Philip Blumel: Corruption in McKinney. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the term Limits Movement. This is episode 247, published on September 23rd, 2024.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Sometimes when I report on politicians and their reaction to term limits, I feel like Rocky the Squirrel when Bullwinkle would ask if we wanted to see him pull a rabbit out of a hat. I’ll explain. In McKinney, Texas, city council members are limited to two terms or eight years in office, the most common and time-tested term limit in the United States. But council members, including and perhaps particularly the mayor, want to stay longer. So they put a proposition on the November ballot to weaken the term limits to 12 years.
Rocky: Again?
Philip Blumel: Yes, Rocky. The same old story yet again. The problem is that the voters in McKinney, like everywhere else, love term limits. And the council members know it full well. So if they simply put a measure on the ballot that stated it would weaken the existing term limits from 8 to 12 years, voters would reject it, as they do everywhere. So McKinney council members are pulling an old, old trick. They have created deceptive ballot language to try to fool pro-term limits voters into voting for an anti-term limits measure.
Rocky: Again?
Philip Blumel: Yes, yet again. Regular listeners will recall we just covered a similar case in Wilsonville, Oregon in June. Politicians in nearby Allen, Texas just tried to pull this exact same scam in 2021 as well. But I could offer hundreds examples. Every election cycle, there’s more. So here’s how the standard ballot scam works. We’ll use the specific language of McKinney as the example. Here’s what voters will see on the ballot. Shall Section 9 of the McKinney City Charter be amended to provide that mayor and city council members shall have term limits consisting of three consecutive four-year terms beginning with the 2025 election?
Philip Blumel: Well, this seems straightforward, but it’s missing one crucial bit of information. McKinney already has voter-approved eight-year term limits. This language implies that the measure is enacting term limits. The reality is that the measure is weakening existing term limits. This permits the anti-term limits forces to claim to support term limits. This permits pro-term limits voters, many new to McKinney or don’t spend all that time thinking about local politics, to be tricked into thinking this is a pro-term limits measure. Hence, the anti-term limits forces can say, oh, vote yes for term limits. And the voters respond, well, yes, of course, I want to enact term limits.
Philip Blumel: I should note about 80,000 people have moved to McKinney since the last charter revision in 2011 when the eight-year term limits went into effect. Now, don’t think for one second that council members don’t know this. Don’t think that council members didn’t wrestle with the idea on how to make voters who support term limits vote to weaken them. Of course, they looked to other cities across Texas and the whole United States for successful models to deceive the voters in this manner. They found them. It’s clear McKinney council voters did their homework because they also tried other common hat tricks that we’re used to seeing. First, they tried to put the anti-term limits measure on the May ballot, where they could expect dramatically lower turnout.
Philip Blumel: This is important because the mass of voters support term limits, but only a small and more select group usually vote in purely municipal elections. Voters in municipal elections include the major local constituencies, including the local special interests. These groups have interests much more aligned with the incumbent politicians from which their favors flow. Now, fortunately, the council was stymied in this attempt by alert citizens. Led by local activists like Tom McCarron, citizens raised hell about sticking the deceptive measure on the May ballot, and they won. Well, another game we often see played by politicians seeking to weaken or abolish term limits is to call upon a hand-picked charter review commission to independently call for weakening term limits. They do this in order to provide broader cover for what is essentially a purely self-interested action.
Philip Blumel: Yes, they tried this in McKinney too, but oops, again, they were blocked. The charter review commission called up by the council in May of this year couldn’t agree and ended up tabling the issue. They were quiet on the term limits, so now the council has no mandate from the charter review commission. So what do they have? The council has a deceptive ballot measure to serve their personal self-interest, and of course they have the ability to put it on the ballot by a simple vote, without any call for it from voters or a commission or anything else. This places a burden on voters to expose the scam. For council members, it’s just a roll of the dice. Maybe this will slide by if no one notices. But for voters who know what’s going on, that means there’s work to be done. But let me tell you something from experience. It’s worth the effort. This trick sometimes works when citizens are unaware of it. A city will put it on the ballot. There’s no opposition. Nobody really brings to anyone’s attention, and it slides through.
Philip Blumel: But I’ll tell you, it almost always fails if citizens are alerted. US term limits keeps an eye on local term limits measures across the country best we can, and we see that term limits win over 80% of the time. And by win, I mean new term limits are enacted by voters and anti-term limits scams like this one are rejected. For example, let’s look at what happened in nearby Allen, Texas in 2021. In Allen, the council put a measure on the ballot to weaken term limits, also called Proposition A, just like this one, that used the same deceptive language being used in McKinney. Signs popped up around Allen saying, vote for term limits, vote for Proposition A, as if Prop A was a pro-term limits measure. Ah, but local opposition emerged to alert voters of the scam. They pointed out that Allen already had term limits, and the anti-term limits measure in Allen was being financially backed by the mayor of Allen, former council members and candidates, and also local real estate developers, that is, special interests in the town.
Philip Blumel: Well, the voters woke up to the scam in time, and Allen’s Prop A scam was defeated by about 57% of the vote. That’s the way it works. And in McKinney, local opposition is rising also. McKinney resident Tom McCarron, who I mentioned earlier, who helped keep the scam off the May ballot, has started a vote no campaign against Proposition A. He calls it a self-serving power grab. And so it is. Another McKinney resident, Bridget Wallace, notes on her McKinney citizen-to-citizen website that the immediate beneficiaries of McKinney’s proposed change from two to three terms are Mayor George Fuller and out-large councilman Charlie Phillips. Without the changes in November, both men will be term limited out of office in May of 2025. Mayor Fuller voted with the majority in the five-to-one vote to send the scam to voters. Phillips didn’t vote. Kudos here to Council member Justin Beller for his lone no vote. Now, eight-year term limits are the time-tested consensus term limit in the United States.
Philip Blumel: From the president, 37 state governors, our 16 term-limited state legislatures, and an uncountable number of municipalities across the country, eight years is by far the most common term limit. The eight-year term limit has shown itself to be effective in encouraging rotation in office, competitive elections, less corruption, greater transparency, and better representation. It balances the need for these things with the need for experienced legislators. So we have to ask the question, is there something so special, so irreplaceable about the McKinney City Council that warrants an extension of their limits? No. McKinney Council members are acting in their own narrow personal self-interest at the expense of their city, and the fact that they would stoop to deception to do so justifies the title of this podcast episode, Corruption in McKinney.
Philip Blumel: Next. As listeners know, US term limits asks congressional and state legislative candidates and incumbents to sign a pledge promising to cosponsor and vote for congressional term limits. Specifically, congress members are asked to commit to the US term limits constitutional amendment. State legislators are asked to commit to their state resolution calling for an amendment proposing convention under Article V of the US Constitution limited to the subject of congressional term limits. Here’s a short clip from Holly Robichaud from her Breaking News on Term Limits YouTube program. Holly keeps close tabs on the pledge program and offers us some good news.
Holly Robichaud: The message for congressional term limits is getting out at the state level, and the response has been enormous, as you can imagine. An additional 56 2024 state legislative candidates signed our pledge over the past two weeks. That’s right, 56. We anticipate that after November, we will have a record number of state legislators and members of Congress in office who have signed the US term limits pledge. And this is happening because of people like you who support term limits and the power of your vote at the ballot box. I also wanna thank our pledge team who’s out there working every day to get these pledges.
Philip Blumel: Yes, indeed. Thanks, Holly. Speaking of pledges, don’t you think voters should be informed if a sitting politician signs or refuses to sign a US term limits pledge to cosponsor and support congressional term limits? Don’t voters deserve to know which politicians signed such a pledge as a candidate and then renege on it after they get elected? You’re not alone. Term Limits Action is a political action committee which runs as educating voters about the bad apples. Here are two quick examples regarding New York Congress member Claudia Tenney and Wisconsin Representative Derrick Van Orden.
Speaker 5: When Claudia Tenney wanted your vote, she signed the US term limits pledge. But now Congresswoman Claudia Tenney is breaking her US term limits pledge. Term Limits Action is responsible for the content of this advertising. Diapers in politicians must be changed often and for the same reason. And already something stinks about Derek Van Orden. Now politician Van Orden is breaking his US term limits pledge. Term Limits Action is responsible for the content of this advertising.
Philip Blumel: Now, Term Limits Action has a YouTube channel to archive their work. If you live in the congressional district represented by Tenney or Van Orden or any of the other politicians highlighted on the channel, you can help educate voters yourself by forwarding or posting the links to the relevant videos to your networks.
Stacey Selleck: Like the show? You can help by subscribing and leaving a five-star review on both Apple and Spotify. It’s free.
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/take action.
Philip Blumel: 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/take action. If your state has already passed the Term Limits Convention resolution or the bill has 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.com/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, Instagram, and now LinkedIn.
Speaker 7: USTL.