If passed by voters, a proposed ballot initiative would limit all state legislators to serving 12 consecutive years and impose a lifetime maximum of 20 years. And the retroactive element in it will serve as a pink slip for Sens. Bert Stedman (R-Sitka), Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) and a few others.
The message to every other legislator would be that no one is irreplaceable.
The 12 sponsors of the initiative have a lot of work to do before voters could get a chance to weigh in on it. But it’s not too early to discuss an idea that’s been before Alaska voters before and is the law in 16 other states.
In 1998, the Alaska Term Limits Pledge Initiative passed by a very narrow margin. It didn’t establish term limits. Rather, it set up a voluntary system for candidates to pledge limiting their time in office, if elected. Election ballots would identify every candidate who signed on to it as well as those who had, but were breaking the pledge by running for reelection.
However, after one election cycle, the Legislature repealed it. There’s a very good chance that will happen again.
Unless it was adopted as a constitutional amendment. One was introduced last session by members of the bipartisan House freshman caucus. Its limits are different than defined in the initiative and legislative time already served wouldn’t count.
But finding support from the two-thirds of the Legislature needed to pass a constitutional amendment is a bigger hurdle than convincing a simple majority of voters to support a ballot initiative. That’s probably why there weren’t any hearings to debate the proposal.
The lack of interest from legislators means it’s up to the public to pursue it. And after so many legislators deemed it appropriate to give themselves a 67% pay raise, we should.
As co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Stedman ensured the raise went through by preventing a vote on a House measure opposing it. He’s been in the Senate for 20 years. It would be fitting to give voters across the state a chance to send him home for good.
Kawasaki was elected to the House in 2006 and served there until winning his Senate seat in 2018. His objections to term limits ring hollow. According to an email he sent to the Anchorage Daily News, longevity in office helps legislators deal more effectively with lobbyists and the state bureaucracy. And “members who don’t take the job seriously” should be voted out or resign.
In a 2012 opinion published by the Alaska Dispatch, former Anchorage legislator Andrew Halcro suggested many aren’t serious lawmakers. They “serve because it’s easy work, the pay isn’t bad and you get free health care. All the luxuries of a real job without having to accomplish anything important.”
It’s fair to say the experience of Senate and House leaders hasn’t helped accomplish the important task of solving the state’s budget problem. And the huge pay increase will be a far greater reelection incentive than they had in Halco’s day.
Halco also argued that the “lack of term limits breeds arrogance.” Keeping that in check requires constant personal reflection.
“The relative weight of work and life, genius and person, haunts one’s life with the feeling of never being able to size oneself up,” James Hillman wrote in his bestselling book “The Soul’s Code.” “There is a constant play between importance and humility.”
In this case, the work is serving in democracy’s most vital institutions. There are few jobs that feed a person’s ego as much. The longer one is in such a position, the tension Hillman describes will likely dissipate, resulting in an inflated sense of self-importance.
Term limits could bring healthy a counterbalance to that.
It would also help to diffuse power struggles by preventing any one or group of legislators from accumulating too much. And those nearing the end of their final term might have more incentive to compromise to ensure passage of important legislation.
Mostly though, term limits will force legislators to give other fully qualified and competent Alaskans a chance to serve. And as a mirror to the impermanence of all human life, it will remind them that while the work they’re doing is important, they are neither more special nor more privileged than the people they represent.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
