Three Times is the Charm
2008-24-04

Three Times is the Charm

Apparently, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try – and try – again. Undeterred by repeated failure at the ballot box, the California Legislature is once again trying to turn “public service” into a tenured profession.

U.S. Term Limits today blew the whistle on yet another attempt by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to roll back California’s term limits law – this time by reintroducing the very measure that Californians defeated at the ballot box just three months ago. And USTL’s president, Phil Blumel will have none of it.

In a stern letter to all 80 members of the California lower house, U.S. Term Limits president Phil Blumel warned of dire consequences should the Assembly “join Mr. Nunez in disdaining the ballot box and disenfranchising those who went against his grasping will.”

“Please know that should the members of the Assembly concede to Mr. Nunez’s nefarious scheme,” Blumel warned in a letter to legislators, “U.S. Term Limits will spare no time or expense in exposing and opposing those who participate in such a transparent attempt to subvert the people’s will.”

This would be the third time since 1990 when California’s term limits law was enacted by a 52%-48% margin that the State Legislature has attempted to roll back term limits law and increase its job security:

In February, voters defeated a Nunez-backed ballot measure that would have allowed him and other termed-out officeholders to run for reelection. That measure, defeated by a 54-46 margin, marked the third time in the past 18 years that California voters have voted in favor of the state’s highly popular term limits law.

In 2002, the voters again supported term limits when California State Senate president pro tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) sponsored an effort to rollback the provisions of 1990's Proposition140 by putting Proposition 45 on the March 2002 ballot. Voters rejected the proposition by a margin of 42-58%. Had it passed, legislators would have been allowed to serve for four years beyond the limits allowed by Prop. 140.

The February 5 measure backed by Nunez, Proposition 93, would have extended the terms current legislators may remain in office. The new measure Nunez is now proposing would do the same. Nunez has said, “It is going to materialize.”

Having been repeatedly denied at the ballot box, Nunez and his cronies, whose cushy political sinecures are threatened by term limits, are in a mad dash to once again put their anti-term limits measure on the ballot. Apparently they hope that the good people of California will finally “grow weary in well doing” and surrender their state to career politicians.

And that’s why U.S. Term Limits has called upon every member of the Assembly to sign a “Term Limits Pledge to the People.” We’ll keep you posted on who signs up – and who, in the words of Blumel – “joins Mr. Nunez in disdaining the ballot box and disenfranchising those who [in February] went against his grasping will.”

ALG CTA: ALG News would like to commend U.S. Term Limits for its aggressive stance in supporting term limits throughout the nation. Politicians need to be sent the message that they are not entitled to their jobs, and we urge you to encourage your audiences to send that message to the California State Assembly.