I’ve got great news for us today. We passed the Senate floor in Indiana. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud, and this is US Term Limits. Breaking news. You heard it right. Senate Joint Resolution 21, which proposes a congressional term limits amendment to the US constitution and led by State Senator Andy Zay, passed the Senate floor in Indiana. The next step will be a committee hearing in the House. Stay tuned for further details. We don’t only have great news coming out of Indiana, where we’re halfway through the process, but we’ve also got great news coming out of South Dakota. South Dakota passed House Joint Resolution 5002, led by Representative Taylor Rehfeldt in the State Affairs Committee. We’re really pleased with their work. Let’s keep it going. We’d like to thank representative Cally Forrest Jr in South Carolina for his work. House Concurrent Resolution 3008 passed the Judiciary Committee. Let’s keep it going in South Carolina. Following in South Carolina’s footsteps is Arizona State Representative Steve Montenegro filed House Concurrent Resolution 2041, which also passed a Judiciary Committee. Let’s keep it all going. As you may suspect, we have several states that have filed their bills to join the growing roster of states calling for a convention for proposing a congressional term limits amendment to the US Constitution.
Additionally, we’ve also have several statewide RMG poll results. Stay tuned to find out what’s going on. Kansas State Representative Bill Sutton filed House Concurrent Resolution 5001. They need to pass this in Kansas because 80% of Kansas voters support congressional term limits. That’s right, 80%. In Nebraska, State Senator Loren Lippincott filed Legislative Resolution 21. And in Nebraska, we’ve got 81% of voters wanting congressional term limits. That’s Right, 81%. So let’s get it done Nebraska. In Mississippi, State Representative Fred Shanks filed House Concurrent Resolution 12. And in Mississippi, 75% of the voters support congressional term limits. Let’s go Mississippi. In the Peach state of Georgia, State Senator Bill Cowsert has filed Senate Resolution 23. As you can imagine, a whopping 79% of Georgians support congressional term limits. But that’s not all. We have several more statewide RMG research polls, including South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Idaho, Ohio, Arkansas and New Hampshire. Go check them out at termlimits.com/research. Check them out. You’ll be impressed. We are off to an incredibly strong start for term limits in 2025. And speaking of that, we’re pleased to announce new State Chair. We want to welcome Tim Knopp as our new Oregon State Co-chair between the State House and the State Senate.
Knopp not only served as a combined 18 years in the Oregon Legislature, but he held leadership positions in both chambers. He’s a native to the state and lives in central Oregon for the past 45 years. We know that working with alongside with our Co-chair Andrew Kalik, he will be able to see that Oregon adopts the Term limits resolution. So welcome aboard, Tim. From all the stories that I’ve shared with you over the years, we know that incumbents rarely call for term limits on themselves. That’s why this story is so refreshing coming out of Georgia. In Forsyth county, the Commission has asked the county’s legislative delegation to propose legislation that would change the county charter and allow for, you guessed it, term limits. That’s right, elected officials are asking for term limits. Way to go Georgia. In Florida, we’re following an interesting story regarding Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. She was a pledge signer originally, but has become a pledge breaker on our issue in a recent turn of events. She’s under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations that she violated campaign finance laws and her company is being sued by the state of Florida.
In 2020, she ran in a crowded 11 person primary for an open congressional seat of the late Alcee Hastings. During the campaign, she loaned her campaign $4 million. She won the primary by a whopping five votes. Now, it’s not unusual that candidates loan their campaigns money. What makes the story so interesting is that her income jumped from 86,000 in 2020 to $6 million in 2021. Talk about a salary increase. How did this happen? Florida’s Division of Emergency Management says in a lawsuit filed late last month that it overpaid the company run by representative Cherfilus-McCormick by 100 times the amount it was owed. The money was then used to send self fund her successful bid for the house in 2021. That’s right. This overpayment was used to fund her campaign. According to the lawsuit, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management had intended to pay Trinity Health Care, where the Congresswoman was the CEO, $50,000 to assist with its Covid vaccination efforts, but instead paid out $5 million. Trinity cashed that check and several others, says the lawsuit, for a total of $5.7 million in overpayments despite the fact that they knew this was an error, but has since refused to repay the money.
That’s taxpayer money. Now, news about another trial. Closing arguments have begun in the Michael Madigan trial in Illinois. As you may recall, Madigan, a former Illinois state House speaker, who is the longest serving State House Speaker ever, 36 years and served five decades in the Legislature, faces 23 federal charges of corruption. Madigan took the stand and in his defense, denied everything of course. Closing arguments are now underway. Now it’s time for your favorite segment. Our corrupt politician, and this time it’s US Senator Jerry Moran from Kansas. Senator Moran was first elected to the Senate in 2010. Prior to that, he had been a member of the United States House from 1997 until his election to the Senate. Before serving in Congress, he had been a member of the Kansas State senate, serving from 1989 and until his election to the United States House. The New York Times reports that Senator Moran was a member of the Senate Banking Committee. He and his wife individually bought or sold shares of Bancorp, bank of America and Wells Fargo. As a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, he bought shares of Amazon and Intel and sold Apple shares.
Our favorite day of the year is coming up. It’s February 27th, and it is National Term Limits Day. Be sure to mark your calendars. Why is February 27th National Term Limits Day? It commemorates the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, which imposed term limits on the President of the United States. Ironically, it was designed so it excluded incumbent President Harry S. Truman, who had been President since April of 1945 following the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Yet Truman, a supporter of term limits for both Congress and the president, limited himself and decided not to run in 1952. If term limits is good enough for the president, then it’s good enough for Congress. And we celebrate National Term limits day on February 27th. Be sure to check out those polls that I mentioned earlier in the show because we are gaining momentum. Everybody wants congressional term limits. We can make it a reality. We’ve got the momentum, but we need your help. Please go to termlimits.org and get involved today and be sure to share this program with your family and friends. This is Holly Robichaud for US term limits breaking news. I’ll see you soon with more good news.