How many term limits for senators

To circumvent this provision, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama , announced in that voters should elect his wife, Lurleen Wallace, their next governor. It was clear during the campaign that Mrs. Wallace would be a governor in name only, and thus she was elected the first female governor of Alabama. Beginning in the s, term limit laws were imposed on twenty state legislatures through either successful ballot measures , referenda, legislative acts, or state constitutional changes.

The Maine legislature was the first state to enact legislative term limits in Since , however, six state legislatures have either overturned their own limits or state supreme courts have ruled such limits unconstitutional. In the Idaho Legislature became the first legislature of its kind to repeal its own term limits, enacted by a public vote in , ostensibly because it applied to local officials along with the legislature.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the mayor cannot be elected 3 consecutive times, but there is no limit on how long any individual can serve as mayor. Frank Rizzo was elected mayor there in and , then tried and failed to get the 3-consecutive ban overturned, so could not run for that office in Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error.

Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? Jump to: navigation , search. Categories : Public policy desk Term limits. Voter information What's on my ballot? Where do I vote? How do I register to vote? How do I request a ballot? When do I vote? When are polls open? Who Represents Me? Congress special elections Governors State executives State legislatures Ballot measures State judges Municipal officials School boards.

How do I update a page? Election results. Privacy policy About Ballotpedia Disclaimers Login. Not on ballot. The Court decided, in a split decision, that citizens are not allowed to term limit their own members of Congress using state laws.

Justice Scalia disagreed, ruling for term limits as part of the dissenting minority. This was without doubt a low point for term limits. The Court seemed to have shut down every realistic avenue to fight careerism in Washington. Did you catch that? While they had closed the door to term-limiting Congress with state laws, they had opened another by saying it can be done through amendment to the Constitution. The Convention is not a state law like those the Court struck down — it is a constitutional call-to-action that triggers automatically when 34 state legislatures have demanded it.

The Founders recognized that the Constitution may have flaws and would have to adapt as the country grew. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton wrote about the beauty of Article V, stating it made it difficult but not too difficult, to propose corrections to the Constitution.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

I returned on February 3, to argue that the results of the elections strongly supported the position that term limits are neither necessary nor desirable for the healthy functioning of our democratic system. I noted that it would be a supreme irony if term limits were adopted at the very moment that Republicans had finally grasped the reins of power in Congress. The political marketplace operated efficiently in , without arbitrary limits built into the Constitution, to accelerate membership turnover, end one-party dominance of the House of Representatives, and limit the automatic advantages of seniority.

Today the debate over legislative term limits has even less urgency and plausibility than it did two years ago. The House provided backers of the term limit amendment a full debate and vote on the floor; the intellectual force of the opposition, led by the redoubtable chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, provided a compelling, principled rationale for rejecting the amendment. Nothing has happened in the world of politics since that vote to strengthen the case for limiting terms.

Almost two-thirds of the members of the House were first elected in the s; 40 of the senators are in their first term one of whom, with only two years of experience in the Senate, already chairs a major committee. The last election also saw a continuation of the trend toward more competitive congressional elections. Incumbent reelection rates and margins of victory in , , and were low enough to encourage future challengers and put fear in the hearts of members of the Senate and House who seek reelection.

The two major political parties are now more competitive at the presidential and congressional levels than at any other time in recent decades. No longer do we speak of one-party dominance of either branch of government. Those who embraced term limits as a last desperate attempt to cope with crushing budget deficits also have reason to reconsider their position. The argument that overspending by government is a direct result of careerism in Congress always rested on an exceedingly weak evidentiary base.

Seniority is dwarfed by party and ideology in shaping spending decisions by members of Congress. Now we have declining deficits that make the fiscal position of the United States the envy of the world and good prospects for balancing the budget in the not distant future.

While we face difficult decisions over how best to cope with the looming demographic pressure on our social insurance programs, there is no reason to believe a term-limited Congress would make wiser or more timely decisions. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein Stalemate By Sarah A.

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