Philip Blumel: Get ready for Term Limits Day, February 27th. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits Movement published on January 29th, 2024. This is episode number 231. In the last episode, I told you about a dozen states that have introduced the term limits convention bill in their state legislatures for the new year. Now, just two weeks later, this number has almost doubled. It’s time for citizens to wave the term limits flag in their communities both physical and virtual, and let our friends and neighbors, and of course the media and politicians see the voters are supportive of this wave of term limits action. Now, conveniently, term limits day, February 27th is right around the corner. Term Limits Day February 27th is the commemoration of the passage of the 22nd Amendment, which imposed term limits on the President. The idea is simple enough. On February 27th each year, everyone is encouraged to make a show of public support for term limits. We’ll get back to that. First, let’s get an update from Holly Robichaud on what is going on in the states. This is from her latest episode of Breaking News on Term Limits, which is available on YouTube. Take it, Holly.
Holly Robichaud: The wheels are in motion. This new year is already shaping up to be one of the best ever for term limits. It’s only the beginning of the 2024 legislative season and we’re already active in 23 states. Stay tuned to find out if your state is on the list. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud, and this is US Term Limits Breaking News.
Holly Robichaud: We have breaking news in Nebraska. Our resolution for term limits on Congress was just introduced by Senator Lippincott. If you live in Nebraska and want to end the dysfunction in the United States House and Senate, go to termlimits.com/2024Nebraska and take action. We’ve had enough of the do nothing Congress and this is your chance to do something. Spread the word by sharing this video everywhere you can and take action now. In 2023, resolutions were passed for a convention for proposing a congressional term limits amendment to the US Constitution in the State House of Representatives in both North Carolina and Tennessee. With this opportunity, we expect success in both states and have the state senates pass these resolutions this year. This will put North Carolina and Tennessee in the growing roster of states calling for a convention for proposing a congressional term limits amendment to the US Constitution.
Holly Robichaud: Louisiana is also shaping up to be a battleground state for congressional term limits. In the 2024 legislative session in Louisiana, 46% of House members and 39% of Senate members will be term limits pledge signers. And don’t forget Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and US term limits supporter Mike Johnson hales from Louisiana. We are optimistic that North Carolina and Tennessee will join the roster of states calling for congressional term limits. In Tennessee, our state chair Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who many know as WWE’s Kane, has been working with our central regional director, Aaron Duckett, in getting the message out and talking to key legislators. State Senator Richard Biggs is our state senate sponsor in Tennessee. He’s the chair of the state and local government committee, the committee that will vote on our resolution to advance it to the full state Senate. Hey Georgia, legislation calling for term limits on Congress was just filed in the Georgia House of Representatives by Representative Scott Hilton.
Holly Robichaud: This is your chance to bypass Congress and help impose term limits on the US House and Senate. Please go to termlimits.com/2024Georgia to sign on our online petition to get this passed in Georgia. Then please ask everyone you know to do the same. Share this video and share this link. Georgia can be the next state to vote to bypass Congress and call for term limits convention. Take action now before it’s too late. In North Carolina, our state chair, Lee Brown, is working with our Southern Regional Field Director, Shannon Chamblee and getting out our message to the media and contacting key state senators to see that North Carolina moves forward with adopting our term limits resolution. In other states across the nation, term limits is on the march. Our goal is to see our term limits convention resolutions introduced in 23 states, including Alaska, Kansas, South Carolina, Indiana, and Delaware. This past week we saw an additional 11 2024 state legislative candidates sign our pledge and our numbers will continue to soar because of the ever increasing popularity term limits has with voters. We also saw an additional four congressional candidates sign the US term limits pledge. With record numbers of candidates signing our pledge for the 2024 election cycle, that number will continue to increase and we will be by election day our highest number ever.
Philip Blumel: Pretty incredible. I’m gonna go out on a limb and predict right now that 2024 will be our best year since we launched the term limits convention project a couple of years back. The best year. And our best year so far was passing two states. With your help, we can win three this year, or, well, let’s win three first. No uncertain Terms has also been following the bill in Florida to term limit all of Florida’s counties that aren’t already term limited. This bill passed the Florida House on the first day of session. Bam! Now, since then, the bill has passed its first Senate committee and is headed to its second on the way to the Senate floor. Naturally, county lobbyists have appeared in force to try to stop the bill. Fortunately though, US Term Limits executive director Nick Tomboulides was also there to testify and call ’em out. Let’s hear just a snippet.
Nick Tomboulides: You know, I feel a little bit like Christopher Columbus here. Of course, Christopher Columbus was looking for Asia and accidentally stumbled upon something much greater. I have been looking for county commission term limits and I have accidentally stumbled upon what I believe is one of the biggest scandals in Florida government today. And that is the fact that counties and county commissioners are taking taxpayer money and giving it to lobbyists to advocate against the taxpayers who support term limits. You’re gonna hear that people in small counties don’t like term limits. That’s why Mr. Rasmussen did a separate poll of only people who live in small counties. He found that small county voters support term limits even more than the general public. Their support is 81%. So how is it not egregiously unethical for counties to spend the people’s money lobbying against the people’s will? I mean, that’s a front page political scandal. It should be investigated and stopped immediately.
Philip Blumel: Of course, all the lobbyists were in the room as he made these remarks. [chuckle] Now, the reason why Nick mentions small counties in this clip is that the biggest counties have special charters which allow for citizens initiative. And so most of the largest counties have passed term limits on their county commissions already. This includes corrupt Pinellas County whose voters passed term limits, but which government refuses to enforce them. But small counties do not have the power of initiative in Florida, and that’s why this law is necessary. So the lobbyists are claiming that small counties don’t want term limits. So this law is unfair. It’s going to impose them where they’re not wanted. But you can’t get away with that nonsense with Nick around. Well, you know what to do now. If you live in Florida, go to termlimits.com/takeaction and press the take action button under Florida.
Philip Blumel: This will send a message to all the relevant decision makers in your name. Now, if you’ve already done this, do it again. This is a different committee this week, the message will be going to a different set of decision makers. The same is true if you live in any of the states that Holly mentioned in her clip, go to termlimits.com/take action and find your state. You know what Edmund Burke said, evil will triumph if good men and women don’t go to termlimits.com/takeaction. I mean, I’m paraphrasing here. Next, the presidential race. You know, we’ve been reporting on the growing number of term limits supporters running for president of the United States, but now as the race progresses, we’re turning a corner. We have to report on the shrinking field of term limits supporters in the race. Governor Ron DeSantis, surely the most accomplished term limits politician in America is out. Vivek Ramaswamy, out. Chris Christie, out. But, after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, there are a couple of term limits supporters left standing.
Philip Blumel: On the Democratic side, Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips is still out there on the stump, calling for term limits. And on the Republican side, Nikki Haley outperformed her polling in New Hampshire and is headed to the South Carolina primary with considerable momentum. She too continues to use term limits as an applause line. Both Phillips and Haley are polling distant seconds in their respective parties as of now, but the primaries have just started.
Speaker 4: This is a public announcement.
Philip Blumel: Former three-term Congress member Liz Cheney of Wyoming learned the hard way a lot about real world professional politics during her stint in and outside that body. One important lesson, the need for term limits.
Liz Cheney: If you look at the challenges we’re facing and the complexity of those challenges, both internationally and domestically, and then you look at the caliber of the people that are getting elected today and the gap is huge and we’re like taking people that are not competent, putting them in office and then saying, now here, could you figure out these really complicated strategic issues and think through this in a thoughtful manner? And that’s going to lead to disaster. So we need people to have better choices. We need more people to run. I think we need to look at things like ranked choice voting. I think we need to look at term limits and I have not been supportive of term limits in the past, but I think that elected officials in order to get them to do the right thing, need to not be focused on the next race, then it may be time for us to take another look at term limits.
Philip Blumel: Alright, let’s go back to what you can do to help besides going to termlimits.com/takeaction. What else? Well, prepare for Term Limits Day, be a spectacle, fly a flag, help inform your friends and neighbors there is a revolution going on. You know they’re on our side. And let the media and politicians know also. On the margin, this could be critical in many of these states. At the very least it’ll let politicians know locally that there is a benefit to them of signing the term limits pledge.
Philip Blumel: Did you know that about 16% of all state legislators in the entire country have signed the US Term Limits State Legislative pledge? This is the pledge to vote for a co-sponsor and defend the term limits convention resolution. That’s 1,158 legislators as of the other day. So, here are some ideas to prepare for Term Limits Day February 27th. One, my favorite, so simple, post a pro term limits sign in your yard. You can make one of your own or get one from a US Term Limits state coordinator or purchase one from the store at www.termlimits.com/store. Store it in your garage, use it year after year. Second, it’s easy, put a bumper sticker on your car. You can keep it on your car all year round, but the key thing is to display it in February. People don’t like bumper stickers. I don’t, honestly. You can take it off after February 28th. Or you can buy a car door magnet instead.
Philip Blumel: They’re available on the site. You can buy a bumper sticker from the website. But I tell you what, I have a bunch right here and I’ll send you one for free if you send me an email. So send me your mailing address and I’ll send you one or two if you have two cars, just let me know. You can contact me at termlimits.com/contact-us or hang a pro term limits banner over a busy overpass, maybe something like Happy Term Limits Day, February 27th, www.termlimits.com. Use your imagination. We also sell banners in the store. Organize a sign waving at a busy intersection. This is fun and it’s easy to organize. Get a handful of your friends, half dozen, it’s fine. Make some homemade signs, honk if you love term limits is a favorite, people are gonna honk. You’ll enjoy the public support you get from passersby.
Philip Blumel: Help drivers get in the spirit of the holiday too. Remind them. And perhaps the easiest one of all, take a selfie of yourself holding a Happy Term Limits Day sign and post it on your social media. Tag US Term Limits if you would, send an email to your friends wishing them a Happy Term Limits day and suggesting they sign the Citizens’ Online Petition for Congressional term limits at www.termlimits.com. What I personally am going to do for Term Limits Day this year, in addition to the things I do every year, such as passing up bumper stickers and signs at political meetings I go to during January and February, is I’m going to post a Happy Term Limits Day February 27th message on nine electronic Billboards on I-95 in Palm Beach County, Florida, where I live on February 27th, and they will include the termlimits.com website address. What do you think about that?
Philip Blumel: We have the art for the billboard if you wanna steal this idea, if you have other term limits day ideas, just let me know. You can contact me at termlimits.com/contact-us, termlimits.com/contact-us. Send me your address, again, your mailing address, and I’ll send you a bumper sticker or two. All right, let’s finish up. I stand by my prediction earlier in this show. This will be our best year so far for the term limits convention resolution. However, I will tell you that my prediction is based on the assumption that you will get as fired up as we are this year and lend a hand. Term limits Day February 27th is your chance to do that.
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Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The term limits convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the term limits movement. To check on the status of the term limits convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There, you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a take action button by your state. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators, urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you are watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the term limits convention resolution or the bill’s not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It’s our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress, and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: Find us on most social media @USTermLimits, like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and now LinkedIn.
Speaker 4: USTL.