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Philip Blumel: Which state will be the 10th to pass the Tournaments Convention resolution? Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Happy Tournaments Day February 27, and welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Tournaments movement published on February 10, 2025. This is episode 257.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Okay, so far, nine states have officially applied for an amendment propos convention under Article 5 of the US Constitution limited to the subject of Congressional term limits. Which state is next? Two states have emerged as the top contenders early in 2025. Since our last podcast, two chambers have already passed the resolution. The Indiana Senate and the South Dakota House. And in both cases, the first committee hearings in their respective second chambers have already been scheduled. All right, here’s our frontrunners then. Indiana and South Dakota. Of course, both chambers of the legislature have to approve the resolution for the state to have officially made the application for the Tournaments Convention. Oh, and by the way, governors don’t have to sign off on Article 5 resolutions. At the heels of Indiana and South Dakota, however, are about a half dozen other states where the resolutions have been introduced for 2025.
Philip Blumel: These include Arizona and South Carolina, where the resolution has already passed their first House committee votes on their way to the floor. In South Carolina, the resolution has been introduced in the Senate as well, but there hasn’t been a committee vote yet. Other states Georgia, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Ohio, Nebraska, Montana, now did I mention your state? If so, please go to term limits.com/takeaction. One word term limits.com take action and find your state. There is a Take Action button next to it. Click it and there you will be able to send a quick message to the relevant lawmakers in your state. Please do this right now because this legislation is currently on their desks. Okay, maybe Indiana has a bit of an edge in becoming the next state to pass the Tournaments Convention. After all last year the Indiana House did pass the Term Limits convention, but the Senate rejected it. Now since then, Indiana elected a new governor, former US senator Mike Brown, who is an active proponent of the resolution and also the US Tournament State Chair of the State of Indiana, Michael Beckwith was elected as Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. So the leadership is on board.
Philip Blumel: Okay, Fast forward to 2025 this year we started in the Senate, the chamber we lost last year and won it. The effort was led by Senator Andy Zay and passed with 31 yeas to 18 nays. You can’t count your chickens before they hatch, but all this indicates that Indiana might have the edge in this race. But wait a minute. South Dakota has an ace in the hole House sponsor Taylor Rae Rehfeldt having shepherded the resolution successfully through the house 42 to 24, including picking up every Democratic vote in this red state. Along the way, she is actively advocating the Senate version. In a recent op-ed in the Dakota Scout, she wrote, south Dakota leads by example. Our citizen legislature operates under term limits and it works. As a former assistant majority leader, I’ve seen what can be accomplished when leaders focus on solutions instead of personal ambition. Congress should follow South Dakota’s lead and implement term limits to restore trust in government. Opponents of tournaments argue that experience is invaluable and that elections serve as a natural check. But we know better. Incumbents have built in advantages that make it difficult for new candidates to compete.
Philip Blumel: Long term incumbency breeds complacency, special interest influence and a system focused on re-election, not results. Responsible tournaments would level the playing field, ensuring a government that reflects the people, not entrenched politicians. Just last week, The House passed HJR 5002, taking a crucial step forward. Now we need your help. Contact your legislators and tell them to support the resolution. Right. Well, now you know how to do that. Www.termlimits.com/takeaction. Meanwhile, things are happening fast in some states, including Arizona. The leadership is on board and they view the tournament convention as a legislative priority. Here’s the Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro, calling for its passage.
Steve Montenegro: First of all, I want to appreciate your time this morning to hear this subject. Unlike perhaps other issues, this is actually an issue that voters understand clearly. And it has overwhelming support by voters here in Arizona as well, 85%, even among Republicans, independents or Democrats. It’s a nonpartisan issue. Federal government is broken. It has completely, continues to ignore the voice of the people at the state level. In my opinion, we have an administration coming in that understands the voice of the people better. But even then, when other politicians cycle through, they don’t. It’s dysfunctional, it’s broken, it’s unwilling to repair it though. That’s why this is important.
Steve Montenegro: Congress is supposed to be service, public service, and then they’re supposed to be returning back home to live the lives with their families, with their communities. But it’s turned into something that does not represent that or reflect that. And that’s why I’m bringing this forward. This is something that in my heart I’ve supported for years and I’ve brought forward because this is what the founders, the writers of the Constitution gave us as states to not only get Congress attention but also to flex our constitutional muscle.
Steve Montenegro: We the people. So I believe that as Arizona has taken the lead on various other issues, this is another issue that we must take the lead on restoring the trust and functionality of the federal government. And we can do that by passing House Concurrent Resolution 2041.
Philip Blumel: Thank you, Speaker. Will we have our first full state on board in 2025 by term limits day February 27th? Stay tuned. Speaking of tournaments day, February 27th. It’s that time of year again. The idea behind Tournaments Day is simple enough. On February 27th each year, everyone is encouraged to make a show of public support for tournaments. This can be as simple as posting a tournament sign on your yard or wearing a tournaments T-shirt or hat. On Tournament’s Day, we’ll be Facebooking, tweeting or Xing, I guess, and promoting videos on social media using the hashtag Term limitsday to send a message to remind our federal and state representatives that the masses support term limits. Remind the politicians that our support is not passive. We’re watching. We expect action from representatives and we expect it now. Why February 27th? Well, February 27th commemorates the ratification of the 22nd Amendment and 1951, which imposed term limits on the President of the United States. It’s a reminder that yes, it is possible to amend the Constitution to add term limits. It has been done. So here are some ideas for Term Limits Day February 27th activism. You can find this list @termlimits.com/
Philip Blumel: Termlimitsday. First, this is so easy. Share graphics on social media, make them yourself or cut and paste from tournaments.com/digitaltools, one word digital tools post a pro tournament sign in your yard just for the week prior to Tournaments Day. Or if you live in a restrictive community just on Tournaments Day itself. You can make one of your own or you can get one from your tournament state coordinator or purchase one from the store at tournaments.com/store. One project I do locally is to encourage people to get a pro tournament sign. I have one and keep it in your garage. Every year when Tournaments Day comes, post it in your yard. I keep a list of people I’ve given signs to and I just remind them come February that hey, it’s time to put your sign out your yard. Organize a sign waving at a busy intersection. This is easy and it’s fun. Grab a couple friends and make some homemade signs. Honk if you love tournaments and enjoy the public support you’ll hear from passersby. Happy term limits day February 27th. Another great sign. Or make it into a banner and throw it over a busy overpass during rush hour.
Philip Blumel: Let’s help drivers get in the spirit of the holiday. I’ve been telling you that if you live in one of the states where the tournament’s convention bill is being considered to send a message to your representative using the tournaments.com/takeaction page. But what if you live in a state where the bill is not introduced and there’s no current action to take on legislation? Contact your legislator and wish them a Happy Tournaments Day, February 27th. Just remind them that you favor a Congressional Term Limits Amendment to the US constitution. To facilitate this, you can use the term limits.com/legislators page tournaments.com/legislators. Last, take a selfie using a Happy Tournaments Day, February 27 sign. Post it on your social media tagging US term limits. Send an email to all your friends wishing them a happy term limits day, February 27th and suggesting they sign the Citizens Online Petition for Congressional term limits @termlimits.com. Be creative, whatever you feel comfortable doing, just make sure someone sees you doing it. In South Florida, you’ll be likely to see Happy Tournaments Day, February 27th billboards while driving on I95. Next, for the record, US Tournaments does not employ US Senator Mitch McConnell or US Representative Nancy Pelosi to advocate for Congressional Tournaments.
Philip Blumel: Indeed, both have actively opposed tournaments over their long careers. However, their continued struggles with the natural vagaries of age, combined with their dogged attachment to power have made them unintentional poster children for the reform. Last week, Mitch McConnell, a 40 year veteran of the US Senate and former Majority Leader, was escorted out of the Capitol in a wheelchair after the 82 year old senator fell twice in short succession. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, age 84 and herself a 38 year veteran of the US House, including stints as the House speaker, was seen hobbling to her van last Thursday, struggling to maintain her balance following her hip replacement surgery. Pelosi fell on a marble staircase at the Grand Ducal palace in Luxembourg at the end of last year. None of us are getting any younger and we can respect their difficulties, but most of us are also not serving in the US Congress. Journalist and pundit John Fund was asked about the most recent McConnell incident by Sky News Australia recently.
Speaker 4: I’m thrilled to be joined now by another great friend of the program, political journalist John Fund. Thank you so much for coming on the program and I want to start off here and get your thoughts on Senator Mitch McConnell, who has suffered a bit of an incident, a bit of a fall. Now, anybody can have an accident, anybody can have a trip, things like that. But this comes after he also had that bizarre moment where he froze up on camera last year. John, you’ve written about this before here. Is this a case for the need for the US to have term limits on senators to avoid. Well, exactly this sort of thing?
John Fund: Well, I think it’s necessary because if we don’t have term limits, I’ll tell you what the American people are gonna do. They’re going to put an age limit on Congress. North Dakota has already voted one. You can’t serve after the age of 80 from that state. Look, the average age of the United States Senate is now over 65. And that means there are a lot of people who are past their prime. And one of the reasons why Joe Biden was able to hide in plain sight his frailty is there were a lot of senators who didn’t want to make that an issue, otherwise the spotlight would have turned on them.
Philip Blumel: The success of the term limits movement over the last year or two has rekindled my personal interest in the last heyday of the termist movement back in the 1990s, recall that between 1990 and 1994, 23 states successfully via the initiative process, primarily term limited their congressional delegations. It’s so easy to forget this as the Supreme Court shot down those term limits in the 54 split decision in 1995’s US term limits versus Thornton. Anyway, I was thumbing through a copy of John Armour’s old book, why Term Limits? First, I love the subtitle because they have it Coming. But seriously, this book was an activist handbook at the time, telling the whole story from the angles of history, current politics, philosophy, law and stats. It’s quite dated. It was published in 1994, but what’s interesting is, is that 1994 places it in the midst of the nationwide tournament’s victories. And it is full of the optimism and fire that characterize that period. Those were heady days. While many of the specific examples and stats are dated, they’re not out of date because nothing’s changed. How about this quote? “Special interests donate 90% of their money to incumbents because 95% of incumbents win because special interests donate 90% of their money.
Philip Blumel: You get the idea.” Yeah, we do. Those numbers are still accurate. Nothing has changed after Democratic Congresses and Republican Congresses. Democratic Presidents, Republican Presidents. Because the system hasn’t changed. Some things never change. But Congress will when we pass term limits. Happy term limits day, February 27th.
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 Tournaments Convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the Tournaments movement. To check on the status of the Tournaments Convention Resolution in your state, go to tournaments.com/takeaction there you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the commission process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a Take Action button by your state.
Philip Blumel: Click it.
Philip Blumel: 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 tournaments.com/takeaction if your state has already passed the Tournaments 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 @USTerm limits like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and now LinkedIn.