In less than two weeks, the California Republican Party Convention will take place in Indian Wells, in the Palm Springs area.  At the convention, delegates will have an opportunity to take positions for or against ballot measures set to appear on the February 2008 ballot.  I have authored a resolution to oppose what I call the Perata/Nunez Career Politican Term Limits Extension Act.  (Will you support my resolution? Drop me a line.)  I have signed the following letter  to all CRP voting delegates:

Funded by the Sacramento special interests with business before the Legislature, Perata and Nunez  are engaged in one of the most cynical and blatantly dishonest efforts to manipulate and fool the voters – particularly GOP voters – in modern California political history.

I’m writing to ask you to join me in standing up against this outrageous and deceitful power grab. I have submitted the enclosed resolution calling on the California Republican Party to formally oppose the Perata/Nunez Initiative to weaken term limits at our upcoming State Convention. 

The Perata/Nunez Initiative greatly lengthens terms for over 80% of legislators, enables 42 termed out legislators to remain in office and would enable Perata to remain as Senate President until 2012 and Nunez as Assembly Speaker until 2014!  The initiative contains a special exemption for incumbents – specifically written to benefit Perata – that enables several incumbents to be in office for 16, 17, 18, 20 and even 26 years.

But California voters overwhelmingly support term limits for politicians according to independent polling.  A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 68% of Californians believe term limits is a “good thing” for the state and only 16% thought it was a “bad thing.”  70% of California voters supported term limits in a recent Field Poll. California Republicans support term limits by even greater numbers.

That’s why previous efforts by the Sacramento politicians to weaken term limits have failed miserably.  In 2002, they pushed Prop. 45 and, despite outspending term limits supporters by 12 to 1, still lost in a landslide.

So Perata and Nunez have decided to use the public’s strong support for term limits to trick the electorate into weakening term limits so they can stay in power.  They are pushing a misleading initiative that falsely claims to toughen and reduce term limits but in fact does just the opposite!

Their initiative claims to “reduce” the maximum terms allowed by changing the current maximum of 8 years allowed in the Senate and 6 years allowed in the Assembly to allow a member to serve all 12 years in one chamber.  The reality is that very few legislators serve all 14 years. This a major weakening of term limits that effectively doubles the limits for the Assembly from 6 years to 12 years and increases the limit for the Senate by 50% – from 8 years to 12 years.

In fact, polling conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California revealed that 64% of likely voters opposed changing the current caps of 8 years in the Senate and 6 years in the Assembly to 12 years in one chamber.

That’s why Perata and Nunez had Attorney General Jerry Brown write a misleading Title and Summary for the Initiative which doesn’t mention the current limits and claims the initiative is a “reduction” in terms. Consequently, the strongest supporters of this initiative to benefit the Legislature’s liberal bosses are Republican voters who think the initiative toughens term limits.

This issue is about more than term limits.  The initiative represents an abuse of power and manipulation of the system by Perata, Nunez and Jerry Brown.  It is vital that the California Republican Party stand up for the values of our members and our voters and support our state’s existing term limits law from attack by the liberal Sacramento politicians.

Regardless of whether you are a philosophical supporter of term limits or not, I hope as a matter of principle you will join me in opposing this cynical effort to defy the will of the people and deceive them into weakening term limits.       

I am proud to be a volunteer supporter of the California Term Limits Defense Fund, the committee organized by term limits supporters and taxpayer advocates to protect the will of the voters and defend term limits from the Sacramento politicians and special interests.  You can show your support for the Resolution by mailing the enclosed support card, faxing it back or e-mailing me at jon@flashreport.org.  Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Jon Fleischman
Vice-Chairman, South
California Republican Party

SEE THE RESOLUTION HERE.

A PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS LETTER IS ATTACHED BELOW.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.