For immediate release
January 23, 2017
Contact: James Alvarado
Georgia State Director, US Term Limits
Phone: 321-697-2895
Email: jalvarado@termlimits.com
Washington, D.C. – 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 limits is receiving from state lawmakers and candidates in Georgia.
Last week, State House Representatives John Pezold (HD ), Don Hogan (HD 179), and David Clark (HD 98) all signed the Term Limits Convention pledge. In addition, late last year, pledge takers included Georgia State House Representatives, Emory Dunahoo, Jr. (HD 30), Wes Cantrell (HD 22), Micah Gravely (HD 67), Jason Spencer (HD 180), and Michael Caldwell (HD 20) as well as State Senator Greg Dolezal (HD 27). Three Georgia House candidates have also taken the pledge: Ellen Diehl (HD 81), Doug Chanco (HD 50), Zach Procter (HD 102) and Bryan Dobbs (HD 19) and State Senate candidate Matt Reeves (District 48) . Joining them in the congressional term limits fervor, Gubernatorial Candidates Sen. Hunter Hill and Marc Alan Urbach also signed the Governer’s term limits pledge.
Just last session, the Georgia Senate passed SR195 calling for the term limits convention. This legislative session, the resolution must pass the House in order for Georgia to be counted among the 34 states required to call the amendment proposal convention.
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 75% 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 Gallup, the issue enjoys wide bipartisan support. The results demonstrate that 75% of Americans support congressional term limits. Gallup’s analysis states, “Republicans and Independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue. Further, Gallup finds no generational differences in support for the proposal.”
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