For Immediate Release
November 9, 2022
Media Contact: David Johnson, Strategic Vision PR Group
Ph: (404) 380-1079
Email: djohnson@strategicvisionpr.com
U.S. Term Limits Condemns Michigan Special Interests for Deceiving Voters 0n Proposal 1
Lansing, MI – U.S. Term Limits (USTL) condemns the special interests in Michigan who deceived voters in voting for Michigan Proposal 1 that severely weakened Michigan term limits for the state legislature. This scheme perpetrated by lobbyists and career politicians undoes the Michigan voter enacted constitutional term limits law passed in 1992. With a media campaign financed heavily by special interests, the unholy combination of lobbyists and career politicians convinced voters that voting yes on Michigan Proposal 1 was pro-term limits but it was not. In addition, they packaged it with a financial transparency law to assure voters would approve the measure.
“Career politicians and powerful lobbyists in Michigan combined to undo the will of Michigan voters,” said Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits. “They deceived the voters saying this proposal was a reform measure. It is anything but reform and it definitely was not transparent. Its purpose is to undo term limits in Michigan and sadly they succeeded.”
Thirty years ago, voters in Michigan approved one of the best term limits laws in the country. Lawmakers can serve three two-year terms in the state House and two four-year terms in the state Senate. That’s a total of 14 years only if someone is elected to both chambers, which is mathematically unlikely. Most legislators serve six-years in the state house.
This year, the Michigan legislature proposed and adopted, without debate or notice, a resolution to overturn the law – Michigan Proposal 1. Proposal 1 changes the number of years to 12 but allows legislators to serve all those years in a single chamber. This doubles the time that someone could spend in the state House of Representatives. Now a lawmaker can serve six two-year terms in the single chamber, for a total of twelve years. It also brings the total number of terms servable in the state Senate to three four-year terms. This Trojan horse scam guts Michigan’s term limits.
Proposal 1 was pushed through the legislature with minimal notice. Its clear intent was to undo Michigan’s term limits laws. Grassroots activists at Michigan Term Limits Defense Fund worked tirelessly to educate voters about the deceit of Proposal 1. This proves that the only way lobbyists and career politicians can gut term limits is by resorting to deceit.
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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.