We have breaking news. Another US House incumbent signs our pledge, but that’s not all. We have a plethora of exciting news happening in favor of US term limits movement this year. So in today’s episode of US Term Limits Breaking News, we’re going to count down our top three successes in 2023. Stay tuned to find out. I’m Holly Robichaud with breaking news on term limits.
Representative Gus Bilirakis from Tampa, Florida area just signed the US Term Limits Pledge. He has been a co-sponsor for a couple of Congresses, but now he has also signed our pledge, earning him a grade of A from our legislative scorecard. Thank you, Representative. Legislative candidates across the nation of all political stripes are seeing the popularity that supporting term limits has with voters. This past week, we saw an additional 24, 2024 legislative candidates sign our pledge, and it will continue to surge each week as we get closer to the elections. This past week, we saw an additional 10 congressional candidates sign the US Term Limits Pledge. With record number of candidates signing the pledge for the 2024 election cycle, that number will increase even further and may, by the election day, be the highest number ever. Number three, with North Carolina and Tennessee passing our term limits resolution in their respective houses, we are well positioned to pass in both state senates.
Two more states, Indiana and Louisiana, have high percentage term limits champions in their legislatures. Number two, for the first time in decades, our term limits resolution had a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. House Joint Resolution 11 proposes a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms a Congress may serve. In 2023, there were 135 bipartisan term limit pledge signers in Congress, including the 56th Speaker of the House, Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District. In 2016, Johnson signed the US Term Limits Pledge, promising to co-sponsor and vote in favor of our term limit resolution. This is the first time in history we’ve had a pro-term limits pledge signer as Speaker of the House. Now for number one. We passed the Sooner State. That’s right, our Article 5 resolution to call for a convention for the purpose of term limits amendment handily passed in Oklahoma. We now have six states in the win column, with many more to come in 2024. In Maryland’s open sixth congressional Democratic primary, an RMG research poll of Democratic primary voters found that 82% of likely voters supported congressional term limits. In the crowded Democratic field, Tekesha Martinez leads with 6%. When voters were asked who they would support if they knew that Joe Vogel backed congressional term limits and other candidates opposed him, he leaps from 3% to 18% while Martinez falls from 6% to 4%.
In Delaware, a poll conducted by RMG research shows that 81% of respondents support congressional term limits and 77% of respondents would favor the Delaware legislature in passing a resolution calling for an amendment proposing a convention to enact congressional term limits. That’s right, even in Delaware. In Texas’s 32nd congressional district, RMG research polled Democratic primary voters and found that 86% of respondents support congressional term limits. According to the poll, Julie Johnson leads the field at 9%. However, when respondents found out she doesn’t support congressional term limits but one of her opponents, Brian Williams, does, Williams goes from 4% support to 34% and Johnson drops to 6%. Monmouth University released a poll on congressional leadership and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular congressional leader with just a 6% approval rating. 60% disapprove and 34% are undecided. His Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer scores only 21% approval and a 41% disapproval and 38% have no opinion. When they block legislation like Senate Joint Resolution 2 filed by Senator Ted Cruz, the US Term Limit Amendment, they seem to forget that 87% of Americans overwhelmingly support congressional term limits. This leaves no question as to why their scores continue to fall.
Now it’s time for an update on Senator Bob Gold bar Menendez. The New Republic reported that Menendez is dining well at Morton Steakhouse as he faces federal bribery charges. Morton’s in Washington is known as a high-end steakhouse for many of the DC elite where the average steak price is $64. Menendez is known to dine there frequently but not on his dime. As of early 2021, he had billed his campaign treasury and assortment of other political committees about $300,000 for meals and catering at Morton’s. Since then, the federal commission records show that he has charged another $74,000 there. But Morton’s is just the tip of the iceberg for Gold bar Bob. During the past two decades he has dished out about 4.3 million from his campaign account and his super PAC, the New Millennium Leadership, for food, drink, and catering, travel, and other lifestyle enhances. This works out to be an average of more than $200,000 per year, well above the current annual senate salary of $174,000. And a special fact, is it’s all tax-free.
Now it’s time for the corrupt politician of the week, and this week, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran makes our list. He was a member of the Kansas State House from 1989 to 1997, and then he served in the United States House of Representatives until his election to the United States Senate in 2010. Collectively, he has been in elective office for over 69 years. As you can imagine, he is no proponent of term limits. He is no stranger to dubious stock transactions as well. While on the Senate Banking Committee, both he and his wife bought and sold stocks in US Bancorp, Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo. As a member of the Senate Science, Commerce, and Transportation Committee, he just happened to sell and buy stocks in Apple and Amazon. Now, the New York Times cites him for 21 conflicts of interest with 38 different companies. Like much of Congress, there are rules for you, but not for me.
How many more polls do we need showing that the Americans, us, we want congressional term limits? We can make this reality. We’ve got the momentum, but we need your help to put on the pressure to have Congress do the right thing. So we need you to get involved. Please go to termlimits.org and get involved today. And be sure to share this program with your friends and family every week. This is Holly Robichaud for US Term Limits Breaking News. I’ll see you next week.