Recently, 53 candidates for Montana’s state legislature signed pledges to support term limits if elected. Of those candidates, 11 are running for seats in Yellowstone County, all of whom are Republicans.
On the State House side, Gary Parry (HD35), Larry Brewster (HD43), Kassidy Olson (HD45), Stephanie Moncada (HD47), Curtis Schomer (HD48), Sherry Essman (HD49), Jodee Etchart (HD51), and Nelly Nicol (HD53) have all signed the pledge. State Senate candidates include Gayle Lammers (SD31), Mike Yakawich (SD24), and Vince Ricci (SD27).
The pledge signed by these candidates states the following:
I pledge that, as a member of the state legislature, I will cosponsor, vote for, and defend the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the sole purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.
These pledges are a part of the efforts of U.S. Term Limits, a non-profit organization dedicated to enacting term limits for elected officials at every level of government in the U.S., specifically, however, in the U.S. Congress.
According to USTL, in the 1995 case Thornton v. U.S. Term Limits, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could only be term limited by an amendment to the Constitution. To do this, an amendment would have to be ratified by two-thirds, or 38, of the states. Thus, USTL has been working to gain pledges from members of various state legislatures.
Term limits generally have bipartisan support, with a 2023 Pew survey suggesting that 87% of adults favored congressional term limits in some capacity, including 90% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats. However, there are also folks that oppose congressional term limits, often making the snide remark that “we already have term-limits, they’re called elections.” The political philosophy debate that this creates is intriguing, as even this country’s founding fathers disagreed. James Madison believed that term limits would lead to government dysfunction and that frequent elections were a better alternative, while Thomas Jefferson wrote “I apprehend that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation (term limits) in the offices of president and senator will end in abuse.” Proponents of term-limits suggest that they would ensure that members of Congress have real-world experiences and that they are more in touch with their constituents. Detractors of term limits suggest that incumbent politicians are more beholden to their constituents because they need enough support to be re-elected, and that more experienced members of Congress can form better relationships and command more seniority, thus giving them the ability to negotiate more benefits for their constituents.
