Momentum continues to build at the state level for congressional term limits. In Pennsylvania, State Representative Jared Solomon is filing legislation that could call for congressional term limits. This is the first spearheaded by a Democratic State Representative. We’re glad to have him on board. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud, and this is US Term Limits breaking news.
Now it’s time for some important updates. In Ohio, our State Chair Bernie Moreno is running for the United States Senate. Bernie’s been a champion of term limits even before this race. He was instrumental in getting Ohio’s newest Senator, J. D. Vance, to sign our term limits pledge in 2022, which many believe was critical to Vance’s victory. Bernie’s making term limits a key issue in his race. This week he signed the US Term Limits Pledge, promising to support US Term Limits Amendment if elected to the Senate. He’s the only Senate candidate in Ohio of either political party to sign our pledge. Way to go, Bernie!
In the Senate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz continues to be a tireless advocate for term limits, as he has been since he was first elected in 2010. He has sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 2, a companion bill to House Joint Resolution 11. This legislation has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate. We know it faces an uphill battle as it’s opposed by Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, two walking billboards for the need for term limits. Did you see what happened this week with Senator Mitch McConnell? While we wish him the best of health, it’s clear that he’s been in the Senate way too long. Check it out.
This week has been good bipartisan cooperation and a string of…
That pause lasting for 19 seconds. The 81-year-old McConnell apparently suffering some sort of medical episode.
Hey, Mitch…
His colleagues clearly worried.
Anything else you wanna say or should we just go back to your office?
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who is also a doctor, escorted McConnell away from the podium and to his office.
In North Dakota, retired Congress announced that its petition has been approved for circulation for a statewide push for an amendment to the North Dakota state constitution that would prohibit anyone from North Dakota from older than 80 years old from being elected to Congress. The proposed amendment, if passed, would not impact any current North Dakota congressional officeholders eligible for the 2024 election cycle.
Retired Congress is launching this ballot initiative as the public questions the ability of leaders in Washington aged 80 or older, including Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Mitch McConnell. Without congressional term limits in our federal constitution preventing members from serving indefinitely, many in Congress hold their positions for life. Polling shows large numbers of Americans favor age term limits on members of Congress. They’re just serving too long. In Mississippi, there will be state legislative elections this year. So far, 55 legislative candidates have signed a US term limits pledge that if they’re elected to the state legislature, they will sponsor and vote for a resolution that will call for congressional term limits.
We expect even more candidates to sign as our Mississippi chair, Ron Eller, is working tirelessly to have the candidates sign. Mississippi will hold its primary on August 8th, so stay tuned. Joining this week to discuss what’s going on in Mississippi will be our state chair, Ron Eller.
Hi, today we’re with our state chairman from Mississippi, Ron Eller. He has been an outstanding chairman. I think he owns the record for getting the most pledges in one state as a state chairman. So we’re glad to have him with us today and on board for term limits. Good morning, Ron.
Good morning, Holly, It’s a pleasure to be with you and your audience this morning.
Super. So, hey, why did you first get involved with term limits?
It’s quite simple. When you look across our nation, we have term limits for governors, we have term limits for the president, the only folks that we really don’t have term limits on, are of course judges, which I don’t have a problem with, but people in our legislature. And that gives them power and promotes corruption. And I believe that we need to break that cycle of power and corruption. Not only do we need to have term limits against these folks, but there also needs to be legislation that says they can’t go to work for a lobbyist group once they leave the office.
Well, I hear you on that. So what term… What changes do you think would, if we pass term limits in Congress, what changes do you think would… That would bring about?
Well, the changes that it’s gonna bring about is it is gonna bring fresh ideas, fresh people into the fold. And it is gonna help decrease the influence that these long-term people have. When you look at people like Diane Feinstein, who recently came out that her staff actually does her voting for Mitch McConnell yesterday, he just locked up. We need the younger, wider minds out there. People that can lead from the front. These people are being led. They’re not leading.
Now, we have…
And a classic example of that would be our president.
Yeah. Well we have…
It’d be easy to film.
Yeah. We have now 55 people in Mississippi who signed the pledge that are running for the state legislature.
That’s true.
So I know you’ve been active in collecting them. When you are out there in the field what are people, what are candidates saying? What are people in Mississippi saying about term limits to you?
Well, the people of the state of Mississippi, they get this as a whole and most candidates do too. Occasionally, I’ll run into a candidate particularly somebody who is a long-term incumbent, and they’re like, No way am I touching this third rail. Well, like I tell ’em, This is the problem. We need to move forward as a people and as a nation. It’s not about being a Red America, a blue America, white America, black America, we’re all Americans. We’re in this together. We need to move forward for the common good of the nation.
Now, do you think with the legislative races coming up, that sign the term limits pledge will be kind of a make or break for candidates, that voters will take a look at that?
I hope that the voting populace will take a look at that. And in fact, I have one congressman who’s a seating congressman at the DC, I actually ran into him at the airport, got to ride back from Atlanta with him to Jackson recently. And he is now considering co-sponsoring or endorsing the term limits pledge that is up there, bill at Congress. And when I look across the nation, particularly across the state of Mississippi, there are several key races here going on, like our race for Lieutenant Governor, between Delbert Hosemann and Chris McDaniel. Now, I haven’t been able to really get much face time with Delbert Hosemann and to get his views on this. But Chris McDaniel, he’s a strong constitutional conservative and he has pledged a back us.
Dr. John Witcher, who’s running for Governor has pledged to back term limits and help push this through. And there are several great candidates out there, like Jeff Wallace, who’s running for state representative, Alan Sibley, Lauren Smith. They’re all getting in line saying, Yes, we know we need this and we know it’s for the betterment of the people and the state, Mississippi is one of the states that’s actually signed the convention of States agreement. I believe we were number 15. However, when that agreement was signed in the state of Mississippi, the people in Jackson at the state legislature actually removed the term limits part of that convention of states agreement for the State of Mississippi. Well, we’re working towards putting that back in there, as well as I’m talking to people about writing legislation to have term limits within our own state, our legislature. And it’s time that we make a change, it’s time to push term limits. That’s how we’re gonna save America.
Alright. Well, I know you are one of our most active chairman collecting pledges. You’re always out there collecting for us, and we thank you, Ron for all your work and for joining us today. Thank you so much.
It’s a pleasure to be with you. And remember, back those term limit pledge signers. It’s time that we make a change for America.
Alright, thank you so much.
Go to termlimits.com. And If you wanna follow my campaign, you can go to voteroneller.com, I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
In Mississippi, there’ll be a state legislative elections on August 8th. So far 55 legislative candidates have signed the US Term limits pledge that if they’re elected to the state legislature, they will sponsor and vote for a resolution that will call for congressional term limits. We expect even more candidates to sign as our Mississippi State Chair Ron Eller is working tirelessly to get candidates from both parties to sign our pledge. Mississippi’s elections will be August 8th. Stay tuned.
Now it’s time for the corrupt politician of the week. This week, United States Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina makes our list, elected in 2002 to succeed Strom Thurmond, who served 48 years in the Senate, Graham is no friend of term limits. Prior to being elected to the Senate, he served 10 years in the house. The Boston Globe reported that Graham was the only Republican recipient of money from a major democratic donor now facing scrutiny for some questionable campaign donation habits.
The Thornton Law Firm is nationally known for its expertise in asbestos related litigation. Over a 10 year period, Graham received $62,000 in campaign contributions from the firm’s partners. The Boston Globe found that the firm in almost every case, would reimburse partners political contributions in the exact amount within 10 days of them making the contributions, between 2010 and 2014, the firm’s partners and one of their wives contributed 1.6 million to politicians. 1.4 million was given back to the partners from the firm.
The firm told reporters that according to outside consultants, the practice was not unlawful because the checks are not bonuses. Instead, they’re coming out of the partners firm’s equity account. Really? We need term limits. Once again, we need term limits. It’s becoming clearer and clearer why we need congressional term limits. This week. Mitch McConnell was a prime example. While we wish him the best of health, his flub showed why staying in Congress too long is not helpful. We can make this happen. We can pass term limits. We’ve got the American people with us, but we need your help. Please go to termlimits.org and get involved today and be sure to share this program every week with your friends and family. And tune in next week. This is Holly Robichaud with US Term Limits Breaking News. See you next week.