Are Term Limits Making a Comeback?
M.D. Kittle /
MADISON, Wis. — For voters who fancy congressional term limits, state Sen. Glenn Grothman might just be their man.
Grothman, one of three Republicans running to replace Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, in Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district, pledged Monday in a press release he would limit his tenure in the House to 10 years.
In so doing, he took a shot at career politician Petri.
“Over the last three months as I’ve traveled throughout the 6th district meeting voters, I’ve heard a great deal of concern that they will get another congressman who will be in Washington for 35 years like Congressman Petri,” said Grothman, who moved from West Bend to Campbellsport to run for the seat.“I, therefore, pledge to serve in Congress for a maximum of 10 years, or five terms.”
Grothman’s fellow contestants in the Republican primary, state Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, and state Rep. Duey Stroebel, R-Town of Cedarburg, have pledged to limit their time in the House, too.
Although self-imposed term limits may be well-intentioned, they don’t attack the core of corruption and incompetence in Washington, D.C., according to Nick Tomboulides, executive director of U.S. Term Limits, a Fairfax, Va..-based organization that has been advocating for term limits at all levels of government for more than 20 years.
“If, indeed, a candidate is self-limiting at 10 years, that doesn’t really move the ball forward,” said Tomboulides, whose organization’s motto is, “Citizen Legislators, Not Career Politicians.”
“His own limit is not going to dramatically overhaul corruption in Congress. If (the 6th Congressional District candidates) want to take substantive action, (they) should sign our pledge and get on the bill.”
U.S. Term Limits once supported self-limiting, Tomboulides said. But it since has pushed for a constitutional amendment that would limit House members to three two-year terms and senators to two 6-year terms because so many members broke their pledges.
Indeed, out of 1994’s 39 self-limiting freshmen, 13, or 33 percent, broke their pledges of various lengths, according to information from U.S. Term Limits and Roll Call.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, is one of 12 incumbent sponsors of the Senate Joint Resolution 2, and there are 17 sponsors in the House.
Tomboulides said more than 170 congressional candidates have signed the pledge this session, but few incumbents have done so. Democrats generally reject limits, he said, and Republicans can’t settle on where the limits should be, which makes his job much harder.
What’s not in quesation is the views of voters.
A 2013 Gallup poll found 75 percent of respondents would vote for term limits for Congress if given the opportunity. Moreover, 82 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats supported it.
Yet, re-election rates in the House have exceeded 90 percent for most of the last 50 years and have not fallen below 85 percent during that time.
Opponents of term limits say artificial restrictions kill continuity and experience in lawmaking, and that they are inherently un-American.
In 2011, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, asked Nevada lawmakers to get rid of term limits for elected state officials, although voters who approved the restrictions in 1994 and 1996.
“We don’t need artificial term limits,” Reid said during his speech. “After all, we already have natural ones. They’re called elections.”