EDITORIAL: Term limits for Alabama: let the voters decide

on March 18, 2011 at 11:24 AM, updated March 18, 2011 at 11:28 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama _ Being a member of the Alabama Legislature must be a better job than many of us would imagine. And maybe that's part of the reason a lawmaker from near Mobile thinks voters should have a chance to keep politics stirred up in Montgomery.

State Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, is promoting a bill would let voters decide whether they want to rewrite the state constitution to force lawmakers out of office after three consecutive four-year terms. If approved by the voters, the bill wouldn't apply to terms before November, when new terms began. A three-term legislator could run again after sitting out a term.

"I think it's healthy for a representative form of government to get new blood in the system," Pittman told The Birmingham News. The Legislature did get a lot of new blood in the November general election, when Republicans won control of the House and Senate for the first time in 136 years. That fact might be a good argument for term limits.

Until November, it seemed like lawmakers just didn't get defeated very often and usually held on to their seats for decades, sometimes staying on until after they were old enough to qualify for Social Security and Medicare.

Some lawmakers from North Alabama have been good examples of legislative longevity: former Rep. Tommy Ed Carter, D-Elkmont, served 36 years before he retired; former Sen. Hinton Mitchem, D-Union Grove; 36 years, before he retired; former state Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison and former Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, both served 28 years before they were defeated in November. Rep. Howard Sanderford, R-Huntsville, began his seventh term in November.

A couple of points Pittman makes will be familiar to anyone who remembers the debates over term limits that broke out across the country 20 years ago.

For one thing, incumbents most of the time have a substantial advantage in raising money and name recognition, making it especially difficult for a newcomer to win. Sometimes incumbents don't even have any opposition in either their party's primary or the general election.

Supporters say term limits would bring fresh ideas and new people from diverse backgrounds who might not otherwise run.

They also say term limits would weaken relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers, reduce the influence of entrenched special interests, and discourage people from becoming career politicians. Given the corruption and other foolishness that has gone on in Montgomery for decades, the Alabama Legislature has made a textbook case for term limits.

But good ideas don't always deliver results and may bring unintended consequences.

In the 1990s, 21 states enacted term limits; they have since been repealed or found unconstitutional in six. A study co-sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures and a couple of similar groups found that term limits did not live up to proponents' promises.

The Joint Project on Term Limits looked at the experience of legislatures in six states with term limits and three without. Among other things, the study found that governors and their executive branches gained more influence in state affairs, particularly in writing budgets. Legislators who don't have veteran leadership may hesitate to challenge a governor's budget.

In states with term limits, many leaders become lame ducks as soon as they take office, and as a result have less influence. Term limits made little difference in the makeup of legislatures: There was no increase in female lawmakers and no significant difference in legislators' ages or occupations. And opponents note that voters get a chance to end lawmakers' terms every four years.

Still, when it takes 136 years to make a major difference in the Legislature, it's time Alabama voters get a chance to have their say about term limits.
