The #1 question I am asked on the campaign trail is: "Are you for term limits?" The #2 question that generally follows is: "How many terms in office do you support?"
As your next State Senator, I do support term limits and three terms in office. My plank below outlines the background and reasons for my position.
The Seventeenth Amendment made incumbency so powerful that public service is no longer open to all. Each year an incumbent is in office, that incumbent develops support groups, receives a salary while soliciting PAC funds, receives free publicity, and communicates with the electorate at taxpayer expense. These activities create an unfair advantage for the incumbent making it difficult to find contenders who are willing and financially capable of entering such a campaign. This situation is in direct conflict with the intentions of our founding fathers who wanted public office to be an honor rather than a position of profit.
Term limits create a climate for public service which is more likely to attract qualified contenders and discourage those looking for an easy job.
Modern legislators contend that representing the American people is not a simple task and cannot be effectively accomplished by people with little or no experience. WE THE PEOPLE remind the legislators that the federal government was intended to remain small and cohesive, an inexpensive operation whose powers were to be limited to the defense of the nation and to maintaining foreign and federal relations. All other responsibilities have been assumed by the federal government for the purpose of creating a public dependence on government. WE THE PEOPLE wish to limit the federal government and return power to the state and to the people by advocating term limits.
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