Philip Blumel: Term limits won the midterm elections once again.
Philip Blumel: Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits Movement for the week of November 28th, 2022.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: At US Term Limits, we’re continuing to parse the midterm elections for results which affect our efforts to try to term limit politicians across the country. In a previous podcast, we discussed the record number of pledge signers that are now in office in both Congress and the state legislatures who are committed in writing to support specific term limits measures. In the mission to term limit the US Congress, this is the most important metric. But, term limits themselves are on the ballot across the country too. We discussed the crowning victory of 2022, the imposition of term limits on the 16th state legislature. In North Dakota, citizens put 8-year term limits for the legislature and the governor on the ballot and over 63% of the voters approved the measure on November 8th, and now term limits are the law of the land in yet another state. But we also counted 24 other term limits measures on the ballot across the country, and of these, term limits won 83% of the time.
Philip Blumel: That is, in 21 of 25 cases that we unearthed. And these wins were with enthusiasm. Voters overwhelmingly approved stricter limits by as much as 83% in these referenda. And when we lost, the margins were as narrow as 2%. There were term limits measures on the ballot in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. Clearly, term limits continue to sweep America. One election after the next, we see this result with handfuls of new measures that are mostly overwhelmingly approved. Just to give you an example of the kind of measures we’re talking about here, choosing almost randomly from this page, the California case of Bakersfield, Measure J passed with 70.55% of the vote. This was a measure that called for a board of supervisor term limits. So two 4-year terms, 8-year term limits passed with 70% of the vote in Bakersfield, California. One closer to home for me in South Florida is Deerfield Beach, Florida. Now this was interesting because this was a case of the politicians putting a measure on the ballot that would weaken the existing term limits. The existing term limits, 8-year term limits, had been put on the ballot by citizens some years back.
Philip Blumel: Politicians don’t like ’em, old story there, and put a referendum on the ballot in order to weaken them. And this was shot down. 72.78% of the voters said, “No, we like it just the way it is.” That’s not too surprising. And it’s not surprising because of the way that the measure language was worded, because it was straightforward. It basically said that the term limits are currently eight years, this measure if passed would make them 12. Voters said no. In the cases where term limits lose across the country, and this is again true this year, most of the cases where term limits lose, it’s because politicians use clever language to confuse the issue so that term limits supporters aren’t sure which is the pro-term limits vote. We talked in an earlier podcast also about the unfortunate loss in Michigan on a statewide measure where term limits were weakened there from six years in the House and eight years in the Senate to 12 years in the House and 12 years in the Senate. That was made possible because this was not made clear in the language that this is what was going to occur. It was a very long measure with a lot of different types of features, including anti-corruption measures and restrictions on lobbyists and this and that and everything.
Philip Blumel: And mixed in that was the weakening of term limits. And even then, the language was not clear that this was what the measure would do. So to win against term limits, politicians have to be sly. But when the language is really clear, like it was here in Florida, the voters look at it, they understand it, they support term limits, and so the result you get is consistent with that. Another example, Baltimore, Maryland, Question K, limited the mayor, comptroller, city council president and city council members to two consecutive terms. That’s eight years during any 12-year period, that won with 72.17% of the vote. So this is just another election year for term limits that citizens will put term limits on the ballot or politicians put anti-term limits measures on the ballot, and the voters vote for term limits. So every election that goes by, we see more and more policies across the country adopting term limits. This continues to be a reform that has never stopped sweeping the nation since the movement really got underway in the early 1990s. It’s no wonder why, when you see the power of incumbency, like we saw in the midterms in the case of the US Congress, where just shy of 95% of incumbents running for their own seat were returned to office and 100% in the US Senate. Of course, there’s still an outstanding election in Georgia that’s going to take place. Nonetheless, the need for term limits remains as clear as ever.
Speaker 3: This is a public service announcement.
Philip Blumel: Reporting on the 95% re-election of incumbents running for their own seat in the House, CBS News Boston ran a segment of ‘Question Everything’ that explored the possibility of enacting term limits to solve the problem. Holly Robichaud represented US term limits on the program, noting that incumbent advantage is overwhelming and term limits would level the playing field.
Speaker 4: Incumbents always do well. They’ve got huge advantages which can lead to careers that last decades. For example, of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, about 95% of incumbents won. In tonight’s Question Everything, one of our viewers, Chris Kay, asked, “It’s self-serving for politicians to not talk about term limits, but why can’t it be a discussion?” David Wade went looking for answers.
David Wade: This is not your grandfather’s Congress, or is it? Right now, we have the oldest Congress in history. The average age is 59. That’s 20 years older than the average American. But this is not a story about age. It’s a story about power. Power corrupts. BU professor Thomas Whalen is a presidential historian and author. He says debate over term limits started with our forefathers. The Constitution did not call for term limits, thanks in part to founding father James Madison.
Thomas Whalen: James Madison argued fairly articulately that he said, “Well, wouldn’t we be depriving ourselves of all these leaders’ experience that they have acquired in serving their nations?” So that argument seemed to carry the day.
David Wade: A win for experience, but how much is too much? Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has been in Congress 47 years. Senator Ed Markey, 45 years. Chuck Schumer, 41 years. Senator Mitch McConnell, 37 years. Which would all be fine if the system is working, but is it? At the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown, we met people who are hungry for change, like Dave Malosi. Do you think the system right now is working?
Dave Malosi: No. [laughter] I don’t know if anyone would say yes to that question.
David Wade: Meghan, Elizabeth and Heidi told me they fully support term limits.
Meghan: The system doesn’t work. Something needs to be done. So if term limits is that first step, then term limits is that first step. But this is… You’re not supposed to make a career out of this.
Elizabeth: It’s even more important at the Senate level because they’re there six years.
David Wade: I reached out to every member of the Massachusetts delegation about term limits and four responded. Senator Warren said she doesn’t believe in term limits. Senator Markey said there are term limits. They’re called elections. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said no to arbitrary term limits, but yes to real campaign finance reform. Congressman James McGovern said voters should be the one to decide how long elected officials serve.
James McGovern: Obviously none of them believe in term limits.
David Wade: According to a recent poll, 80% of Americans want Congress to have term limits. 80%.
Holly Robichaud: And this is actually one of those issues where Republicans and Democrats and unenrolled all agree on it, that there should be term limits.
David Wade: Holly Robichaud works with US Term Limits. The organization has worked for years for a term limits amendment. Holly says things have changed since our founding fathers wrote the Constitution.
Holly Robichaud: Well, they didn’t envision what the campaign system has become. 90% of the money from PACs and lobbyists go to incumbents. It makes it almost impossible for a challenger to win. So by implementing term limits you’re creating a level playing field for people to go out there and get elected.
David Wade: Not to go all Schoolhouse Rock on you, but if you thought passing a bill was involved, a constitutional amendment takes two-thirds of both branches of Congress to vote yes and then three-fourths of all states to ratify it.
Thomas Whalen: And given how divided our country is right now politically, that has a snowball’s chance and you know where of succeeding.
Speaker 12: Yeah, we know where.
Speaker 4: Incredible. Strom Thurmond, before he died, was in state elected office or federal office for 70 years.
Speaker 12: 70. [laughter]
Speaker 4: There can’t be an issue that the public and elected officials are more split on.
Speaker 12: Oh there’s no question. 80% of Americans. I don’t know what poll you could do out there and get 80% of Americans to agree on anything. They wouldn’t agree on the color of the sky, but they agree on this. But the bottom line is, there’s never gonna be an amendment. The people who would have to pass it are the politicians themselves. Even when you talk about the type of… You know, you could have two-thirds of the states propose a constitutional convention, even then it’s the state lawmakers who would decide this. It’s never going to happen and it’s pretty upsetting for a lot of people.
Speaker 4: The mechanisms are gunked up basically.
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Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The Term Limits Convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the Term Limits Movement. To check on the status of the Term Limits Convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There, you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a take action button by your state. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you’re watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the Term Limits Convention resolution or the bill’s not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It is our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress, and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: Find us on most social media at US Term Limits. Like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and now