Term Limits Initiative May Be Confusing Opponents Also Worry Ballot Measure Could Lead To Total Rewrite Of U.S. Constitution

People probably don’t understand what Idaho’s term limits initiative really delivers, a University of Idaho political scientist says.

Passage of Proposition Four doesn’t automatically limit the political careers of Idaho’s congressional delegates, said Florence Heffron, director of UI’s Bureau of Public Research. It requires a note on the ballot beside the names of politicians who don’t push for term limits in Congress or sign pledges to fight for term limits.

It also requires the Idaho Legislature to call for a constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to include term limits.

That alone has opponents seething. Once a constitutional convention is called, it’s open season. Anything can be changed, said George C. Detwiler, chairman of Save the Constitution Committee.

During the first and only constitutional convention in 1787, the participants threw out the document they were supposed to be revising - the Articles of Confederation - and drafted the present Constitution, Detwiler said. Then they rewrote the rules by which states approved the changes.

He cites a letter from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren E. Burger which said, “A new convention could plunge our nation into constitutional confusion and confrontation at every turn, with no assurance that the focus would be on subjects needing attention.”

“How thin is the ice?” Detwiler asked. “You really don’t want to walk out there and find out.”

Term-limit foes cite an opinion by Idaho Attorney General Alan Lance saying it is unconstitutional to add information to the ballot that identifies candidates as failing to push for term limits.

Citizens for Federal Term Limits, largely fueled by energetic Hayden Lake businesswoman Donna Weaver, says it’s all poppycock.

The ballot language is simple and clear and the only way to misunderstand it is to not read it, said Sandy Clark, North Idaho director of the term limits effort.

It’s unlikely a constitutional convention will ever be called, he added. Once Congress faces sufficient pressure from the states, it will draft the necessary amendment as it has with women’s right to vote and other issues.

The ballot language being used for term limits is identical to what was used for a 1912 initiative that gave Idahoans the right to vote for their U.S. senators instead of leaving it up to the state Legislature, Clark said.

“If it was constitutional then, it’s constitutional now,” Clark said.

Heffron agrees that Congress is unlikely to call a constitutional convention. Term limits, however, won’t do Idaho any great favors, she said.

“It’s taken a long time for Idaho and Idaho politicians to gain power and visibility in Washington with Craig and Crapo and, after he’s been there awhile, Kempthorne,” Heffron said. “If you deny them re-eligibility, you deny the state considerable political power in Washington, D.C.”

Term limits grew out of a frustration with getting long-time Democratic incumbents voted out of office.

Ironically, Republican’s pushed term limits for U.S. presidents to prevent Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourterm reign from being repeated. Then the first president affected by the restriction was Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, Heffron said.

James Weatherby, who runs Boise State University’s public policy programs, points to another problem with losing Idaho’s U.S. Senate seniority. There’s a risk that Idaho will end up getting more nuclear waste or at least not getting what’s here out of Idaho.

Clark, of Citizens for Federal Term Limits, says that with term limits the seniority system will vanish and that will solve several problems. “The beauty of the whole amendment is that all of the states will be on an equal footing,” he said.

Term limits are essential because more than 90 percent of incumbents are re-elected and because they take in 10 times as much PAC money as challengers, Clark added. “We need term limits because the country is $5 trillion in debt, because politicians stay too long in Washington, and the longer they stay the more they spend.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PROPOSITION FOUR Proposition Four would direct Idaho’s congressional delegation to push for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution limiting the terms of new U.S. Representatives to three terms, and those currently holding office to two additional terms. Newly elected U.S. Senators would be limited to two terms and those currently holding office could only serve one more term. Any member of the delegation who fails to support this constitutional change would be identified on the ballot as “disregarding voters’ instruction on term limits.” The initiative also calls for Idaho’s delegation to sign a pledge supporting term limits and if they don’t, to again be identified on the ballot as failing to support term limits. Finally, the initiative requires Idaho’s Legislature to request that Congress call a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to include term limits.