Philip Blumel: Louisiana Senate passes the Term Limits convention resolution. Boom. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, official podcast of the Term Limits movement, published on March 28th, 2024. This is episode number 235.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from Partisan Politics.
PB: On Monday, March 25th, the Louisiana State Senate passed the Term Limits Convention Resolution by a vote of 26 to 10. This puts Louisiana neck and neck with Tennessee and North Carolina to be the seventh state to officially apply for an Article Five Amendment proposing convention limited to the subject of congressional term limits. All three have passed one chamber of this session and are waiting on a vote for the second. The resolution also passed the Indiana State House earlier this session as well, but the TLC died in a Senate committee and will not get to the floor this year. Well, that’s a disappointment, but winning a chamber is still a big step forward. I mean, this is a foundation that we can build on in that state. But the prospects for Louisiana look a lot better than Indiana. But one thing, we have history in Louisiana. In fact, the Term Limits convention has passed a [laughter] Louisiana house three times already.
Philip Blumel: We keep winning in the house just to see it get bogged down in the Senate. And so the house leadership, which clearly support the measure, told us that they wouldn’t even take it up again until we win the Senate. Well, we just won the Senate, so we’re hoping to get Louisiana in the win column this year. Stay tuned. Oh, and by the way, just as I was putting together this episode, I got a message from the Terminator herself, Shanna Chamblee. We had a surprise floor vote in Kansas today, but it didn’t pass. So we made it all the way to the floor in the Kansas Senate and got stopped so that we’re not gonna win Kansas this year. However, again, just like Indiana, you rarely win on your first try. And so now we have our feet on the floor in that state, and we know who the good guys are and the bad guys are, and who can be trusted and who can help. And of course, those are all valuable things to know when we come back next year, which we will.
Philip Blumel: Shanna, by the way, almost got us through the Kansas Senate, but the very same week, she’s the one that was carrying the flag in Louisiana. So thank you very much Shanna for your hard work. Thank you also for all the yay votes in both legislatures and all the activists that made the calls and sent the emails and waived the signs on Term Limits day. And of course, all of our contributors across the country, we’re winning.
Philip Blumel: Next. March 19 was primary day across the USA, and we’ve enjoyed tracking all the US Term Limits pledge signers that are advancing to the general election in November. There’s a lot. Notable among these is not just a pledge signer, but the US Tournament state chair for Ohio. Bernie Moreno won his primary to become the Republican candidate for the US Senate representing his state. It was a solid victory, garnering over 50% in a three-way race. Bernie’s an interesting guy. He bought an underperforming Mercedes-Benz dealership a decade or so ago, and since then the Bernie Moreno companies have expanded to 15 buildings, 30 brands, four states, and hired nearly 1000 Ohioans, making it one of the nation’s largest and most successful dealerships. Then Moreno sold most of his car dealerships in 2019 and launched a technology startup called Ownum with the mission to digitize paper processes like car titles.
Philip Blumel: Well, he joined the US Term Limits team years two ago, and has been pushing the Term Limits convention resolution in the Ohio state legislature in Columbus. Now, Bernie is challenging incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown in the general. Now, this is an incumbent in a system constructed to benefit incumbents. Well, you know what that means. Bernie has his work cut out forum. As listeners of this podcast know all too well in 2022, every single US senator running for his or own seat won reelection.
Philip Blumel: Yes, a 100% success rate for incumbents, but it’s this lack of competition in our electoral system that animates the Term Limits movement. The system is not competitive with over 90% of all PAC money going to incumbents. And at the same time, individual donations to challengers are capped at $3,300 per voter plus Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown knows the ropes. He’s been in elected office since 1974. He graduated Yale at age 22 and ran for office immediately and has been riding the gravy train for 50 years. Later in this podcast, we have an interview with Bernie Moreno from before the election about his work with US Term Limits and he shares some insights on Senator Brown, but for now, we congratulate Bernie Moreno for his primary win the other week. It’d be helpful to have another pledge signer in the US Senate who can be counted on to co-sponsor and vote for the US Term Limits amendment, but it’d be better to have a Term Limits activist in that body.
Philip Blumel: Next. We are on our way to the Senate Floor in Tennessee. Yep. The Tennessee State and Local Government Committee passed the Term Limits convention resolution the Tuesday before last. This was the final stop before the Senate floor. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the Term Limits convention has already passed the Tennessee House, and now it’s passed all the committees in the Tennessee Senate and it’s ready to go for the floor. So this is the big one. If the Senate approves the Term Limits convention, Tennessee will become the seventh state to pass the Term Limits convention. The effort is led by Tennessee State Senator Richard Briggs, who is optimistic about the upcoming vote, the imminent upcoming vote. We don’t have the exact date, but surely it’ll happen next week or even this week. This would be the first state to approve the Term Limits convention this year, but it might not be the last, as I mentioned, the Senate victory in Louisiana already.
Philip Blumel: They can get through the house this year and recall, we also won one house in North Carolina already this session. The second half of their two year session starts in April, and we won at least three. It might be five committee votes this month in other states. There’s so much action on this issue nowadays. I swear I can’t keep track. Most importantly, we are waiting on floor votes to win a first chamber in Alaska and also Idaho. Friends, we are at a crucial juncture in this year’s legislative sessions. If you live in any of these states, I mentioned, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alaska, Idaho, let me ask you, seriously, do you want to see Term Limits imposed on the US Congress? Yes? Then please help, right now, go to TermLimits.com/takeaction and locate your state and click on the take action button. That’ll send a message from you to the relevant decision makers. It takes one or two minutes. And if you don’t live in these states, you can still help. Please send us a financial contribution. There are a lot of people involved on the ground in this effort and it isn’t cheap. Please go to to Termlimits.com/donate.
Philip Blumel: Next. Retire Congress North Dakota announced that it’s proposed amendment to the North Dakota State Constitution that would prohibit anyone from North Dakota over age 80 from serving in Congress will be on the June 11th primary ballot. The proposed amendment if passed, would not impact any current North Dakota Congressional office holders eligible for reelection in 2024, Retire Congress North Dakota suBernie Morenoitted 42,107 signatures. And after review, the Secretary of State confirmed they had exceeded the required 31,164 signatures needed to qualify the amendment for the ballot. Without congressional Term Limits in our federal constitution preventing members from serving indefinitely, many in Congress hold their positions for life. More information can be found at retirecongressnorthdakota.com.
Philip Blumel: Now, let’s finish up this episode with an excerpt from the recent episode of Holly Robichaud’s Breaking News on Term Limits. This is an interview with US Term Limits State Chair Bernie Moreno, who just won his primary last week to challenge incumbent US Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio in the November general election. The interview is from last year and focuses not on his campaign, but on guess what, Term Limits. Take it away, Holly.
Holly Robichaud: Well, I’m glad to have with us today Bernie Moreno, who is our Ohio chair. Thanks for joining us today.
Bernie Moreno: Thanks for having me.
Holly Robichaud: I have a couple questions for you today, if you don’t mind. What made you decide to get involved with Term Limits?
Bernie Moreno: Well, as you may know, Holly, I’m a business owner, I’m not a politician, and I firmly believe that our founders never intended to have a political class in this country. And then our founders wanted people who did something in their lives, went and served their country, and then went home and lived under the very laws that they set. They weren’t intended to be in DC forever. And instead what we have is people that go to DC make DC their home for their entire adult lives. They profit off the positions and then what they’ve done, let’s be honest, they have squandered our country’s resources.
Holly Robichaud: They sure have. I know that you’ve been traveling throughout Ohio. What are people telling you out there? How do they feel about Term Limits?
Bernie Moreno: Oh, they’re very much in favor of Term Limits. People in Ohio are really smart. They intuitively know that DC is broken. They know that the only way to fix it is to send different types of people to DC and so they’re very, very much supporting Term Limits. They know that we can’t send same career politicians who always think about their next assignment instead of thinking the job at hand. And so they know that Term Limits is one of the key ways to make that change happen.
Holly Robichaud: Now, I know that Term Limits played a role with JD Vance, that he signed it, his opponent didn’t sign it. Do you think that’s a winning issue going forward for people running for the Senate?
Bernie Moreno: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, JD Vance is the real deal. There’s not a lot of politicians like him, and I think he’s gonna set that example right, because here is somebody who’s outside the political system, a true conservative. He’s actually doing the things he campaigned on, which we should think isn’t remarkable, but it is. And he made Term Limits a cornerstone of his campaign. And he’s fully supportive of the Term Limits resolution in the United States Senate. And it did help him cross the finish line because it was a stark contrast to a career lifelong politician, which was who he ran against. So that contrast between somebody new outside the system who supported Term Limits and a lifelong career politician like Tim Ryan, I think is one of the many reasons JD was very successful here in Ohio.
Holly Robichaud: Oh, so Ohio’s got another major race coming up in 2024. Senator Brown has been in office for 33 years. Do you think Term Limits will also play the same role in that race?
Bernie Moreno: Term Limits will play a huge role. As you know better than anybody, incumbents are really hard to defeat. But when you contrast what people want, which is people who are outside the political system that aren’t corrupted by DC, that want to get things done with somebody who’s been there for 33 years, imagine what it would be like to live in that DC bubble for that long. It’s not good for the brain. You can’t connect in normal everyday Ohioans. And so people will see that, he’s gonna have the media on his side for sure, for certain he’s gonna have big tech at his side, he’s gonna have the power of incumbency on this side. But I think with the right kind of messaging, contrasting an outsider, who’s outside the political system, who wants to go there and only be in that office, not looking for the next assignment, but rather just go to be a senator and nothing else, and nothing beyond that, versus somebody who’s always had aspirations. What’s interesting about Sherrod Brown is when he got to the Congress a long time ago before text messaging was invented, by the way, that’s how long ago it was. He was all for Term Limits. He made fun of all these old congressmen, as he called them, old senators, old dinosaurs that hung around too long. And here he is, of course now fully against Term Limits because he’s become the very old dinosaur that he talked about back in 1993.
Holly Robichaud: Wow. He’s been there for that long.
Bernie Moreno: Yeah. And 18 years before that in a state legislator. So he’s been in politics since 1975.
Holly Robichaud: Wow. He spent his entire life in politics.
Bernie Moreno: Entire life.
Holly Robichaud: I think I was in third grade in 1975. Wow. That’s a long time.
Bernie Moreno: That’s a long time. And again, that’s not what our founders had in mind. I think our founders would have put Term Limits in the constitution, but it was so foreign an idea to them because the idea to them is that, hey, we have to restrict how long you’re gonna be in DC. Went back in 1789, they couldn’t find somebody to go to Washington, to our capital, right? To Philadelphia at the time, in DC. They couldn’t find anybody who would have the indignity to do that. And so it didn’t even cross their mind. But I think if they saw people like Sherrod Brown in politics like that their whole lives, they just wouldn’t believe it.
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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 at US Term Limits like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and now LinkedIn.
Speaker: USTL.