it was backed by labor unions and industries (gambling, alcohol, banking, insurance) regulated by the state...
...They remove legislators or other elected officials who’ve become entwined with special interests, replacing them with newcomers with closer ties to actual voters...
...Last year, the overwhelmingly Republican legislature of Idaho repealed term limits over the veto of Gov...
...Officials seeking to undo term limits in their states are bound to have second thoughts after California, he says...
...Terms limits are of course common in America...
...What helped them in California was the brazen bid by Democrats to keep their jobs in the legislature...
...Their strategy will probably be to lobby legislators to act...
...Special interest groups don’t like them (they lose allies they’ve assiduously wooed...
...They make room for more non-professional politicians, grass-roots types, women, and minorities...
...So at least the drive to eliminate term limits may have peaked...
...The opposition to Proposition 45 was led by a Republican consultant, Dan Schnur...
...California is so often a trendsetter,” says Stacie Rumenap of U.S...
...And the consensus for several years in the political community has been that the term limits movement is dying...
...But all that was pre-California, where term limits are more popular than ever...
...For term limiters, the next step is to get a new initiative on the ballot in Idaho this fall and to defeat a few legislators who voted for repeal...
...Supporters of term limits were outspent ten to one...
...Despite polls in Florida and Michigan showing the enduring popularity of term limits, Republicans and Democrats are pressing to kill them in both states...
...Remember Proposition 187 restricting government aid to illegal immigrants...
...A mailer showed a picture of Reagan and quoted from him...
...When we’ve moved from a 4-point win in 1990 to a 16-point win this year, it’s fair to say that term limits have actually gained strength,” insists Rumenap...
...This favored Democrats because many more of them represent low turnout, minority districts...
...The Utah legislature passed term limits only because a referendum was imminent...
...There, legislators would have to vote to limit their own terms and getting them to do so is a daunting task...
...Should they seek to get an initiative and referendum process enacted or prod the legislators to vote for limits...
...The campaign to shave back term limits was also deceptively packaged as a way to make limits “work better” and to expand “local voter rights...
...The 22nd Amendment holds a president to two terms, 38 states restrict their governor’s term, and congressional Republicans put limits on their leaders and committee chairmen...
...The Proposition 45 vote is “a turning point,” says Eric O’Keefe, president of Americans for Limited Terms...
...Not always, though...
...That might concentrate the minds of others contemplating repeal...
...In 1990, they were approved 52 percent to 48 percent...
...On the ballot, the preamble to the initiative said: “Term limits have reinvigorated the political process by promoting full participation and bringing a breath of fresh air to California government...
...Naturally, leaders in the fight for term limits believe the California vote has transformed the politics of the issue...
...The media rarely have a kind word for them (their sources leave town...
...Like President Reagan, Proposition 45 puts its faith in the voters to make the right decisions for themselves,” it said...
...The biggest problem comes in the 26 states that have no effective provision for referenda...
...BY FRED BARNES ELECTED OFFICIALS loathe term limits (they’re forced to retire...
...Roughly 3,000 local governments have term limits, including New York City, where Rudy Giuliani was required to step down as mayor on January 1. Seventeen states currently have limits on legislative terms, and in all but two of them—Utah and Louisiana—they’ve been imposed by referenda...
...Efforts are also underway in Maine, Missouri, Ohio, and Arizona, where GOP governor Jane Hull has endorsed an end to limits...
...Now the question is whether the California triumph has legs...
...Nonetheless, leaders of the term limits movement, sensing a California win, began strategizing earlier this year on how to approach state legislatures...
...The initiative would have allowed termlimited legislators to run again if they collected the signatures of 20 percent of the voters in the last election...
...Voters weren’t fooled Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Dirk Kempthorne...
...Yet they trounced Proposition 45, the initiative that would have allowed term-limited legislators to stay in office, 58 percent to 42 percent...
...This makes sense...
...They promote competition in elections and turnover in legislative bodies...
...Alas, voters still love them, a fact loudly underscored last week by the defeat of a clever California initiative to roll back term limits on state legislators...
...Even a quotation from Ronald Reagan was used against them...
...The case for term limits hasn’t changed...
...It wasn’t widely copied...
Vol. 7 • March 2002 • No. 26
