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).

 

The U.S. Term Limits Amendment Pledge: An action plan for the 2010 election

.

The primaries are over and now we're in the final stretch into the November election. All the momentum is riding with those calling for real change. But how can we make sure we are electing candidates who are serious about changing Washington and not just telling us what we want to hear? How can we hold them accountable once they win?

Here's how:

.

Today, U.S. Term Limits mailed out the last of 996 packages to every major party Congressional candidate in the country -- House and Senate, incumbent and challenger. In it is a letter from me and a pledge for the candidate to sign. The pledge commits the signer to cosponsor and vote for a constitutional amendment to limit Congressional terms to three in the House and two in the Senate.

Let's get as many candidates as possible to sign this pledge before election day! Then, U.S. Term Limits will follow up and make sure the signers who won live up to their word.

Think about the power of this simple project. After November, we can expect to have genuine term limits bills in both houses of Congress with a growing list of cosponsors. Then we can move on to the next step of the plan to get a vote on a real term limits amendment before 2012.

Please, right now, go to the new pledge website* and find out if your local Congressional candidates have signed the pledge. If not, call or email them and ask them to.

At every opportunity, particularly in public forums, ask your local Congressional candidates -- incumbents and challengers -- if they support term limits and, if they say yes, ask them if they have signed the U.S. Term Limits Pledge. History tells us if they won't sign, they don't really support term limits.

This is a big project that necessarily must be accomplished in a short period of time. We have big up-front costs of production, mailing and promotion. Please also go here and make a financial contribution to U.S. Term Limits to help pay for this important project.

Friends, this is it. With the skyrocketing polling on term limits, plummeting Congressional approval ratings and a real live term limits amendment bill in the Senate, never have the stars been so aligned to make this possible. We have the opportunity, let's take it.

.

*The website will be live the week of Sept. 26.

Sen. Brownback to uphold term limits pledge

Back in 1998, Sen. Sam Brownback -- an advocate of term limits -- put pen to paper and pledged to serve only two full terms in the U.S. Senate and then step aside to permit another Kansan to take the seat. On Thursday, he officially announced his intention to honor his pledge.

In a perfect world, this would be an unremarkable event: A politician makes an unambiguous promise and then keeps it. But in our world, where politicians face enormous temptations and pressure to distance themselves from such promises, this simple act of integrity is worthy of special note.

For this reason, I flew up from my home in South Florida (72 degrees, sun) to East Kansas (16 degrees, ice) to assist in making the announcement. Together we held joint press conferences in Olathe, Topeka and Wichita on Thursday.

For the Topeka Capital Journal and Kansas City Star's take on it, see http://cjonline.com/stories/121908/loc_369256809.shtml and http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/943772.html.

Sen. Brownback first took the seat in 1996, in a special election to fill out then-Sen. Bob Dole's term when Dole ran for president. Since then, Sen. Brownback won his two subsequent elections with increasing margins and he continues to enjoy high approval ratings today. And yet, at 52 -- a relative babe in the Senate where the average age exceeds 60 -- he is retiring from the senate to start a new chapter of his life.

In doing this, Sen. Brownback joins an elite crowd of politicians who have signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge and then kept their word. Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. Tom Coburn and South Carolina Mark Sanford are all pledge honorers who moved on to other offices.

Many other politicians have reneged on their promises. Tough luck for them: while several pledge breakers have continued to retain their current seats, none have ever won higher office.

“As fellow Kansans know, your word is your bond,” Sen. Brownback said. “If a man breaks his word, it breaks the man.”