March 1, 2022
Contact: Scott Tillman, U.S. Term Limits
Phone: (231) 282 1167
stillman@termlimits.com
U.S. Term Limits Condemns Fraudulent Scheme to Gut Michigan Term Limits
Grand Rapids, MI – U.S. Term Limits, the nation’s largest pro-term limits group, is warning Michigan citizens that a group of political insiders is hatching a fraudulent scheme to cripple the state’s voter-approved term limits law.
“Michigan politicians and lobbyists hate term limits because they hate giving up power,” said Scott Tillman, a Grand Rapids resident who serves as national field director for U.S. Term Limits. “But the people of Michigan love term limits and would never vote against it. So, the politicians and lobbyists are now attempting to trick the voters.”
Tillman is referring to a new ballot measure campaign launched by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and former Chamber of Commerce CEO Rich Studley, which would double Michigan’s voter-approved term limits from 6 years to 12 years for State House members. The Duggan/Studley measure tricks voters by hiding its term limits attack inside a larger initiative, while not accurately informing citizens of the changes it would make to term limits.
“This is a power grab by lobbyists and politicians, the measure would let politicians remain in office longer and create more career politicians,” Tillman added. “The advocates of this are using fraud and deception to accomplish their goal, because they know it’s the only way they can win. It’s no surprise who is involved with this, these lobbyists represent the biggest corporations and rich elite of Michigan. It’s disappointing but not unexpected to see unions and billionaires team up against the people’s term limits.”
In 1992, Michigan voters enacted term limits for state lawmakers by a 17-point landslide margin. Since then, big business and special interest lobbyists throughout the state have persistently complained about the term limit because it hinders their ability to extract favors from legislators. Despite this opposition, they have not succeeded in putting an anti-term limit measure on the ballot.
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U.S. Term Limits is the largest grassroots term limits advocacy group in the country. We connect term limits supporters with their legislators and work to pass term limits on all elected officials, particularly on the U.S. Congress. Find out more at termlimits.org.