MARCH/APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 17 • No
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No Uncertain Terms THE NEWSLETTER OF THE TERM LIMITS MOVEMENT • MARCH/APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 17 • No. 2 South Dakota, Montana, Michigan: One Down, Two to Go State Senate Majority leader is not what Bishop wants. Mike Bishop wants a trade. He’ll The Livingston (MI) Daily give Michigan voters a part-time reports: “Michigan’s voters over- legislature (Michigan is currently whelmingly approved term limits one of only 11 states with a full- when they appeared on the ballot time lawmaking body), so long as in 1992, so they might not want to he gets one little thing in return...a totally remove them. But including repeal of legislative term limits. a repeal of term limits as part of a Among the touted benefits of larger bill that includes establish- shortening the legislative session to ing a part-time Legislature and 90 days would be less money spent slashing legislative pay might win on legislative salary and benefits. approval.” Michigan lawmakers are cur- If shortening the legislative Michigan’s Mike Bishop prays for an end session makes sense, it can and rently limited to a maximum tenure to term limits. of eight years. A recent Rasmussen should be proposed to voters with- Reports/Fox Television poll found if the two proposals were posted out requiring them to simultane- that 63% of Michigan voters want separately on the Michigan ballot, ously kill another sensible reform, these term limits to be left alone. thereby allowing voters to judge i.e., term limits. But such poison- Lawmakers would be dealing at and vote on the merits of each bal- least somewhat fairly with voters lot measure independently. But this (Continued on Page 3 ) More Term Limits in Missouri—or Less? Even as Missouri lawmakers years, but excluding terms in those struggle to undercut legislative offices resulting from an election term limits, Secretary of State prior to December 4, 2008?” Robin Carnahan has approved an The petition was submitted by Ed initiative petition to impose term Martin, founder of Term Limits for limits on all statewide elected of- Missouri. Currently, the governor ficials. and treasurer are the only statewide The official ballot title for the elected officials limited to two proposed amendment reads: “Shall terms or eight years in tenure. In the Missouri Constitution be 1992, state lawmakers were limited amended to limit the number of to two four-year terms in the sen- terms a person may serve as lieu- ate and four two-year terms in the tenant governor, secretary of state, house, a measure that passed with Ed Martin, Term Limits for Missouri attorney general, or state auditor 75% of the vote. complacency and, too often, to to two terms, including service of “Missourians recognize that any partial terms of more than two too much time in office leads to (Continued on Page 3) No Uncertain Terms 73 Spring Street • Suite 408 • New York, NY • 10012 President’s Corner BY Philip Blumel Career politicians will go to any length to hang on to their perks and power. Consider South Dakota. In 1992, 64% of South Dakotans voted to limit the terms of their legislators to eight years in office. Politicians tried to unshackle themselves last year, putting a term limits repeal on the ballot in November 2008. This time, 76% of voters embraced eight-year term limits and rejected the repeal. Ah, but that was months ago. Come February, the South Dakota Senate had approved 21-14 a bill that would lengthen the South Dakota term limit to 12 years. Maybe the voters changed their mind over the holidays? Nope. Post-election polling showed that 68% opposed the proposed longer terms and even exposed citizen anger that the issue was being raised yet again. What to do, what to do... Ever since term limits were imposed on state legislatures in the 1990s, professional politicians have been searching for the right way to package a term limits repeal. No luck so far. Every attempt to sell a repeal to voters has failed at the ballot box, including two times (California and South Dakota) in the last year alone. The politicians have had the best success, relatively speaking, when they can craft an anti-term limits bill that they can market as being somehow pro-term limits. Such was the ploy South Dakota. Politicians sought to increase the length of senate terms to four years from the current two, a change which—under the current four-term limit—would actually stretch the term limit out to 16 years. So, SJR3 would also “strengthen” South Dakota’s term limits by reducing the maximum tenure from four terms to three. Get it? Voting for SJR3 would make South Dakota’s term limits law tougher! Uh... Experience in other states (California tried a trick like this last February) shows that their scheme might well have polled well at first, backed by a hunk of special interest money. But by election time the trick would have been clear to all. Maybe that’s why the bill failed so lopsidedly in South Dakota house, 17-49, sparing voters the trouble of shooting down this particular turkey themselves. Sometimes, even career politicians have limits. Visit Phil Blumel’s blog at pblumel.blogspot.com. For the latest developments on term March/April limits across America, visit our web “It is not the function of our 2009 site on the Internet at Government to keep the citizen www.ustermlimits.org A publication of from falling into error; it is the US TERM LIMITS No Uncertain Terms is published function of the citizen to keep FOUNDATION bimonthly. Third class postage paid, the Government from falling into Washington, D.C. error.” 73 Spring Street, Suite 408 New York, NY 10012 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: -- U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. Term Limits Foundation, 73 (703) 383-0907 Spring Street, Suite 408, New York, American Communications [email protected] NY 10012 Association v. Douds No Uncertain Terms 2 73 Spring Street • Suite 408 • New York, NY • 10012 One Down, Two to Go (Cont’d from page 1) ous package-dealing has become de rigueur among career politicians eager to rid themselves of term limits any which way they can. Meanwhile, over in Montana, Representative Ray Hawk has introduced a bill to ask voters to water down Montana’s state legis- lative term limits. House Bill 174 would put a measure on the 2010 ballot to amend the state constitu- tion to let lawmakers serve up to In South Dakota, state legislators blocked and effort to gut term limits. Efforts to 16 years in either the senate or the undermine term limits continue in Montana and Michigan, however. house. “Sixteen years should be enough time to learn the process and ef- fectively serve as a legislator,” says voters see “a breach of trust with brazen push by lawmakers to gut Hawk. (Try that line at your next elected officials when [even after] term limits has died on the vine. job interview.) they put it in the Constitution, then A bill to weaken the term limits Travis Butcher, who helped get have to go back to defend it a sec- law passed the state senate 21-14 the 1992 term limit initiative on the ond time.” but failed 17-49 in the house. Montana ballot and who heads up At least in South Dakota, where (For more on South Dakota, see a new organization called Citizens voters just shot down a repeal ef- p. 2.) for Eight-Year Term Limits, says fort by 76% to 21%, yet another Missouri (Cont’d from page 1) corruption,” says Martin. “Term petition drive unnecessary. But he of the committee care more about limits guarantee that new citizens is prepared to follow through with keeping power than answering to will serve in every elected position an initiative campaign in the likely their constituents,” U.S. Term Lim- of state government at least every event that they fail to oblige. its President Phil Blumel told the eight years. It’s better for democra- It is safe to say that Representa- Springfield News-Leader. cy to have citizen elected officials, not bureaucrats who stay in office for decades.” In order to post a question to the “It is obvious that the members of the November 2010 ballot, circulators committee care more about keeping power than of the petition must follow a com- plicated formula, with signatures answering to their constituents.” obtained from eight percent of reg- istered voters in each of six of the state’s nine congressional districts. The signatures must be submitted tive Gayle Kingery is not on board. If lawmakers ignore voter an- to the Secretary of State’s office by He has submitted a bill for a consti- noyance with yet another attempt 5 p.m. on May 2, 2010. tutional amendment to allow Mis- to weaken the state’s term limits, souri lawmakers to serve up to 16 Martin has asked the legislature Missourians could see two term years in a single chamber. Early in to act to post the measure limit- limits measures on the ballot: one March, the House Elections Com- ing tenure of statewide officials to strengthen term limits, another to mittee voted 9-1 in favor of the bill. themselves, which would make a gut them. “It is obvious that the members 3 No Uncertain Terms 73 Spring Street • Suite 408 • New York, NY • 10012 Term Limits ARIZONA Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has dropped his campaign for a ballot measure to lengthen his tenure and that of other council members until 2014 (under current law he may not serve past 2012).