[EM] Idaho Lawmakers OK Term Limit Repeal

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Idaho Lawmakers OK Term Limit Repeal

By BOB FICK
  
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho's Legislature became the first in the nation to 
vote to repeal term limits Wednesday, with Republicans leading the charge to 
undo a measure they themselves had championed during the GOP's resurgence in 
1994. 

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has promised to veto the measure, but the 27-8 Senate 
vote Wednesday and last week's 50-20 House vote were both three votes more 
than the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. 

``It's an issue that good people approach and view differently,'' Kempthorne, 
a Republican, said after Wednesday's vote. ``I believe I have to affirm the 
right of the people to establish a rule.'' 

The Idaho Republican Party once endorsed term limits as a way to end the 
careers of liberal East Coast members of Congress such as Sen. Edward 
Kennedy. But the state GOP made the repeal part of its platform two years 
ago. 

Party leaders say local elected officials were never supposed to be the 
target and that term limits take away critical experience from government, 
especially in sparsely populated rural areas. They also argued that Idaho 
voters were misled in the early 1990s by the big-money campaigns of outside 
organizations like U.S. Term Limits. 

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes said term limits strip voters of their 
responsibility to choose qualified leaders. ``By throwing officials out of 
office after a fixed term, we rid ourselves of deciding who is good and who 
is not,'' he said. 

The term limits measure, approved by voters in 1994, restricts county 
commissioners and school board members to six years in office during the 
previous 11 years and all other elected state, county and city officials to 
eight years in the previous 15. The eight-year limit on legislators is one of 
the shortest in the nation. 

Term limits advocates accused their opponents of ignoring the electorate and 
called the attempted repeal unconstitutional. 

``This is a law made by the people,'' Senate Democratic floor leader Clint 
Stennett said. ``That process is superior. It's irresponsible, it's arrogant 
for us to ignore it.'' 

Supporters have already promised to put term limits before voters again this 
fall if the repeal is approved. 

Currently 18 states limit the terms of state lawmakers. 

The modern term limits movement began in Oklahoma with a 1990 referendum. 
They were championed by conservatives and the push seemed to peak in 1994, 
when the Republican Party took control of Congress. 

The movement faltered the next year, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 
that states could not impose term limits on members of Congress. Some 
lawmakers kept their pledges to voters to step down voluntarily, including 
three-term Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho. 

Unless Idaho's term limits are repealed, 158 county government officials and 
the attorney general will be barred from filing for re-election this year. 
The Legislature is not affected until 2004.