2012 ELECTION RESULTS: Americans speak with one voice on term limits

Is it fair to call a 97% victory a mandate for term limits?

For all the talk of bitterness, polarization and division in what turned out to be an electoral muddle, voters in red and blue states across the nation united on Nov. 6 in their decisive support of term limits in both small-town and statewide referenda.

We’ve uncovered 91 jurisdictions so far where term limits appeared on the ballot – either calling for new limits or defending existing ones from politicians’ attacks – and term limits won in 88, or 97%, of them.

As lopsided as it is, even this figure obscures the magnitude of the victory for term limits nationwide. After all, victories included voters establishing 8-year term limits in Florida’s mammoth Miami-Dade County, Nebraska voters statewide fending off a legislative attack on their popular 8-year term limits law, and school board term limits being established in 67 Louisiana parishes in 67 separate referenda. Losses were limited to term limits being lifted on the coroner and sheriff in Delta County, Colorado, and weakening existing city council term limits in Hammond, Louisiana.

The election results conform with election results in 2010 and 2008 as well as recent national polling suggesting that some 70-83 percent of Americans support term limits on their elected officials.

These are the referenda we were following this year. If you know of any others please let us know and we’ll update the list.

BROOKSVILLE, FL -- Weaken 8-year term city council limits
28% YES
72% NO -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

BUELLTON, CA -- Place term limits on city council
YES 77% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 23%

CANFIELD CITY, OH -- Place term limits on city council
YES 61% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 39%

CANFIELD CITY, OH -- Places term limits on mayor
YES 58% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 42%

WEST VIRGINIA (STATEWIDE) -- Repeal sheriff term limits
YES 47%
NO 53% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

COLUMBIA COUNTY, GA -- Places 8-year term limits on county commission
YES 86% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 14%

DELTA COUNTY, CO -- Repeal sheriff term limits
YES 73% -- TERM LIMITS LOSE
NO 27%

DELTA COUNTY, CO -- Repeal coronor term limits
YES 81% -- TERM LIMITS LOSE
NO 19%

DUNEDIN, FL -- Places 8-year term limits on mayor and city council
YES 70% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 30%

EL PASO COUNTY, CO -- Restoring 8-year county commission term limits, reverses deceptive 2010 referenda
YES 58% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 42%

HAMMOND, LA -- Adds an additional term for city council
YES 58% -- TERM LIMITS LOSE
NO 42%

HERMOSA CLIFF, CO -- Repeal term limits for board of directors
YES 47%
NO 53% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

JOHNSTOWN, RI -- Places 8-year term limits on mayor
YES 72% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 28%

KETTERING, OH -- Places 8-year term limits on city council, mayor
YES 62% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 38%

KNOX COUNTY, TN -- Conforms commission district and commission at large seats under
term limits law
YES 86% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 14%

LOMBARD, IL -- Places term limits on all village officers
YES 81% -- TERM LIMITS WIN
NO 19%

LOUSIANA (67 individual districts) -- Places term limits on local school boards
YES 70-85% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 15-30%

MANSFIELD, OH -- Abolishes term limits for elected officials
YES 72%
NO 73% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL -- Establish 8-year county commission term limits
YES 77% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 23%

NEBRASKA (STATEWIDE) -- Add extra term for state senators
YES 35%
NO 65% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

OAKRIDGE, OR -- Places 8-year term limits on city council
YES 71% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 29%

SAN JOAQUIN, CA -- Allow for a third term for Board of Supervisors
YES 41%
NO 59% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

SANTA ANA, CA -- Place 8-year term limits on city mayor
YES 77% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 23%

THOUSAND OAKS, CA -- Places term limits on the city council
YES 78% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 22%

TINLEY PARK, IL -- Advisory Measure to term limit village board
YES 71% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 28%

Eleven more USTL Pledge signers headed to Congress!

Eleven candidates for Congress who pledged, if elected, to cosponsor and vote for congressional term limits of three two-year terms for U.S. House members, two six-year terms for U.S. Senate members, won their contests on Nov. 6. Here are the 11 victorious signatories of the U.S. Term Limits Pledge:

Matt Salmon. The former three-term congressmen, who stepped down in 2000 to honor his term limit pledge, now returns to the House as representative of Arizona's fifth district. Taxpayer watchdog groups gave him high marks during his first stint in Congress.

Thomas Massie. The former judge-executive of Lewis County, Massie will serve Kentucky's fourth congressional district. "Our founding fathers never envisioned the out of-touch career politicians of today," he says, "or the extent to which incumbents would use the influence of their positions to remain in office."

Kerry Bentvolio. A design engineer, teacher, farmer and military veteran, Bentvolio offers himself, in the words of one campaign ad, as "a citizen statesman with a soldier's honor who, like most Americans, is tired of what we've been getting from Washington and is determined to rein in the deficit spending, balance the budget, and get America back to work." He will represent Michigan's eleventh congressional district.

Ann Wagner. Wagner will represent Missouri's second congressional district. She is a former chairwoman of the Missouri GOP and has served as ambassador to Luxembourg.

Richard Lane Hudson. Hudson, a speaker at the 2012 Republican convention, is a marketer who has served as a congressional chief of staff. He will represent North Carolina's eighth congressional district. He won a five-way nomination contest in which three of the five GOP aspirants were signers of the USTL Term Limit Amendment Pledge.

Robert Pittenger. A real estate investor and former state senator, Pittenger will represent North Carolina's ninth congressional district.

Debra Fischer. Cattle rancher and state legislator Fischer defeated former governor, former U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bob Kerry to win the Nebraska U.S. Senate race. In its endorsement, the Omaha World-Herald declared that she had had no trouble getting up to speed as a state lawmaker. "In this era of term limits, she arrived in Lincoln with a solid understanding of the Legislature and its ways...." (Unlike politicians who insist that they need several years to get up to speed.)

Markwayne Mullin. Mullin earned the endorsement of U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, who once served in the second-district congressional seat in Oklahoma that Mullin will be taking over. "Markwayne is committed to being a citizen legislator, not a career politician," Coburn said. The bio page at Mullin's campaign web site declares that he is "A rancher. A businessman. Not a politician!"

Beto O'Rourke. O'Rourke believes that most congressmen "are career politicians who are more concerned with the next election cycle than in making these tough decisions. They put personal considerations, party loyalty and payback to lobbyists and big donors before principle." He will represent Texas's 16th congressional district.

Ted Cruz. Tea-Party-backed Ted Cruz cruised to victory in Texas's U.S. Senate race, winning 57% to 41% after having beaten establishment favorite Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in the GOP primary. On Fox News, Cruz declared that he had "no interest in being in office for decades. I strongly support term limits. And in fact I have committed to cosponsor a constitutional amendment to limit every member of the U.S. Senate to two terms, every member of the House to three terms.

Mick Mulvaney. A freshman in the House, Mulvaney will return to Congress for a second term representing South Carolina's fifth district. In a page about term limits at his campaign site, the congressman says he has changed his mind about term limits while in office. Now, "having seen government up close, I have learned my lesson. I support term limits."

Their victories follow twelve USTL Pledge signers who won in 2010, including Dave Schweikert (AZ-5), David Rivera (FL-25), Michael Pompeo (KS-4), John Sullivan (OK-1), Frank Lucas (OK-3), Tom Coburn (OK-SEN), Tim Scott (SC-1), Jeff Duncan (SC-3), Mick Mulvaney (SC-5) and Ralph Hall (TX-4), Joe Walsh (IL-8) and Rocky Raczkowski (MI-9).