You’d have to be living under a rock on Mars not to know that one hot button issue this year is term limits. Last November, the City Council voted to extend term limits from two to three consecutive terms for city level offices.
Queens Councilmembers who supported the extension did not fare well on Primary Day. Melinda Katz lost her bid for Comptroller to John Liu and Helen Sears lost a primary to Danny Dromm, while Thomas White eked out a win over Lynn Nunes, a 24-year-old newcomer.
Nevertheless, let us not read too much into this. Voters were not exactly streaming to the polls, pitch forks in hand, to vote out pro-term limits extension incumbents. Citywide turnout in the Democratic primary was very low, around 11 percent.
Voter revolts generally mean high turnout. Nationally, the highest turnouts of the past generation were presidential elections where the incumbent, or his party, were thrown out amid intense voter dissatisfaction. In 1992, 55 percent voted in a rejection of George H. W. Bush, while 56 percent voted last year in a repudiation of his son, the highest turnout since 1968.
Therefore, the reason Katz and Sears fared poorly was not their position on term limits, but rather their opponents simply out-organizing them. In a low turnout election, the name of the game is to identify your supporters and pull them to the polls through a get out the vote (GOTV) operation. Liu’s victory has been credited to the backing of the Working Families Party and organized labor, as well as high turnout among Chinese-Americans.
Dromm, like Liu, attacked his opponent on term limits, but also other issues including the closure of St. John’s Hospital. Dromm, an openly gay schoolteacher and Democratic District Leader, received strong support from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
True, term limits are popular. Thirty-six states have term limits for governors. In addition to New York City, voters in 15 states have approved term limits for legislators, by an average of 67 percent.
Nevertheless, failure to back term limits does not mean political suicide. One of the planks in Republicans’ 1994 Contract With America was a constitutional amendment to provide for congressional term limits. The GOP rode that platform to end 52 years of Democratic control of Congress. However, House Democrats blocked the two-thirds support needed to pass the amendment and still managed to gain seats the next two elections.
While some say term limits encourage new blood and prevent control by career politicians, others argue term limits take away voters’ choices, that voters should be trusted to kick out an ineffective incumbent while an incumbent who is doing a good job should not be forced into early retirement.
Valid arguments can be made on both sides, and, as demonstrated here in Queens and elsewhere, candidates have not, and will not, live or die with their stance on term limits.
Daniel Egers is on the staff of Mike Bloomberg’s campaign, Executive Director of the Queens County Republican Party, a Trustee of the Bayside Historical Society and President of the Friends of Oakland Lake, among other affiliations. The views expressed in this column are his own.
