Soapbox Derby: Term Limits

Q: Are you going to vote to extend legislative term limits? Why or why not?

Sean Faircloth

In November, voters will be asked: Do you favor extending term limits for legislators from four to six terms? (eight years versus twelve). My answer will be yes, I favor them. In my experience, a limit of eight years of service is too short, 12 years about right. Eight-year term limits mean less-experienced committee chairs, lame duck presiding officers, more power for bureaucrats, partisan staff, and more lobbyists. I’ll take the people you elect over lobbyists any day.

If this referendum is voted into law, few people would actually serve 12 full years. Few did before term limits. Legislators get paid about $20,000 for two years for a job that, if you work hard for constituents, is more than full-time. The real satisfaction from the job is in doing something substantive for Mainers, but it’s a labor of love, not one that people without special financial circumstances can continue long-term.

Current law also limits terms in leadership posts (like Speaker) to three terms, which might be reasonable, but in practice the overall four-term limit makes serving three terms near impossible. Say a Speaker wants to fight for a tax cut (I would). The problem is, presiding officers are lame ducks the moment they take office. You need clout to champion big reforms.
The topic of former Speaker of the House John Martin generates strong emotions, but objective people must admit that: a) Martin was (is) an effective legislator; and b) 20-year Speakerships are (and should be) history.

But 20 years isn’t the same as six. If Mainers want elected representatives to be more effective than bureaucrats, they should urge their Maine legislators to replace instant lame duck Speakerships with the possibility of Speaker tenures similar to that of Speaker David Kennedy, who served four terms in the ’60s and ’70s. Or Senate presidents Ken MacLeod (three terms), Joe Sewall (three terms), and Charlie Pray (four terms) all serving in the late 20th century. These leaders weren’t lame ducks their first day.

They could build a legacy, while not blocking new blood. Similarly, committee chairs need time to develop expertise. As things stand, just about the time a leader becomes a true expert, and creates the relationships it takes to make real change happen, he or she is termed out of office.

Others agree that term limits have unintended consequences. John Bartholomew of Common Cause notes eight-year terms shift power to unelected people. Ann Luther, copresident of the League of Women Voters, correctly points out that often people who could challenge incumbent politicians—thus creating healthy competition—choose not to run, instead waiting out the incumbent’s term limits. Citizens lose when we don’t get the best candidates.

Some reasonable people demand a total term limits repeal. Some want term limits. Regardless, everyone should agree that lame duck Speakers are bad policy. Twelve-year term limits retain the advantages of term limits (preventing stagnation at the top) while greatly diminishing the biggest problem about eight-year limits (inexperience at the top). That’s why it will have my vote on November 6.

Scott K Fish

Do you favor extending term limits for legislators from four to six terms? That’s a question Maine voters will face on the November 6, 2007, ballot. Eight years or 12—I oppose term limits and I’m voting no.

Enacted into law in 1993, Maine term limits now say legislators can serve four back-to-back two-year terms as either state representatives or state senators. After four consecutive two-year terms, legislators can’t run for the current office they hold for two years. However, term-limited senators may run for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives, and term-limited state representatives may run for a seat in the Maine Senate without the two-year grace period.

I agree with “why” term limit fans want term limits. Fans say term limits keep lawmakers from staying in office too long. The longer politicians are in office, the more inclined they are to build self-serving power bases. And power tends to corrupt politicians.

I just don’t agree term limits are the best solution. Neither am I seeing evidence term limits are producing better government. Not if “better government” is defined as small, limited, and effective. If Maine government had legs and a waist, there’s no way it would fit into the pants it was wearing in 1993.

Term limits are mandatory—forced on us by law. As such, they tend to deter people from being politically active. Term limits promote political ignorance, apathy, i.e., Why worry about being active in politics when the system auto-flushes politicians anyway? Maine needs the exact opposite of such thinking.

The best idea for fixing our bruised political system is for everyone, preferably as kids, to learn how our government works and our vital role in making it work. It’s called “civics,” a topic once taught in all American public schools. For too many Americans, the whole of government is a foreign language. That’s dangerous to the health of our nation and it’s opposite how America is designed to function.

Reintroducing civics to public schools should be a state/national priority. That’s common sense. If we don’t know how government is supposed to work, how do we know when it’s broken? How can we know how to fix it?

With the telecommunications explosion there has never been a better time in American history to get up-to-speed and then to get active in politics. 
You want term limits? Do it the best way. Vote on Election Day! Every two years, you have a chance to term-limit Maine legislators. Every four years, you can term-limit Maine’s governor.

You want term limits? Get active! If you have stinkers representing you in the State Legislature, get off your rusty-dusty and do something about it. You can run for political office against the stinkers. Or you can find a “stink-free” candidate and help them get elected. I’ve been active in Maine politics almost 20 years (yikes!) and not once have I heard a candidate or a campaign complain of having too many volunteers.