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September 12, 2006

Term Limits Ads Pure Bunk

Term limits proponents are running some slick ads right now on several Oregon radio stations. Now I really don't care too much one way or the other about term limits, though I lean more against than for them. But these ads are driving me crazy. The reason is that the woman narrating the ads speaks with such a factual tone that you just want to accept what she says as fact when it isn't.

The ads say that when Oregon's legislative term limits were repealed, "problems returned" and the result was "partisan bickering." The ads say, "they call our legislature a national laughingstock," implying that the rest of the country will quit laughing at us (assuming they really are) and all will be right in the world again – if we just re-institute legislative term limits. It frankly is pure bunk.

Let's start with the whole issue of partisan bickering. I think everyone who has been paying attention realizes that partisan bickering really has risen to a new level in the past couple of sessions. Term limits supporters claim that since term limits were thrown out in 2002, legislators now feel invulnerable and that is the cause of the sudden increase in bickering. I think there is a more reasonable explanation: Republicans have quit compromising. Is it really just coincidence that the bickering suddenly escalated when Karen Minnis became House Majority Leader and Republicans started turning even more viciously than before on the so-called "RINOs" among them – the people who chose to follow their principles rather than toe the party line?

This interesting piece explores how extreme partisanship leads to extreme partisan bickering:

Partisan bickering has been part of the Legislature since statehood. Today we've got too many people of the wrong caliber doing the bickering, and it's far too extreme…. too many of them go to Salem with narrow ideological agendas fueled by money from special interests. …At the same time, capable legislators who dare to act on their principles … are being run out of office.

Blame it on the way money has corrupted Oregon's system. ... Last election the average cost of a race for the Oregon Senate exceeded $150,000. Six candidates spent more than $400,000 each. Most of that loot comes from special interests trying to influence who gets elected and how they vote.

That in turn enflames extreme partisanship, with lawmakers fighting not for what's best for all of Oregon but what's best for their contributors and re-election. That's turned off hundreds of thousands of voters, many re-registered in disgust as independents.

Do you think the extreme libertarians who are backing term limits will support a fix for the realproblem - campaign finance reform? Oh, no. Because that would be infringing on the rights of rich people (like Howard Rich) to give $100,000 checks to their favorite ballot measures and "independant" campaigns, not to mention that it could impair their distribution of candidate contribution checks from every single entity they own or manage (quite possibly a hundred, in Rich's case), enabling them to buy politicians who will be obliged to enact their extreme partisan points of view rather than serve the people. Why, it would be a travesty against free speech if the average Joe had the same influence as a rich man or a corporation. But I digress.

So what about that notion that "they" say the Oregon Legislature is a "national laughingstock." Who are "they"? Apparently, some are still smarting from the ribbing we took from late night comedians and the Doonesbury comic strip. The Medford Mail Tribune, influential paper that it is, also called the Legislature a "laughingstock." Why? Because in 2003, due to the extreme partisan shenanigans of right-wing Republicans (some of whom were concerned about their future post-legislative roles in the party, such as former gubernatorial hopeful Jason Atkinson), Oregon was the last state to pass a budget. Compromise was out of the question and it turned into a contest of wills. The school year began with schools not even knowing how much money they would have to spend for the year. And term limits will fix this how?

A recent study by three non-partisan organizations found that where legislative term limits have been adopted, partisan bickering has actually increased (incidentally, they have also moved power away from the people's elected representatives and into the hands of the executive branch of state governments).

Term limits … increase the partisanship of the lawmakers themselves because they have less time to accomplish their policy goals or build relationships with colleagues, the study said.

"Members are less collegial and less likely to bond with their peers, particularly those from across the aisle. The consequences of this are more than a simple change in the social climate -- the decline in civility has reduced legislators' willingness and ability to compromise and engage in consensus-building," the report said.

As I said, I have never been particularly passionate on this issue either way. But the more I learn about the motivations and funding of term limits proponents, and the more I see of their willingness to manipulate the facts in support of their position, the more I am becoming convinced that the entire idea is a bad one.

Posted by Becky at September 12, 2006 09:11 AM