Nethercutt To Announce ‘Plans’ Today

Rep. George Nethercutt is expected to announce today whether he will break his 1994 pledge to limit himself to three terms in office.

A spokesman for the Spokane Republican said late Saturday that Nethercutt will have a news conference at noon in the Ag Trade Center to “announce future plans.” Press aide Ken Lisaius declined to give further details on the announcement, but said access to the news conference would be restricted to members of the news media.

Nethercutt has been under pressure from U.S. Term Limits of Washington, D.C., and its local chapter, the Eastern Washington Term Limits Coalition, to retire at the end of this term. He has repeatedly said he is seeking advice from friends, advisers and constituents before deciding whether to run again.

Term limits groups have spent more than $100,000 on television and radio commercials, billboards, bus signs, bumper stickers, yard signs - even a sign towed behind a private plane during the Lilac Parade - all with one message: “Keep your word, George.”

The Washington, D.C., term limits group is affiliated with a group that spent more than $300,000 in 1994, when political novice Nethercutt challenged and ultimately defeated House Speaker Tom Foley in a close election.

At the time, a new state law limited members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three terms in office. Foley had joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn the law.

Nethercutt pledged to serve no more than three terms. Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that term limits required a constitutional amendment, Nethercutt said he believed in self-imposed term limits.

But in the past year, Nethercutt has argued that Eastern Washington would be at a disadvantage under the seniority systerm that runs Congress if he limited his term and other representatives did not. He said his 1994 pledge was a mistake, and he wished he had never made it.