Terry White Releases Statement on Campaign Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2012
Contact: 812.480.8368

Evansville-Today, I wish to address the issue of legislative and campaign reform. If I am elected by the citizens of District 50 as their next state senator, it is my intention to offer legislation that seeks a constitutional amendment limiting the consecutive terms of legislative officeholders in both the Indiana House of Representatives as well as the State Senate.
The gist of the legislation will effectively allow a legislator from serving no more than 12 consecutive years in either house. It would limit the time in office of a state senator to 3 consecutive terms and that of a state representative to 6 consecutive terms.

Why term limits? One reason is that 70% of voters, according to a Rasmussen Poll, agree with the statement that “once someone is in office too long, they start looking out for themselves and their friends more than the interests of the people.” According to Rasmussen, “most voters believe that the legislators routinely win re-election because the system is rigged to benefit incumbents. Hardly any believe that the representatives earned re-election by serving their constituents well.”

Rasmussen, by a 71% majority, is not the only poll that indicates people want term limits. Also favoring term limits are a Fox News poll at 78% and a Civitas Poll at 85%. A recent poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows that 75% of residents now favor term limits. A Gallup Poll reported that 81% of Americans were not happy with government. The highest rating ever in the history of polling, and noted that it could get worse.

There are actually 15 state legislatures that have term limits. Of the total state legislative seats in the United States, over 26% of those seats are limited. In 6 of the 15 states with limits on state legislators, the limit is a lifetime limit. These 15 states are from Arizona to South Dakota. As recent as late January of this year, legislators in the state of Illinois have filed a resolution which would prohibit a person from holding office more than 10 years. Nine of the 10 largest cities in America have term limits on their city council and/or mayor.

In Indiana, we have 8 year term limits on our Governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor, and Treasurer of State. Furthermore, our County Clerks, Auditors, Recorders, Treasurers, Sheriffs and Coroners have 8 year term limits. It is time for Indiana to become the next state with term limits on its legislators.

The fact is that our citizens have lost the ability to effectively participate in the political process by running as a candidate without having to raise an outrageous amount of money. This has clearly gotten out of hand. Everybody knows that too much money is spent in politics. The end result is that incumbents get so embedded in the trappings of their office and enjoy such inherent advantages with free publicity as well as private interest group contributions that it almost takes a stick of dynamite to blow them out of office in order for other candidates to get access to sharing this position of trust. No person should have a lock on the office.

Especially with the exodus of 19 long-term legislators in the House of Representatives and 2 in the Senate, now more than ever is term limits important to level that playing field in both houses. I realize it takes time for legislators to develop influence and clout, but people who just mark time in the legislature do not automatically develop clout by virtue of their longevity in office.
You can only assure a vibrant democratic republic by preventing the same old, tired legislators from being re-elected only because they have name recognition. Therefore, it makes sense that limiting terms of office is one of the only logical ways of letting other good people represent our citizens in the legislature. Serving in the legislature was never meant to be a “lifetime career,” but too many legislators have made it just that.

Why twelve years? Like many of our other executive offices who have 2 term consecutive limits, the legislature should be no different. I am proposing 12 years primarily because the Indian Legislature operates on a part-time basis, and it seems that a person ought to be able to accomplish his or her goals within a period of 12 years, part-time, while full-time executive office holders have been limited to reaching their goals within 8 years. Obviously, they have more time to devote to the office.

Limiting consecutive terms in the Indiana Legislature to 12 years will improve the responsiveness of our legislators to their voters, and it will as a result help restore public confidence in government. The power of the legislative office should be shared with its good citizens. Our General Assembly has always been intended to be a part-time citizen legislature, not a haven for career politicians.

The people deserve to have their government back, and one way to make that happen is to stop entrenched incumbents from serving forever and by making sure our Indiana General Assembly has a regular infusion of new energy, new ideas and new people who will fight to protect the rights of working families.