9.27.06 - Term Limits Already Exist--They are called elections!

I urge everyone to vote "no" on term limits (BM 45) this fall. Term limits already exist in Oregon. They are called elections. There are really only two things a citizen of this republic has to do: stay informed and vote. Do we really need to abdicate to an automatic process our civic duty of voting for our representatives? That is lazy and utterly lacking in personal responsibility.

The longer a legislator serves, the more experience they gain, and the better they become. We are entrusting these people to run our state. Would you trust a group of rookies to run your corporation? Would you want your first open heart surgery to be your heart surgeon's first too?

As any rookie elected official can tell you, institutional memory is very important. You often rely on the more seasoned officials to provide you with the history of a given issue. The difficulties of a system without that resource are insurmountable.

With term limits, you are taking away that experience and institutional knowledge and replacing it with bureaucrats and lobbyists. Guess who the novice legislators turn to when there are no experienced colleagues to mentor them? The lobbyists and the bureaucrats. This is not how a republic should be run.

The out-of-state donors financing BM 45 don't believe that Oregonians can determine on their own which candidates are the most qualified. We want the most qualified leaders in the Oregon State Legislature. We, the voters, can make that determination ourselves without some rich intermeddler from New York and his New York-based PAC, U.S. Term Limits, telling us anything different. Vote no on BM 45!