Term limits are a good start
I’m a huge fan of term limits.
That’s why I cannot help but support the United Utah Party’s efforts to pace an initiative on the ballot to set term limits for state elected offices.
The initiative would allow state senators to serve up to three consecutive four-year terms and house members up to six consecutive two-year terms.
It would limit the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer, and state auditor to two consecutive four-year terms, or eight years in office.
There would be, however, no lifetime limit. A former legislator would be allowed to come back and run for office again after taking a “time-out” period of at least one term.
While not perfect, this is a good place to start, but would it really level the playing field in Utah?
The problem, you see, is that as long as a candidate has an “R” behind his name, it is pretty much a slam dunk for him because of the culture of conservatism that permeates the state. “Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, and most everybody else voted Republican, so will I,” is the way the thinking goes.
The conservative influence is so strong that even most Democrats who break through and actually win an election carry the conservative banner. Rep. Jim Matheson was a good example. He had some social issue credentials that allowed him to slip through the cracks as a Democrat and a legacy as the son of Utah’s last governor from the Democratic Party, but, he was a DINO — Democrat in Name Only. So as far as ideology is concerned, term limits would do little, if anything, to change Utah.
Most in our legislature have served ten years or less, but that seems long enough to me.
You see, running for office is a form of public service, not permanent employment.
You’re supposed to hold office to represent all of the folks in your constituency, to govern with a fair and equal hand, to not get sucked up by the special interests and lobbyists.
The story has been told and retold but is an apt reminder here that Utah’s most famous politician, Orrin Hatch, declared his run for the U.S. Senate because he believed his opponent had served too long.
“What do you call a Senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home,” Hatch said of Democratic Party incumbent Sen. Frank Moss, who had served 18 years.
Hatch ran on a promise of pushing for term limits, arguing that Moss had lost touch with his Utah constituents. Hatch, who won his first Senate seat in 1976, went on to serve for 42 years.
So much for campaign promises.
Hatch also argued that his longevity in office gave him a better lay of the land, a feel for governing, and experience in dealing with the wolves who prowl the halls of the Senate.
He argued that his seniority gave him rank, which translates into prime Senate committee appointments, which translates into power.
But as he neared retirement, the same argument he used against Moss was being thrown in his face: that he had served so long, he had grown out of touch with his constituency.
Being an incumbent is being in the catbird’s seat. You have name recognition, and you can talk about the legislation you worked on and who supported you. It gives a certain gravitas to the campaign that a neophyte just cannot muster.
But, does that really matter?
We see today how many seem to think that lengthy political experience is a hindrance, which partially explains the Trump phenomena. His base likes him largely because he is a so-called “outsider” who hasn’t played the political game, although there is ample evidence to the contrary that simple minds cannot wrap their arms around.
The system is rigged in Utah to secure the Republican power base and to ensure that conservatives will control the legislature by means of gerrymandering. There is no real equitable divide in the state. That’s why fair redistricting is also vitally important.
For those who believe that it takes a few years for a new legislator to plant his feet and get a feel for the job, the truth is that governance should not be that complicated. That concern could be erased by making all elected positions four-year terms and allowing those elected to serve a maximum of two terms without the ability to bounce back and run again after taking a hiatus from office. The terms would be staggered so there would not be a complete turnover every eight years.
It is obvious that we are in desperate need of change, from eliminating the Electoral College to term limits at the local, state, and federal levels.
Voting numbers prove that. A whopping 80 percent of Utah’s registered voters went to the polls in 2016. While that may sound impressive, it is a manipulation of the numbers, which also show that 42 percent of those of voting age did not cast a ballot.
That’s a lot of people who are not being represented, who are either unimpressed with the candidates being proffered or are simply fed up with the whole thing and have dropped out of the political system.
That’s unacceptable, but I must admit that I have been there before, washing my hands of the whole thing and sitting it out for eight years at one stretch.
I have to also admit that I wasn’t happy with the ballot in 2016, which truly was a choice between the lesser of two evils.
But it is time to get people back into the fold, time to re-energize them and get them back into believing that their voices and their votes matter and that they aren’t the only ones tired of the same old shuck and jive.
And that can only happen by shaking things up a bit by making some meaningful changes to the way we continue on with this great experiment of democracy.
This isn’t a Republican thing. This isn’t a Democrat thing. It’s simply the right thing to do to get this nation focused once again on the priorities that made this nation the hope and light of the free world.
Peace.
