Term-Limit Backers Continue Campaign Aimed At Nethercutt

Sat., May 8, 1999

From Staff

Term-limits activists are taking to the streets with their call for U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt to resign at the end of next year.

Or rather, Spokane Transit Authority buses are doing it for them.

The Eastern Washington Term Limits Action Committee is paying for posters on the sides of 15 STA buses which say “Keep your word, George.” The posters will be on the buses for the next month, at a cost of about $3,100, said spokesman Jeff Breedlove.

The rolling “busboards” are the latest tactic in a campaign that so far has included a billboard, bumper stickers, television and radio commercials. U.S. Term Limits, the national organization affiliated with the local committee, has spent more than $100,000 trying to convince Nethercutt to retire.

The group says Nethercutt should keep his 1994 promise to serve no more than three terms. During that election, the Spokane Republican ran as a strong supporter of term limits and criticized his opponent, then-Speaker Tom Foley, for challenging the state’s term limits law in court.

In the last year, however, Nethercutt has said he has changed his mind about term limits. Washington state would be at a disadvantage in the present seniority system if its members of Congress limited their terms while members from other states continued to win re-election, he said.

Nethercutt said he will make a decision this spring on whether to run for re-election.

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