Maine voters could have their say next year on whether to change the state law limiting lawmakers to four consecutive terms in Augusta.

The Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to send to referendum in November 2006 a proposal to extend legislative term limits to six terms, or 12 years.

“It’s a step in the right direction for democracy,” said Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, whose original bill sought an outright repeal of the limits, imposed by voters in 1993. “Term limits is a failed experiment and since [their introduction] we’ve been trying to reverse the damage.”

The measure still needs approval from the full House and Senate and the governor’s signature before going out to referendum. The change would not apply to sitting lawmakers and would not affect existing limits on legislative leadership positions.

The committee’s morning vote followed the introduction of a new – and rather conspicuous – participant in the term limits debate: a 12-foot tall wooden Trojan Horse outside the west entrance of the State House.

The carved horse, a prop of the newly formed statewide group, Don’t Touch Term Limits, is designed, its handlers say, to warn voters against the Legislature’s attempt to “wrest control of Maine’s government from her citizens,” by changing the term limits law.

“It will go down in flames if they try to put it on the ballot,” predicted Paul Jacob, a spokesman for U.S. Term Limits, a national organization that runs the Don’t Touch Term Limits project. “Legislators have never liked term limits, but voters do. And voters are the boss.”

The wooden horse, which also made stops outside the homes of some committee members Tuesday evening, did not make its debut in Maine.

Indeed, it was a common sight in Arkansas last year before voters there soundly defeated an effort to extend term limits. Two years earlier it made stops in California, where voters also rejected a term limits extension, Jacob said in a telephone interview.

“[The horse] did a heck of a job,” said Jacob, who promised to help local opponents defeat the measure should it go to referendum.

The horse’s high profile arrival in Augusta caught many lawmakers by surprise Wednesday.

“It’s an interesting approach, but it really has zero impact on the way we deal with these issues,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Ken Gagnon, D-Waterville, who was at his daughter’s softball game Tuesday evening and didn’t see the horse stop in front of his house.

“It means much more to me if it comes from one of my constituents,” he continued.

It has been nearly a decade since Maine’s term limits laws took effect, and the arguments over their merits – or lack thereof – haven’t changed much.

Supporters say the limits encourage turnover in the State House and prevent entrenched politicians from amassing too much power. Opponents say they remove Augusta’s most experienced lawmakers, and on a more fundamental level, take power from voters by limiting their choice of candidates.

Two recent publications have renewed the debate over Maine’s law:

. A Pew Foundation study dubbed the Legislature “under-experienced and overworked,” with term limits a major hurdle to its ability to make long-term financial plans.

. A recent book by three present and former University of Maine professors found the limits have increased the power of the executive branch and bogged down the lawmaking process.

Maine is one of 15 states with legislative term limits. Maine’s law, like those of eight other states, allows lawmakers to return after a hiatus. In six states, there are lifetime limits on legislative service.

As many as 20 states have had similar limits, but courts or voters have reversed laws in five states.

In 2002, Idaho lawmakers were the first to repeal their limits, passed in 1994. Voters narrowly upheld the repeal after term limits supporters put the matter back on the ballot.

A year later, the Utah Legislature repealed its term limits.

Maine’s law came by way of a 1993 citizen initiative drive that gathered a record 87,000 signatures to place the matter on the ballot. Sixty-eight percent of voters favored the limits at referendum.

Former state Sen. Rick Bennett, spokesman for the local Don’t Touch Term Limits drive, said Wednesday that any changes to the law should come by way of a citizen initiative – not the Legislature.

As has been the case in some states – most recently Arkansas and Montana – convincing voters to allow politicians more time in power can prove difficult.

“I suspect it will be an uphill battle,” Gagnon said.