Philip Blumel: Rot in the big apple, yet another term limits opponent indicted on corruption charges. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the term Limits Movement. This is episode number 248, published on October 7th, 2024.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from Partisan Politics.
Philip Blumel: Of course, I’m referring to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor Adams has been indicted on five counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and bribery charges. Prosecutors allege Adams has a 10 year history of corruption starting when he was elected official in Brooklyn and continuing after he was elected mayor. Specifically prosecutors say Adams accepted airline flights worth $100,000 free stays in opulent hotel suites and expensive meals, as well as campaign contributions from straw donors, some of which helped him qualify for more than $10 million in matching public campaign funds. The gifts came from Turkish officials and US attorneys allege “this was a multi-year scheme to buy favor from a single New York City official on the rise.”
Philip Blumel: Naturally, I don’t have any special information regarding Mayor Adams that the prosecutors haven’t shared with the media. I didn’t see this coming, but we at term limits weren’t surprised either. In fact, mayor Adams had already triggered our suspicions at US term limits during his 2021 mayoral campaign. During that campaign, mayor Adams was the only major candidate who had refused to pledge to protect the existing eight year term limit for New York City mayor and city Council. The pledge read “I pledge as mayor to veto any legislation to repeal or lengthen the eight year term limits to which elected officials in New York City are subject.” Well, Adam’s rivals in the Democratic primary. That was Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang, Shaun Donovan, and Raymond McGuire all signed this pledge. According to polling at the time, 77% of voters said it was important to them that the next mayor of New York City protect and defend the city’s eight year term limits law.
Philip Blumel: Okay, there’s history here. In 2008, the City Council of New York, not the voters of course on the advice of then Mayor Michael Bloomberg weakened term limits from eight to 12 years for the purpose of allowing Mayor Bloomberg and the council members to seek a third term. This blatantly self-interested move triggered a backlash and city voters restored the eight year limit by a landslide margin in 2010. Now, let’s take a step back. New Yorkers have a long history of backing term limits referenda. In a 1993 initiative led by philanthropist, Ronald Lauder voters established eight year term limits in an 18 point landslide. Then in 1996, voters rejected a measure which would have weakened the limit to 12 years, and then in 2010, voters restored the eight year term limit that the Bloomberg Council had repealed, and in 2018, voters resoundly adopted an eight year term limit for members of community boards.
Philip Blumel: With this history as context, mayor Adams consciously bucked voters on an issue in which the prime beneficiary was Mayor Adams himself. Not a good sign, and if you’re a regular listener, you know that this bad omen has a lot of predictive power. Alright, let’s get back to the indictment as shared by the Associated Press. Alright, I’m quoting here. “Prosecutors allege that Adam sought and accepted illegal contributions funneled to his campaign through an unnamed official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment. The official arranged for Adams and his companions to receive free or discounted travel on Turkey’s national airline to destinations including France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, and Turkey. Additionally, Adams sought contributions from foreign officials who are banned by law from donating to US political candidates then “compounded his gains” by gaming the city’s matching funds program, which provides a generous match for small dollar donations. Prosecutors alleged. In total, his campaign received more than $10 million in matching public funds, which are only supposed to be available to candidates who play by the rules according to the indictment.
Philip Blumel: In September, 2021, a Turkish official told Adams it was time to repay him for the contributions and benefits by pressuring the fire department to facilitate the opening of the consulate without a fire inspection, in time for a visit by Turkey’s president according to prosecutors, that request would’ve been a few months before Adams took office, but after it was clear that he had become mayor. Even after a fire department official warn that major defects at the consulate building had left it “unsafe to occupy” Adams pushed safety officials to allow it to open. Days later, Adams relayed news of the approval to the Turkish official who called Adams a true friend of Turkey the indictment states, Adams responded, you are my brother. I’m here to help. According to the indictment, several months later, the Turkish official messaged an Adams staffer with another request. That the mayor “not making any statement about the Armenian genocide,” ahead of April remembrance day according to the indictment.
Philip Blumel: The staffer confirmed that Adams wouldn’t mention it and he didn’t. The Turkish government denies that the 1915 killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians qualifies as a genocide. At times, Adams created and instructed others to create fake paper trails in order to falsely suggest he had paid for travel benefits that were actually free. Prosecutors allege he also deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct. At one point, assuring a co-conspirator that he always deleted her text messages according to the indictment. The US attorney said the corruption investigation would continue and additional charges and indictments are expected. Alright, enough of the details from the Associated Press. The punchline is that when faced with the charges, the mayor stated firmly that he intended to stay in office. No surprise there. We already knew the high value placed on staying in office and now we know a little bit about why.
Philip Blumel: Next. Just to put a nice frame around the Mayor Adams indictment, it turns out that the very same week he was indicted his fellow term limits foe. Ed Burke reported to prison in Thompson, Illinois to serve his sentence for racketeering, bribery and extortion. You may remember Ed Burke, he was the longest serving alderman in Chicago history who represented Chicago’s Southwest side since 1969. We featured Burke in one of our corruption Chronicles segments a few years back. Let’s revisit the Ed Burke saga as it was unfolding.
Speaker 2: Corruption.
Philip Blumel: On January 2nd, 2019. The FBI lodged a 37 page criminal complaint against Edward Burke, a 50 year incumbent on Chicago City Council. Since 1983, he has chaired the city’s powerful finance committee and during that time, he has apparently also been using his position to shake down individuals and companies for money. For much of 2017, federal agents followed him around and recorded his phone calls and eventually raided his office. The FBI say that Burke insisted that a chain effect of fast food restaurants, including a Burger king hire his law firm klafter and Burke to handle their tax affairs in Illinois. Burger King didn’t need a new tax firm, so they settled on a $10,000 donation.
Philip Blumel: The FBI also says that Burke withheld a city permit from a restaurant owner who wanted to renovate until the businessmen wrote Burke, a big check, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That this case should arise in Chicago is hardly surprising. As a University of Illinois study from 2018 called Chicago, “the most corrupt city in the US” its author political science professor Dick Simpson estimated that there have been 200 council members or alderman as Chicagoans called them since 1969 when Burke first got elected. Of them, 33 had been arrested for corruption including extortion, bribery, and fraud.
Philip Blumel: A survey in 2016 found that more than 90% of Chicago business leaders observe cronyism in city government. Of the 10 largest cities in America, Chicago is also the only one without term limits on its city council or its mayor. Term limits discourage corruption as corruption is highly correlated with tenure and power. As long tenure breeds both arrogance and provides opportunity. Term limits also encourage transparency as the critical institutional knowledge is not bottled up amongst a team of entrenched incumbents. Instead, you have regular stream of ex-council members constantly being created who have intimate knowledge of the system. Meanwhile, new members come in and review the system with fresh perspectives.
Philip Blumel: Voters know all this and in 2018, about 60% of voters told pollsters they supported term limits for the Chicago Council. In 2018, there was a serious attempt to put mayoral term limits on the Chicago ballot led by former Democratic governor Pat Quinn. The requisite signatures were collected and the measure was okayed for the ballot. However, under state law, only three ballot questions can appear on the city ballot in one election. The Chicago City Council promptly approved additional advisory questions for which zero signatures have been collected. So that the term limits measure would be crowded out. One non-binding question, read “should the city of Chicago ban the use of plastic straws within corporate limits” governor Quinn called this a sabotage tactic. It’s also fair to call it corrupt. Ooh, guess who sponsored the measure to boot term limits off the ballot? Alderman Ed Burke.
Philip Blumel: Burke also held onto his seat until the bitter end. He was indicted in 2019 originally, but he didn’t resign until 2023 just before his trial began. Okay, going back to the rot in the big Apple, wasn’t it just two months ago that the US Senator from New York, Bob Menendez, another term limits opponent was convicted on all counts in his corruption trial? Yes, as a matter of fact it was. His booty came from Egypt instead of Turkey, but the story is mighty similar to Mayor Adams.
Philip Blumel: Next. This year, 2024 has been the best for the term limits movement since the term limits convention project was launched. Two new states, Tennessee and Louisiana officially made an application for the term limits convention this year and the Florida legislature passed it a second time just to clean up some language. So far, eight states have officially called for an amendment writing convention under Article five of the US Constitution, Limited to the subject of congressional term limits. If 34 do so, such a convention will be called an amendment can be proposed for ratification by the states. Now, this year isn’t over the term limits convention has passed the North Carolina house and the Senate session isn’t over. We might still get a vote in the Senate this year. In any case, as Holly Robichaud reports, we are already looking forward to next year’s legislative sessions. Here’s Holly from the most recent episode of her Breaking News on Term Limits program on YouTube.
Holly Robichaud: This just in a new RMG research poll shows that 88%, that’s right, 88% of South Dakotan’s support congressional term limits. It doesn’t get much higher than that. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud and this is US term limits, breaking news.
Holly Robichaud: South Dakota as a state will be working heavily into advance our term limits resolution in 2025. Our state chair Aron Toman is actively working With us and our team and this poll will help us reinforce those efforts. The US term limits is the largest nonpartisan non-profit organization advocating solely for term limits. Our mission is to improve the quality of government with a citizens’ legislature that closely reflects its constituency and is responsive to the needs of the people. The US term limits pledge is not a self limit for individuals. Our aim is to limit the terms of all members of Congress as a entire institution. To find out more, go to termlimits.org. I wanna extend a belated happy birthday to Iowa US Senator Chuck Grassley, who turned 91 on September 17th. Senator Grassley has held elected office conceptually since 1958 and was first elected to the house in 1974, starting his career in the Senate in 1981.
Holly Robichaud: That’s right. He held office, one office or another for over 65 years with 49 of those years in Washington. Currently, he still has four years left on his current term without announcements of retirement. Wow. Did you know there are 23 US House seats that are going totally unchallenged this year? Nobody’s running against them in November. No one. Think about that. Before one vote has been cast, 23 members of Congress have automatically been reelected. However, most incumbents aren’t that lucky. Many spend millions of dollars on advertising, but there’s a portion not paved by the Super PACs or campaign contributions, but American taxpayers. That’s right. You and I are helping to pay for advertising for incumbents regardless of if they are in our area or if we even support them. How does this happen? Through congressional spending accounts, they are traditionally used for district travel and staff payroll, but it’s an election year and so why not use it for advertising and they are. Leif Hang an investigation reporter found that New York representative Tom Suozzi who represents a swing district in Long Island…
Holly Robichaud: Is running TV commercials paid out of his congressional spending account that discusses how he worked across the aisle on tackling immigration issues. All it’s missing is a reminder to vote to reelect him. Fang states that at least nine other representatives are doing the same. Well, I guess that makes it okay, not just TV ads, but billboards, mailers, you name it. Michigan representative Shri Thanedar spent $476,000 of government money over three months this year on billboards plastered with his face and other self-promotional ads in his district. That amount is more than triple his spending on personnel and staff salaries over the same period. But get this, he paid for these ads himself and then reimbursed himself from the congressional spending account, and this looks like a trend that will continue. In the past, Congress could not spend taxpayer dollar paid communication 90 days before the election, but in 2022 in the closing days of Congress, that all changed to 60 days and we wonder why Congress doesn’t want term limits. Hmm.
Philip Blumel: Thank you, Holly. Next, since this is a corruption themed episode, let’s finish with a pretty nasty bit of small town chicanery from Bossier City in Louisiana. Earlier this year, a group of citizens in Bossier turned in the requisite number of signatures to the Bossier Parish Registrar of voters to put a city council term limits measure on the ballot this year. Great. Well, the city Council refused to put the question on the ballot, so naturally the Bossier Term Limits Coalition went to court and they won clear cut case. A district judge ordered that the city council must put term limits on the ballot. Well, the city council met last week and well, they refuse to put on the ballot, ’cause they say they intend to appeal the decision, nevermind the cost to the taxpayers are doing this and nevermind the fact that all the petitions were checked and rechecked and qualified as the Bossier charter requires, and that a Louisiana court ordered the Bossier politicians to comply with the law. Well, geez, here’s how local KSLA News 12 tells the story.
Speaker 4: Now at KSLA, we’ve been keeping you updated on the Bossier term limits debates.
Speaker 5: That’s right, Ashley and KSLA’s Miracle Garrett spoke with the Bossier Term Limits Coalition. To get more information on the latest developments.
Speaker 6: City council has just decided not to follow its own city charter. Now, we feel like that that has significant implications for the city ’cause why does a city councilman have the option not to follow its own charter when they are sworn to do their duties? They swear that they’re gonna follow the city’s charter.
Speaker 7: On Tuesday, a city council meeting was held at Bossier Municipal Complex to discuss the city’s term limits.
Speaker 6: We have two city councilmen who absolutely support the people’s effort to get this on the ballot. The mayor supports it also, mayor Tommy Chandler has been firmly for term limits since he ran for mayor.
Speaker 7: Judge Parker herself signed a writ of mandamus ordering the city council to place the issue on the December, 2024 ballot. However, city council has appealed the writ of mandamus and has asked for an oral hearing rather than having the Second Circuit Court review the facts of the case.
Speaker 6: They’re delaying, they’re trying to get another term and that’s what we feel like. We feel like they’re basically in violation of the city’s law. These councilmen one has been in for 24 years, one for 28 and one for 32 years. They feel like that it’s their right to keep running for the city council and we feel like the will of the people is otherwise.
Speaker 7: If the Second Circuit Court agrees with Judge Parker’s writ of Mandamus and the Council denies their right to appeal at the Louisiana Supreme Court, the city council members can be held in contempt of court and arrested.
Philip Blumel: Can you believe these politicians? I can unfortunately. This is an old and repeating story. It’s depressing. Sorry for such a dark episode, but you know what It’s not all dark. There’s a silver lining here. The corrupt politicians we discuss today are indicted and or convicted and in Bossier my experience tells me that citizens will win on issue of term limits. When citizens take a stand, we nearly always do.
Stacey Selleck: Like the show you could 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/takeaction. There, you’ll 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 are 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.
Philip Blumel: Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. Is our aim to hit the reset button on the US congress and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, thanks, we’ll be back next week.
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