AUGUSTA – An hour of impassioned debate Monday failed to convince a majority of the Maine House of Representatives that the state’s current legislative term limits law was in need of revision.

LD 1273 would have sent the question of whether sitting lawmakers should be allowed to serve more than four consecutive two-year terms to the voters on Nov. 4. But in its first vote on the measure, the House defeated the bill 82-61. The legislation now proceeds to the Senate for further action.

The bill was sponsored by Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, and approved 11-2 by the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. The panel amended Pingree’s original legislation which extended a state representative’s or state senator’s longevity to six terms for a total of 12 consecutive years. Under Pingree’s original legislation, termed-out lawmakers would have to take two years off before they could run again for the same seat. The amended bill allowed sitting, termed-out lawmakers to run for four more years.

In 1993, Mainers voted 159,785 to 76,732 in favor of the current law. The decision came on the heels of a 1991 state shutdown resulting from entrenched partisan politics in the State House over workers’ compensation costs and the 1992 “ballotgate” scandal. An ensuing investigation of that incident culminated in ballot-tampering convictions against a key aide to then-House Speaker John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake.

The ballot-tampering incident took place only days after Martin, now a state senator, was elected to an unprecedented 10th term as presiding officer of the House. The incident helped trigger the legislative term limits campaign, a citizen’s initiative largely financed by the late Elizabeth Noyce, a Bremen Republican. The law’s passage seemed to be a solution for many voters who associated entrenched politicians with accumulated years of unchecked power.

Since its enactment, however, the law has attracted a growing list of critics. Opponents claim four terms are insufficient to prepare freshmen legislators for key leadership roles. They also maintain term limits erode the Legislature’s institutional memory, provides a greater advantage for the governor and increases the influence of lobbyists.

Rep. Pat Blanchette, D-Bangor and a member of the LVA Committee, voted with the majority of her panel on the issue. She told other representatives Monday that term limits were initiated as the result of “dirty politics that started in Washington, D.C. with the Watergate scandal.”

“Then, lo and behold, we had Watergate in a much smaller fashion in Augusta, Maine,” she said. “Leadership was entrenched. It was overbearing, overpowering – not wrong – but it was there… If you do not bring new blood to the leadership table, it becomes one person’s domain.”

Blanchette, other Democrats and many Republicans agreed Monday that the political culture in the state has changed significantly since 1993 and that Maine voters deserve the chance to reconsider a decision that may no longer be relevant.

But Rep. Roger Sherman, R-Hodgdon, told his seatmates they had better things to do than try and second-guess a 10-year-old mandate set by an overwhelming majority of Maine voters.

“How silly can we be?” he said. “There’s $19 million missing from the Department of Human Services. And we’re sitting here talking about term limits? I’m sorry, I think we need to get about the business we’re here for and have the guts to do those things we need to do.”