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A Limit To Term Limits?
 In November 2002, an overwhelming majority of the state's voters approved an amendment to the Missouri constitution limiting the number of years of new service in the legislature to eight years in the state House of Representatives and eight years in the State Senate. (Voters subsequently clarified the terms, but the limits remained.) Current state law limits the terms that can be served as governor and treasurer to two, but is silent on the other statewide offices.
There is some evidence, however, that some Missourians are ready to change the status quo.
Buried somewhere in the pile of bills in the State Capitol dealing with the pressing economic and social issues of the day (and under the usual assortment of solemn resolutions proclaiming Official State Vegetables and the like) are a couple of proposals that could change the state's laws regarding the rotation of legislators in office. There is also a petition circulating statewide (yes, Ed Martin, we know it's you!) that would do the same thing for the terms of some statewide executive offices in Missouri.
The national debate about rotation in office and the opportunity to encourage it with statutory limits dates back to the Founding Fathers. (If we recall our political science classes correctly: Mason supported them, Madison and Livingston opposed them, etc.) Contemporary supporters of term limits argue, among other things, that turning over its membership at intervals creates a more diverse and effective legislature and gives legislators more freedom to focus on issues instead of careers; opponents argue, among other things, that such limits usurp voters' choices, devalue experience, and empower permanent interests, like staffs and lobbyists.
The US Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that states could not put limits on the terms served by their representatives in Congress, but the composition of the high court has changed since then. Recently, a self-described group of generally progressive "law professors and jurists" has proposed limiting the terms of Supreme Court justices.
This week's Mini-Poll hopes to take a quick snapshot of our readers' opinions about the worth of term limits for our elected (and other) officials.
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