A new survey from Anchorage-based pollster Ivan Moore has found Alaskans strongly in favor of term limits for state legislators.
In an email to the Empire, Moore said the poll was the result of a drawing he does once a quarter on the Facebook page of Alaska Survey Research. In the drawing, the winner is allowed to ask one question in the company’s statewide survey.
“We put it together, threw it on the survey and he’s agreed to share the results,” Moore said by email. “He’s just an individual guy, no dog in the ‘fight,’ just thought it was an interesting result to share.”
This month, the winner asked whether Alaskans favored a two-term (eight-year) limit for Alaska senators and a three-term (six-year) limit for representatives.
The response was overwhelming: More than 75 percent of registered voters said they support state term limits. Forty-five percent of respondents said they “strongly favor” term limits, while 30 percent said they “mildly favor” them.
Just 19.6 percent said they mildly or strongly oppose the limits.
By email, Moore said the poll was taken by cellphone and landline telephones June 16-20 and included 750 adults aged 18 and older. Of the 750 participants, 670 were registered voters.
According to the results, Democrats, independents and third-party voters were much more likely to support term limits. Of Republicans, just 68.9 percent supported term limits: a large majority, but smaller than the 79.3 percent of Democrats and 80.6 percent of third-party candidates.
Support was high regardless of age, gender, household income and geographical region.
Southeast Alaskans were least likely to support term limits, though 71.6 percent said they favor them. Support was higher in all other regions of the state. Similarly, more women (77.4 percent) than men (73.5 percent) favor term limits.
In Alaska, terms are defined by the Alaska Constitution, and changing them would require a constitutional amendment.
In the 1990s, several voter initiatives attempted to establish term limits but failed. One initiative, brought by Alaskans for Legislative Reform, ended when a judge ruled that a term limit proposal was invalid because it was submitted as an initiative, not a proposed amendment.
According to the Alaska Division of Elections, the last attempt to pass a term limit proposal on the ballot was in 1995, but petitioners failed to secure enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
