Florida officially calls on U.S. Congress to pass term limits amendment!

The Florida legislature today officially called on the U.S. Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment limiting Congressional terms in office.

The resolution, passed by acclamation in both houses of the Florida legislature, will be sent to the president of the United States, Speaker of the U.S. House, president of the U.S. Senate and each member of the Florida Congressional delegation.

Florida is the first state to take this step, but it will not be the last. With term limits polling at all-time highs and the Congress at record lows, pressure is building around the nation for Congress to take action.

Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. David Schweikert have introduced a constitutional amendment (SJR 11 and HJR 71, respectively) limiting congressional terms in the Senate and House. While the Florida action does not specifically mention any specific legislative proposal, they are the first state to go on record in the past decade supporting a congressional term limitation constitutional amendment. Voters overwhelmingly supported Florida’s state constitutional limits on state legislators in 1992 with 77 percent support. Polling from Quinnipiac University in 2009 suggests 82 percent of Floridians continue to support term limits on public officials.

Nationally, the support for term limits remains strong with 78 percent of Americans supporting congressional term limits according to a September 2010 poll conducted for FoxNews by Public Opinion Dynamics. Support is strong across partisan lines with 84 percent of Republicans favoring the idea while 74 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Independents also support limiting congressional terms.

Passage of the term limits constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and ratification by three-quarters (38) of the states in order to become part of the Constitution. The states are the easy part. The trick is getting through the U.S. Congress and this official call from a important state like Florida is a big help.

The Florida resolution was introduced by State Rep. Matt Caldwell (HM83) in the Florida House and Sen. Joe Negron (SM672) in the Senate.

"The evidence is in. Term limits work,” said Rep. Matt Caldwell of Lehigh Acres. "New York, Illinois and Florida have all been faced with tough decisions on how to balance their state budgets over the last few years. Only one of these states has term limits and only one of these states has cut their budgets to match their revenues and refused to raise taxes."

"Congress is on a collision course with federal bankruptcy and our last, best hope is to bring serious and permanent change to Washington, D.C.," he said.

Special thanks to Rep. Caldwell, Sen. Joe Negron, the Campaign for Liberty and grass roots lobbyist John Hallman for their work in getting this done!

Congressional term limits memorial passes Florida House!

Rep. Matt Caldwell's memorial that calls on Florida's Congressional delegation to pass federal term limits has passed the Florida House today!

Grass roots lobbyist John Hallman, who has helped shepherd the bill through Tallahassee, reports Sen. Joe Negron's version of the bill is headed to the Senate floor imminently and expects it too will pass.

House votes to protect county term limits from litigious local pols

Hopefully, this bill won't be necessary. But just in case, Rep. John Wood (R-Winter Haven)'s bill to make the constitutionality of county term limits explicit unanimously passed the Florida House on Feb. 23.

First, a recap: Of the 20 home rule counties in Florida, voters in 10 have approved term limits over the last 15 years. Politicians have tried every trick in the book the get around the voter-approved reforms but to little avail.*

In August of last year the 4th District Court of Appeals -- the highest court in the state ever to look at the issue -- decided unanimously and unabiguously that county commission term limits are indeed constitutional. The politicians only have one last chance of overturning the will of voters, the Supreme Court of Florida, which has accepted their appeal of the 4th DCA decision. The decision is imminent.

Fortunately, every indication is that the court will rule with the people, affirming the unanimous 4th DCA decision as well as all the hundreds of thousands petitions and votes of the people.

But what if the court surprises us?

While unlikely, it is always good to have a backup plan. Fortunately, we do.

Bills in both houses of the Florida legislature that would explicitly make county term limits constitutional have passed their initial subcommittee hurdles and are moving toward the floor for a vote.

If the bills pass the legislature, the voters will have the opportunity at the ballot box in November to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling, and who can doubt they will?

(PICTURED: Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven)

* Corrupt officials in Sarasota County are so far refusing to enforce their voter-approved term limits, but all nine other counties are.

Would-be Florida Senator Connie Mack IV joins incumbent in opposition to Congressional term limits

It is hardly a shock. A professional politician from a political family who is not only a Congress member but is married to one, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-Cape Coral) came out strongly against Congressional term limits on Monday.

He was making a campaign stop at the Republican Club of the Northern Palm Beaches and in response to a question made it clear he -- unlike his two competitors for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination -- would not be supporting Sen. Jim DeMint's term limits amendment bill if elected.

"The people who are now in control in the legislature are the staff who are not accountable to the members and not accountable to the voters," he said of Florida's experience with term limits. "I think what we need to do is hold people accountable who run for office. We term them out."

Reports are these cliches felt flat with the crowd. Indeed, the previous day Rep. Mack landed dead last in the straw poll held by the Florida Federation of Republican Women in Tallahassee.

He shares his anti-term limits position with the incumbent he is running against, Sen. Bill Nelson. Whereas both of his challengers for the nomination -- George LeMieux and Mike McCalister -- have signed the U.S. Term Limits Congressional pledge to cosponsor and vote for genuine 3/2 Congressional term limits as represented by the DeMint bill. Florida's current Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is a cosponsor.

In taking this position, Rep. Mack is putting his own self interest above that of the people, 79 percent of which tell pollsters they support term limits. It is funny that he criticizes the Florida legislature -- which enjoy competitive elections and regular rotation in office -- as unaccountable while endorsing the status quo in Washington DC where incumbents running for reelection win just under 95 percent of the time and have since 1970.

"We term them out," indeed. Between uncontested races, nominal challengers and the natural advantages of incumbency, the U.S. Congress is by no means competitive, accessible nor accountable and Rep. Mack knows it -- and likes it that way!

(Pictured: U.S. Reps Connie IV and Mary Bono Mack out on the town.)

Sen. J.D. Alexander sees term limit glass half full

"Thankfully for term limits there's a graceful way to get off the horse." -- Florida Sen. J.D. Alexander in the Tampa Bay Times, 2/19/12.

Congressional term limits resolution clears last Florida House committee

Following its companion bill in the Senate, the Congressional term limits memorial has passed its final committee hurdle in the House today and should be headed to the floor.

Rep. Matt Caldwell's HB 83 and Sen. Joe Negron's SB 672, if passed, would officially call upon Florida's Congressional delegation to enact a Congressional term limits amendment.

We are so close!

Please contribute to the effort. The Campaign for Liberty has chosen these bills as a priority and grassroots lobbyist John Hallman is on the case. We need back in Tallahassee this week to keep the pressure on.

Please make a contribution right now to C4L to keep John in Tallahassee working on these bills.

All contributions through this link go solely to the legislative effort. We can't let up now. Thanks!

(Pictured: Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Haines City, speaks to term limits supporters at the state capitol last year.)

OSCEOLA: If you put it on the ballot, it will win

You remember the advice of the cornfield ghosts in the film Field of Dreams, "if you build it they will come..." Such is the position of Osceola County activists who have launched an effort to limit the terms of their county commissioners to eight years in office as well as two other home rule reforms. If you take care of the first half of the project -- getting on the ballot -- the last will largely take care of itself.

That was my advice to the Osceola crew on Feb. 2, when I addressed organizers and others in Kissimmee.

There is nothing mystical about this. Polling from 2009 shows that some 85 percent of Central Floridians support term limits on their public officials. In this political environment, term limits have been passing nearly everywhere they appear on the ballot. In the 2010 elections, I counted 35 jurisdictions across America where term limits were on the ballot. Term limits won in 34. And there's an asterisk on the 35th!

This includes Cape Canveral where 70 percent of voters approved 8-year term limits for their mayor and council.

The Osceola activists are right: They need term limits. They just moved to a single-member district system and the experience of other non-term limited counties shows that rotation in office is likely to come to a standstill as incumbents become largely unbeatable -- and unrepresentative of the citizenry. This is particularly true where there are also high commissioner salaries.

Of course, these activists have a solution for that too. At the same time they are circulating petitions to put term limits on the ballot, they are also collecting signatures to reduce the commissioners' salaries from $75,000 to $39,000 and make the elections nonpartisan.

You can help!

• If you live in Osceola County, sign the petitions here. Get your friends and family to sign.
• Stay in touch with the effort by signing up for email updates here.
• Volunteer to collect signatures. If the effort is to succeed, it requires teams of signature gatherers in the streets.
• If you cannot or don't wish to be a signature gatherer, contribute money to the effort. Money can be used to pay professional signature gatherers that can collect them in your stead.

Don't worry about gettng the word out. Don't seek news coverage. Don't participate in issues forums. Don't debate the issue at your local political club. Don't have email wars about the pros and cons of the measure. Don't perfect your website.

Get out in the hot sun and collect the signatures. If you get the signatures, the votes will come.