Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RICHARD E. SINCERE JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At issue is the Arkansas Supreme Court's decision voiding a referendum, approved by 60 percent of Arkansas voters, limiting the state's members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three terms in office and its U.S. senators to two terms. The Arkansas court said that the U.S. Constitution does not permit states or citizens to add "qualifications" to members of Congress.
In a strong dissent, Justice Steele Hays disagreed: "I start from the premise that all political authority resides in the people, limited only by those provisions of the federal or state constitutions specifically to the contrary," the judge wrote. "The only 'intent' that can be ascertained from the framers' exclusion of term limits [from the original draft of the U.S. Constitution] is that the delegates considered it undesirable to impose a uniform tenure limitation upon the representatives of every state. However, this does not confirm that the people of each state are prohibited from enacting term limits."
The term-limits movement has broad support and much success. In states that have had term-limits initiatives on the ballot, the proposals have won with an average of 66 percent of the vote. In 1992, term limits received more votes in the 14 states that had referendums than Bill Clinton received nationwide.
State and local term limits are as important as congressional ones. In California, the Los Angeles Times reports, races are more competitive than ever. An even playing field grants opportunities to more women and minority-group members to run for office.
In Texas, Houston Councilwoman Sheila Lee, facing a limit on her local term of office, ran against incumbent Congressman Craig Washington in the Democratic primary. She won handily and said that she would have not run for higher office without the term limit.
In Prince George's County, Md., limits on the County Council convinced member Frank Casula to run for and win the office of mayor in Laurel.
University of Oklahoma political scientist David Rausch has identified five very different types of citizens who support term limits:
(1) Progressives: "Term limits will decrease the amount of corruption in government."
(2) Populists (such as Perot supporters): "A citizen legislature is more representative and responsive than a professionalized legislature."
(3) Classical Republicans: "Term limits will create legislative bodies which are less likely to be pulled by the whims of the electorate; term limits will insulate legislators from the public and that is good" - expressed by George Will in his book, "Restoration."
(4) Partisan Republicans: "Term limits will end Democratic control of legislatures."
(5) Libertarians: "Term limits will make government smaller and less expensive."
In Virginia, the idea of term limits has multipartisan support. State Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, supports term limits. So do Dels. Frank Russ, R-Clarksville, and Jay Katzen, R-Warrenton. Republican congressional candidates Kyle McSlarrow (8th District) and George Landrith (5th District) favor limits, as do Libertarian Party candidates Bob Rilee (10th District) and Gordon Cruickshank (11th District). Gov. George Allen also supports term limits.
Currently all Virginia elected officials except the governor can serve lifetime terms. This is wrong. Politics should not be a career; it should be a temporary public service.
For this reason, we should limit the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general to no more than two terms (eight years) each. At the same time, we should limit state Senators to two terms (eight years) and members of the House of Delegates to four terms (eight years), for a total career in the General Assembly of 16 years. Similarly, Virginia should follow the lead of 16 other states and limit our U.S. representatives to three terms and our U.S. Senators to two terms.
Rotation in office was the experience and the intention of the founders. They viewed public service as a burden to be endured, not a career for personal enrichment, influence expansion and power enhancement.
Term-limit initiatives will be on the ballot in eight states this year. They will succeed because voters know that by limiting terms of politicians, citizens retake the power that rightfully belongs to them.
Virginians need to lobby our delegates and state senators to limit their own terms. If elected representatives really care about their constituents and the integrity of the commonwealth, they will do so. If they vote against limiting their own terms, we'll know they are in politics to benefit themselves, not us.
Regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Arkansas vs. Hill, the time for term limits has come. A constitutional amendment permitting states to limit the terms of their congressional representatives is in the cards. The only question is, how soon?
Richard E. Sincere Jr., of Arlington, is chairman of Virginians for Term Limits.
by CNB