For immediate release
February 27, 2017
Contact: James Alvarado
Georgia State Director, US Term Limits
Phone: 321-697-2895
Email: jalvarado@termlimits.com
Atlanta, GA – U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the leader in the national, nonpartisan movement to limit terms for elected officials is proud of the support congressional term limit commitments it has received from 23 state lawmakers in Georgia. Last Friday, four more state house representatives signed the term limits convention pledge. Brad Raffensperger (GA-50), Bill Hitchens (GA-161), Todd Jones (GA-25), and Park Cannon (GA-58) all committed to supporting a term limits constitutional amendment proposal through the states via an Article V convention.
Recently, State House Representatives Paul Battles (GA-16), Dale Rutledge (GA-109), Kevin Cooke (GA-28), Steve Tarvin (GA-2), David Stover (GA-71), and Jeff Jones (GA-167), Rep. Heath Clark (GA-147), Rep. Kasey Carpenter (GA-4), Rep. Joyce Chandler (GA-105), Rep. Karen Mathiak (GA-73), Rep. Buzz Brockway (GA-102) John Pezold (GA-133), Don Hogan (GA-179), and David Clark (GA-98) all signed the Term Limits Convention pledge. In addition, late last year, pledge takers included Georgia State House Representatives, Emory Dunahoo, Jr. (GA-30), Wes Cantrell (GA-22), Micah Gravely (GA-67), Jason Spencer (GA-180), and Michael Caldwell (GA-20).
Just last session, the Georgia Senate passed SR195 calling for the term limits convention. This session, the resolution must pass the House Rules committee and then the full House in order for Georgia to be counted among the 34 states required to call the amendment proposal convention. Unfortunately, it has been held up stagnant in the Georgia House Rules committee for more than a year and time is running out in the 2018 legislative session which is expected to come to a close before the end of March. If Georgia misses the mark, the progress in the Senate will be lost and the resolutions in both chambers must start over from scratch.
USTL President, Philip Blumel, commented on the emerging support, saying, “The tremendous support for term limits among Georgia lawmakers shows that there are candidates and seated legislators who are willing to listen to the majority of voters who want term limits. America needs a Congress that will be served by citizen legislators, not career politicians.”
The U.S. Term Limits Article V Pledge is provided to candidates and members of the state legislatures. It reads, “I pledge, that as a member of the state legislature, I will support and vote for the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the limited purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.”
In the 1995 case, Thornton v. U.S. Term Limits, the Supreme Court of the United States opined that only a Constitutional Amendment could limit the terms of U.S. Senators and House Representatives. According to Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of USTL, the best chance of imposing term limits on congress is through an Article V Convention of state legislatures. “The Constitution allows for amendments to be proposed by either 2/3 of Congress or 2/3 of the states. While we’d like for Congress to take the high road and impose limits on itself, our goal is to trigger the latter, a term limits convention,” claims Tomboulides. “That is why it is important to get buy-in from state legislators,” he added. Once proposed, the amendment must be ratified by 38 states to be part of the Constitution.
Blumel noted, “More than 84% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership. The way to achieve that goal is through a congressional term limits amendment. These Georgia legislators know this and are willing to work to make sure we reach our goal.”
According to the last nationwide poll on term limits conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, conducted in January 2018, term limits enjoys wide bipartisan support. McLaughlin’s analysis states, “Support for term limits is broad and strong across all political, geographic and demographic groups. An overwhelming 82% of voters approve of a Constitutional Amendment that will place term limits on members of Congress.”
###
________________
U.S. Term Limits is the largest, grassroots term limits activist group in the country focused on imposing term limits on the U.S. Congress. Find out more about our non-partisan, non-profit organization at termlimits.org.