A FAILED EXPERIMENT

When Maine joined the term limits fad in 1993, it looked to its advocates like a silver bullet that would expand democracy, force the retirement of political hacks, and (not incidentally) get rid of the longtime Democratic Speaker of the House, John Martin of Eagle Lake. It accomplished none of those goals.

Instead of improving democracy, it restricted the right to vote for candidates of one’s choice. In clearing the decks, it brought in a flood of newcomers with a torrent of bills that older hands would have remembered as failures. By removing experienced legislative leaders, it put Maine’s government out of balance by ceding power to the executive branch. It increased the influence of lobbyists, a popular perch for those who have been termed out. And it kept rural Maine from using the seniority system to offset urban centers’ advantage in numbers. If Congress had term limits, a small state like Maine would never have had its long succession of effective senior senators.

As for John Martin, he turned up in the Senate and is still going strong, although he will be termed out again next year.

The time has come to get rid of term limits, and a bipartisan group of legislators proposes to give us all a chance to do just that. Their bill would send a referendum to Maine voters asking, “Do you favor repealing term limits for legislators?” Ideally, the measure should go on the 2008 general election ballot with its expected heavy turnout. True enough, a 70 percent majority approved term limits in 1993, but only 25 percent of the electorate went to the polls. Many of them were persuaded by a $300,000 propaganda campaign financed by the late Elizabeth Noyce, a generous and goodhearted philanthropist who had been mistakenly persuaded that term limits meant better government.

Instead, the Legislature has lost sterling legislators like former Sens. Jill Goldthwait, I-Bar Harbor; Mary Cathcart, D-Orono; and Betty Lou Mitchell, R-Etna; and former Rep. Mike Saxl, D-Portland.

Numerous voluntary resignations and re-election defeats demonstrate a healthy turnover apart from the working of term limits.

The new bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, rightly called term limits antidemocratic from the start. He said, “People are not given the choice to elect who they want in their districts. That’s wrong.” Co-sponsor Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, brushes aside the two-term limit for the governor: “I do not believe that rationale extends to a member of a 186-member legislative branch, particularly in a part-time citizen legislature. I believe voters should have the option of voting for the candidate of their choice and the option of voting to repeal term limits.”

There should be no repetition of the halfhearted attempts in past years to lengthen the current statutory limits of four consecutive two-year terms for members of the House and Senate.

If it’s broke, don’t try to fix it. Just throw it away.