No Limit On Financing Term Limits Initiative Fans Keep Spending After First Try Struck Down
The backers of a congressional term-limits initiative similar to one declared unconstitutional last summer by the state Supreme Court pumped $49,000 into gathering petitions in the five months since the high court ruling.
A campaign finance report filed with the Secretary of State on Friday showed that Citizens for Federal Term Limits-Idaho Campaign spent nearly $76,600 during 1997 - two thirds with California-based Progressive Campaigns Inc. for signature gathering.
Those bills and more were paid by the initiative’s chief backer, Hayden Lake businesswoman Donna Weaver.
In the months after the high court voided Weaver’s 1996 congressional term limits initiative, Weaver lent the new initiative drive almost $55,000. She also donated more than $4,100 more throughout 1997 in so-called in-kind contributions.
In early August, the Supreme Court unanimously declared unconstitutional the 1996 initiative designed to carry out the term limitations voters approved two years earlier.
The 1996 measure required candidates for Congress and the Legislature to sign pledges to support a federal constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms or be identified on the election ballot as disregarding the term limit directive.
The high court held that the scheme violated candidates rights to free speech and debate on political issues.
Weaver’s group spent $200,000 in the campaign to pass the now-voided proposition even though there was no organized opposition to it.
A fifth of the cash was funneled to the Idaho campaign through the Utah Term Limits organization.
The new initiative, filed just five days before tougher requirements for getting issues on the ballot took effect, proposes allowing congressional candidates to voluntarily pledge to limit their service if elected and rewards those signing the pledge with a ballot designation saying they have done so.
It also would require a designation on future ballots indicating a candidate who violated the pledge.
Despite its similarity, Weaver has said that she believes it will survive any challenge before the Supreme Court.
xxxx A SECOND TRY The new term-limits initiative proposes allowing congressional candidates to voluntarily pledge to limit their service if elected. It would reward those signing the pledge with a ballot designation saying they have done so. It also would require a designation on future ballots indicating a candidate who violated the pledge.