* All emphasis added. From a Rauner campaign press release…

The Recent History of Term Limit Bills Dying in the House

Monday, May 7th is the deadline to add a referendum to the ballot this November that would give Illinoisans a vote on term limits. It’s an issue that has the support of 80% of voters according to a poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

Unfortunately, those voices have been ignored in the Illinois House of Representatives. Check out all the times in recent history that term limit bills have been effectively killed in the House so that those in charge can maintain their grip on power:

* HJRCA 0031 in the 97th General Assembly: imposed term limits on Representatives and Senators in the General Assembly. Referred to Rules Committee 1/18/12. Tabled 5/5/12
* HB 6281 in the 98th General Assembly: established term limits on leadership positions in the General Assembly. Referred to Rules Committee 11/6/2014. No further action.
* HB4386 in the 99th General Assembly: established term limits on leadership positions in the General Assembly. Referred to Rules Committee 1/14/2016. No further action.
* HJRCA 0041 in the 99th General Assembly: imposed term limits on Representatives and Senators in the General Assembly as well as Executive Branch offices. Referred to Rules Committee 5/6/2016. No further action.
* HB0428 in the 100th General Assembly: established term limits on leadership positions in the General Assembly. Referred to Rules Committee 1/17/2017. No further action.
* HB0491 in the 100th General Assembly: established term limits on leadership positions in the General Assembly. Referred to Rules Committee 1/20/2017. No further action.

* Rauner campaign e-mail entitled “Enough is enough!”…

Rich,

We need term limits in Illinois to keep elected officials accountable to the people. Public service should be a calling, not a means for politicians to line their own pockets.

There’s one week left until the May 7th deadline to put a referendum on the ballot and enact term limits in Illinois. Let’s make it happen.

Add your name to the petition to support my plan to put term limits on the ballot!

Forward this email to your family and friends to spread the message. Enough is enough! Illinois needs real reform and that starts with term limits.

I appreciate your support.

* From the GA’s website…

Since the Senate has not advanced a proposal (which takes three days) and the House has nothing teed up and ready to go (which takes another three days) and the House isn’t even returning to town until the day after the May 7th deadline, the governor’s only recourse would be to call a special session right this very minute.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Speaker Madigan’s spokesman told me the governor did not ask the four legislative leaders at their last meeting to advance the proposal. The question was prompted by a commenter…

Am I to believe Governor Rauner told all four legislative leaders at that meeting that a vote on term limits was his “must-have” for the session, and then they ignored him?

I’ve asked the other leader spokespersons for comment as well.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Leader Durkin’s spokesperson says she doesn’t believe the topic was brought up at the leaders meeting, but added the governor and Durkin talk about it a lot and noted that Durkin is sponsoring a term limits proposal.

*** UPDATE 3 *** From the governor’s office…

He asks for term limits every day

*** UPDATE 4 *** Leader Brady’s office…

Not to my knowledge. The Governor has stated publicly his support for term limits. Senate Republicans have also introduced legislation on this issue. SJRCA 20 and SJRCA 2 (which is on third reading)

Ah, so there is a CA ready to roll in the Senate. He’d still need a special session to get it done, though.

       

46 Comments - Spliff - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:09 am: Just like with fair maps he only wants the issue for press releases and TV ads. He has no interest beyond that. After 3+ years as governor he has staff that still doesn’t know the legislative process. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:12 am: ==the governor’s only recourse would be to call a special session right this very minute== That would involve Rauner actually doing something other than complaining. - My New Handle - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:13 am: Wait, there’s a loophole. Voters can actually term-limit the entire House and a big chunk of the Senate on November 6. And no new law needs to be enacted. Whew! - DuPage - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:15 am: Term limits are called losing an elections. Rauner will get a term limit in the next election. - Undiscovered country - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:16 am: Rauner politicin’ does not equal Rauner Governin’ Knowing how to wield the levers of power (and politics) still eludes him, sadly. - Not Rich - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:16 am: The Governor will win this term limit fight this year!! He will see how term limits really work in this State on Nov 6th. - 33rd - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:17 am: The Rich are using Citizens United combined with Term Limits to make all future elections “popularity contests.” popularity will be paid for by the leave individual donars. Those donars will rule the rest of us. For democracy’s sake Term Limits must be fought. Look at what happened to the Presidency; all parties have to do is wait 7 years. Now, nothing gets done. If Obama could have had 3rd term, Congress would have dealt with him. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:17 am: ===the governor’s only recourse would be to call a special session right this very minute.=== The only way Rauner could is if he had the chambers, the “numbers”, and the political acumen to move all of those. Rauner doesn’t. “Never mistake activity for achievement” - Coach Wooden. Bruce Rauner failed… again. - 33rd - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:18 am: *largest donars Sorry, spell check error - David - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:18 am: One could argue term limits have the exact opposite effect of keeping officials accountable to voters - Anonymous - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:22 am: ==One could argue term limits have the exact opposite effect of keeping officials accountable to voters== One could argue a lot of things. That doesn’t make the argument correct, however. - Real - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:27 am: Term limits gives more power to people that fun elections like Rauner.. Rauner was almost term limited in the primary so obviously no new law is needed. - Real - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:27 am: people that fund* - Real - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:29 am: If the legislature is beholden to term limits that would make them more likely to work for special interest and powerful groups that fund their campaigns - Just Me - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:31 am: I say call the special session on both fair maps and term limits. Have specific language you want approved. Force the democrats to publicly say, “Nah, we don’t want to do that, we prefer our way.” While I’m not a big fan of term limits on rank-and-file, we have to end the corruption of gerrymandering. - m - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:33 am: Not sure why no one catches on to these, but this isn’t to pass term limits, it’s data collection. “Add your name to the petition to support my plan to put term limits on the ballot!” That’s the only part they care about. Yes the sales pitch should be reasonable or at least possible to make it more genuine, but the people who sign this aren’t going to figure that out. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:34 am: ===since the Senate has not advanced a proposal (which takes three days) and the House has nothing teed up and ready to go (which takes another three days) and the House isn’t even returning to town until the day after the May 7th deadline,=== So are you saying that after the Governor met with the four legislative leaders last month, that neither the House nor the Senate advanced the Governor’s top priority? Am I to believe Governor Rauner told all four legislative leaders at that meeting that a vote on term limits was his “must-have” for the session, and then they ignored him? Wow. Talk about bad faith. He has every right to be upset at this. Unless of course, he didn’t clearly ask for this when there was still time for the legislature to act. So either the Governor understands the process and asked for this last month, and now Madigan and Cullerton have ignored him. Or, Governor Rauner waited until there was no time left to drop this request from out of the clear blue sky simply to blame the Democrats for being uncooperative. I wonder which of these scenarios is closest to the truth. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:35 am: ==One could argue a lot of things. That doesn’t make the argument correct, however. == One could do a little bit of research and discover that, with respect to term limits, they do, more often than not, have effects that are the opposite of the typical selling points. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:39 am: ===Am I to believe Governor Rauner told all fou=== Good question. I asked. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:39 am: My fourth graders try doing the same thing with their homework too. - wordslinger - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:40 am: –Since the Senate has not advanced a proposal (which takes three days) and the House has nothing teed up and ready to go (which takes another three days) and the House isn’t even returning to town until the day after the May 7th deadline, the governor’s only recourse would be to call a special session right this very minute.– Huh. This shocking lack of competence makes it almost seem as if Rauner doesn’t want to actually advance a serious term-limits proposal, but just wants to campaign on pretending to. Like his purposely unconstitutional term-limits amendment that got tossed in 2014. Rauner has been pushing term limits since 2013. If the guy was sincere, don’t you think he could have lawyered up good and demonstrated an ounce of competence to move the ball forward by now? Heck, he could have just taken the road map the courts provided in tossing his previous amendment and run with that. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/chi-rauner-loses-another-round-in-term-limit-referendum-bid-20140820-story.html - David - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:43 am: There is no credible evidence that term limits enhance government. There is plenty of evidence that shows otherwise. http://www.andrewbenjaminhall.com/Fouirnaies_Hall_Electoral_Incentives.pdf - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 11:45 am: The cost of having competently written petitions and legal minds able to win in court… Versus… … the millions spent to run on these Rauner ideas while knowing they don’t have the votes to pass them… … that’s where activity and achievement meet… for the phony politics. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:04 pm: Opposing an issue that has the support of 80% of voters according to a poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute? the best argument for term limits is the simple fact that politicians are more concerned with reelection than fixing Illinois problems. That is undeniable, they have pit off hard decisions simply for self preservation. Speaker Madigan can say with a straight face that a party that does not listen to the will of the voters will go away but then opposes every single bipartisan reform of state government. He publicly admits he is not a change person, even though Illinois leads the nation in distrust of state government and bipartisan majorities want fair maps and term limits. No wonder why he is the most despised politician in Illinois. Yet all elected democrats step in line and almost unanimously reelect him to lead the party. - anon2 - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:16 pm: === Unfortunately, these voices have been ignored. === The Governor invokes public opinion selectively. It’s true term limits are very popular. So are the millionaire’s tax and a higher minimum wage, but he opposes those policies, so it’s OK to ignore public opinion in those instances. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:21 pm: ===Opposing an issue that has the support of 80% of voters according to a poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute?=== Rauner can’t get 60/71 and 30/36 Rauner can get those members on the stairs and embarrass Madigan and Cullerton. Rauner can’t. Rauber is grossly inept and lacks any savvy to get 60/71 and 60/36 on this issue. That’s on the Governor, like every governor before him, and every governor after him. Rauner has failed. That’s the truth to this matter. The rest of your typical drivel? Excuses. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:28 pm: To the updates… Leader Durkin can put the 60/71 on the stairs… Not one person will stop him. Otherwise, what are we really talking about? Where are the votes? Who is counting the noses? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:31 pm: Further, If Durkin, Rauner, whomever, can’t get the votes… The incompetency of those seeking the votes, unless being a miserable failure that can’t get passable legislation thru is the angle Rauner is trying, dunno how great of a look it is… being unable to get 60/71 and 30/36… then blaming others. You’re a leader. Get people on board, or get out of the way of your failure… again. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:44 pm: ===He asks for term limits every day=== Does he ask the guy in the mirror? Perhaps if he asked the folks who need to vote on this stuff he’d have better luck. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:50 pm: ===He asks for term limits every day=== LOL…. (catches breath)… LOL Governor, ask all you want. Where is the 60/30…71/36… for anything? - Da Big Bad Wolf - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:51 pm: We already have term limits. - Jocko - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:51 pm: ==He asks for term limits every day== Is that what Bruce means when shouting “Calgon take me away(exclamation mark)” when leaving work? - Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:14 pm: “He asks for term limits every day” he almost got them in the primary - low level - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:28 pm: Rauner asks for term limits every day. He could limit his own term tomorrow. Many Repubs would celebrate… Gotta love Brady and Durkin also on this. They really believe in this, right? They’ve been in the General Assembly for how long? - Anon - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:35 pm: Isn’t term limits essentially taking away rights from the voters. If they like their politician shouldn’t they be allowed to keep them? Why is it now a days that conservatives seem to be going after my rights more than libs. Boy how the tables are turning. - Skeptic - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:56 pm: “He asks for term limits every day” Every day at the grocery store, a little old lady taps him on the shoulder and says, “Bruce, hang in there, we really need term limits.” - Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:58 pm: ===Speaker Madigan’s spokesman told me the governor did not ask the four legislative leaders at their last meeting to advance the proposal. === Did I hear a sigh of relief there? - Da Big Bad Wolf - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:56 pm: ==Why is it now a days that conservatives seem to be going after my rights more than libs.== Not a fan of taking away people’s right to choose their representatives, but let’s be fair, their are many liberals who want term limits too. Pat Quinn ran on term limits. - Old and In The Way - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:06 pm: Wolf Why would anyone listen to Pat Quinn. Pat has done one thing productive and that was CUB. I would argue that his record beyond this is pretty bad. Reducing the number of reps sure didn’t help things did it? No Pat had his quota of good ideas and efforts at exactly one. His ineptitude as governor helped elect Raunerism. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:07 pm: ===Pat has done one thing productive and that was CUB. === Cutback Amendment to the Illinois Constitution? - Anon - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:33 pm: Can we pass a bill that prohibits electors who lose elections from taking their campaign fund with them. - Mama - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:53 pm: If you don’t like the way your representative or senator is voting on the floor, vote them out of office. If they are working for you, vote back in. The voters already have the power to shorten a politician’s term. That is what I call term limits. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:54 pm: Pat Quinn was just an example. I’m not saying be for term limits because Pat Quinn was for them. My point was that not everyone for term limits is conservative. - Mama - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 5:20 pm: - Anon - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:33 pm: = Anon, I agree with you, that the Politian should not be able to keep the campaign money after they lose their campaign. Has anyone ever checked to see what they use that money for? - Anonymous - Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 5:26 pm: Rauner wants term limits for one reason - - he wants to eliminate the other party & its leader. - low level - Wednesday, May 2, 18 @ 8:29 am: *Pat Quinn was for term limits.* Indeed. And his term was limited by the voters voting him out of office No need to put legal limits on the # of terms. If you fail, voters will elect someone else. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.