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| Agree is the unanimous answer I have seen in every town hall in which I have asked the audience "Should all elected offices have term limits?" |
At every town hall I do in my district I always take a moment to do an unofficial "poll" of the audience on various topics of interest. It is amazing the visceral reaction when I ask about term limits. It is a sea of "agree" cards appearing in the audience when I ask "should the terms of office for U.S. Congress and Senate have limits?"
I always ask the same question about locally elected positions like the one in which I serve--county commissioner. Same result--a sea of "agree" cards.
So it comes as no surprise to me that Representative Michelle Salzman filed a bill this past week to specifically limit the terms of office for County Commissioners around the state. She and I have actually discussed it a number of times and I was aware she'd be filing the bill. We are friends.
My prediction is it will pass, some form of it (perhaps with 12 years instead of 8 consecutive) will pass the legislature--and then I believe the voters will pass it on the November, 2024 ballot. I believe it will easily exceed the 60% threshold necessary to revise the constitution. And I say "good." Because I support term limits.
But here is where I think a major issue lies: If we are truly going to be dyed-in-the wool, puritan, strident adherents to the absolute and unconditional doctrine of term limits for all elected constitutional officers statewide--why take the easy, lazy road by simply limit them to school board members last session and now, apparently, county commissioners this time? I mean, if we truly want to demonstrate that this is not somehow targeted toward only these two particular offices--why not simply add all elected county constitutional offices to this legislation? And this isn't a shot at any other constitutional office or officeholder beyond the school board and commissioners---It is a fair question and one for which a cogent answer should be given by those bill sponsors who seek to limit terms of some, but not others. And make no mistake, that is what this is, a limit on some and no limits on others, for expediency.
Otherwise, we would see Senator Ignolia (a really smart and effective legislator) and Rep. Salzman and the rest of them proudly and publicly add-in Clerks of the Court, Supervisors of Elections, County Sheriffs, County Tax Collectors, and County Property Appraisers to the term-limit, feel good, red meat legislation. So why are they not doing it--I mean, they themselves are term-limited to 8 years, they want to limit commissioners and have already limited school board members---so why not the rest of the constitutional officers too if this is really, truly, only a puritanical, ideologically-driven piece of legislation and nothing more and not some shot at only one class of elected office, commissioners?
I know the answer, and they do, too. They won't do it, they can't do it-- because if they did, they'd lose
