Nothing appears more plausible at first sight, nor more ill-founded upon close inspection, than a scheme which in relation to the present point has had some respectable advocates, I mean that of continuing the chief magistrate in office for a certain time, and then excluding him from it, either for a limited period or forever after. This exclusion, whether temporary or perpetual, would have nearly the same effects, and these effects would be for the most part rather pernicious than salutary. – Alexander Hamilton “Federalist No. 72”

Mr. Hamilton frames this debate well. He is quick to point out that proponents of term limits are “respectable advocates” while concurrently suggesting that “close inspection” reveals the folly of term limits.

In this vein, I hope to pen a number of posts concerning this subject and, hence, no one post should be considered my final word on the matter. So to that end, let’s begin here:

In no other arena but politics would experience and expertise be dismissed and rejected as a prudent decision. Imagine the lunacy of suggesting that the skilled and experienced surgeon be replaced by the inexperienced… Read More

Since my commentary yesterday on statesmanship in the GOP, and those candidates during last weekend’s California Republican Party convention who had offered public congrats to their winning opponents, the comments and emails have been fast and furious.

This includes some added remarks of congratulations, although no coincidence between the following and my FR post of yesterday is implied or intended:

Dear Republican Leader,

I want to congratulate Laura Gadke on her election as the California Republican Party Vice Chairman for the Central Valley Region.

I believe both Laura and I ran a campaign based on wanting to help Republican Central Committees and volunteer organizations in our region. Our goals are the same: to help our Central Committees build better registration programs, expand Republican volunteer programs and our donor base.

I pledge to help Laura in her efforts and I look forward to working with her and our Central Committee members and volunteer organizations throughout the… Read More

This morning the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (Which I chair) held their monthly meeting. The speaker was former Assemblyman and controller candidate Tony Strickland. He of course will run for McClintock’s seat in the Senate.

A lively discussion of Presidential candidates took place. Strickland is a Romney guy. Most interesting he predicted that this attempt to change term limits would fail. Tony says he supports some changes in term limits, but that voters are smart enough to reject the plan that Nunez has.

Tony won’t be able to run if he’s wrong.… Read More

For the past week, I had been hearing about the pending confirmation vote to take place for Linda Shelton, a Democrat who was appointed as a Commissioner on the Board of Parole Hearings by Governor Schwarzenegger about a year ago. The more I kept hearing, the more I was convinced that while the Governor may have made this appointment in good faith, believing that Shelton would be as tough on criminals as he was, clearly she demonstrated over her first year that she was not. Frankly, the Governor probably should have withdrawn her name from consideration before it came up for a vote, which happened earlier this week.

Frankly, were in not for the hectic schedule that I had due to last weekend’s California Republican Party convention, I would have been writing ahead of the nomination, urging the Governor to pull her name, and short of that, urging Senators concerned about her history of voting to put convicted violent felons out on the streets before their full sentence was served.

Given that liberals control the State Senate (you know the type, the ones who believe that if someone is a criminal, it is because ‘society’ let them down, not… Read More

For the past week, I had been hearing about the pending confirmation vote to take place for Linda Shelton, a Democrat who was appointed as a Commissioner on the Board of Parole Hearings by Governor Schwarzenegger about a year ago. The more I kept hearing, the more I was convinced that while the Governor may have made this appointment in good faith, believing that Shelton would be as tough on criminals as he was, clearly she demonstrated over her first year that she was not. Frankly, the Governor probably should have withdrawn her name from consideration before it came up for a vote, which happened earlier this week.

Frankly, were in not for the hectic schedule that I had due to last weekend’s California Republican Party convention, I would have been writing ahead of the nomination, urging the Governor to pull her name, and short of that, urging Senators concerned about her history of voting to put convicted violent felons out on the streets before their full sentence was served.

Given that liberals control the State Senate (you know the type, the ones who believe that if someone is a criminal, it is because ‘society’ let them down, not… Read More

Today it was announced that a coalition of ‘interested parties’ is being formed to place a measure on the next statewide ballot (presumably the February ’08 Presidential Primary) to change our current term-limits restrictions from six two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the State Senate, to a new limit that is 12 years aggregate in either chamber of the legislature. It is not clear yet what the passage of this measure would mean for all of the current incumbent legislators, though it is suspected that they would all get to serve a lot more time than they currently have left – especially important to those politicians like Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez who would face life in the private sector at the end of next year. Perhaps this is why Nunez is pledging to dip heavily into the $7+ million that he has stockpiled away in campaign funds.

Democrat strategist Gale Kaufman and Republican strategist Matthew Dowd are onboard with this measure, providing political leadership.

I reached out to Paul Jacobs, the President of United States Term Limits, the nation’s leading advocate for term limit measures around the… Read More

Today Red County launched its third Red County blog — Red County/San Diego. San Diego is a natural place to launch a new RC blog, and we’re fortunate to have recruited an expansive — and still growing — blogpen of contributors, including:

Brian Bilbray: Congressman, 50th Congressional District Mark Wyland, state Senator, 37th Senate District Martin Garrick: Assemblyman, 74th Assembly District Barry Jantz: former La Mesa Councilman and longtime San Diego activist. Jerome Stocks: Encinitas City Councilman Jennifer Jacobs: award-winning partner in the Coronado Communications, a leading public affairs and political consulting firm.

We have a number of other contributors — some writing under their own name, and other who need to employ pseudonyms in order to blog freely. I invite all of our readers to check out Red County/San Diego, bookmark it and check it often to find out what is happening… Read More

Shane Goldmacher on Capitol Alert reports the much anticipated proposal to lengthen term limits will be brought outwith submission to the Attorney General’s office today. Presenting it are Speaker Nunez’s consultant Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd of the Schwarzenegger campaign, giving it"bipartisan" cover.

The proposal as a selling point, calls for the "shortening" of total time served from 14 to 12 years, as we’ve been hearing, maxing at up to 12 years in one house. Here’s the funny part, if you are already in the Senate now, you can get an extra "transitional" term that allows up to 16 Legislator years…or,would it be18 if you served 6 years in the Assembly already and want to do 3 Senate terms? Or what if youcame inona half term in the Senate on a special election, maybe you get 14 Senate years then?

I’m not a Greek mathematician or anything but those numbers allseem bigger than 12 to me. Other details should be interesting too, like can previously termed out… Read More