Voting, Running for Office Each Can Impose Term Limits

Here's today's hot take.

Congressional term limits are overrated.

That's right, I said it. Term limits are things that people often push as a way to change the metaphorical kitty litter in Congress, but I say that the people have that power.

First of all, Congressional term limits can toss perfectly good representatives. Just because someone has been in their job for a long time, it doesn't mean that they deserve to be removed by an arbitrary term limit. If a Representative or a Senator is serving his or her constituency and they keep sending him or her back, that's the electoral will of the people.

Secondly, the ability to term limit a politician is cooked into the stew. It's called voting. As we've recently seen in Iowa where racist Steve King was tossed from office, a Senator or Congressperson can become so problematic that his constituents make the decision to push him out. Eliot Engel, a powerful Democrat in the House, was just defeated in the primary in New York by educator Jamaal Brown. If it matters enough to the constituents to remove someone's power, the voters do it.

Finally,  I would just say that if you're so up in arms that people have been around for too long in office, and you wan them out then run against them in the primary. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez did. Brown did. Heck, even Richard Mourdock did here in Indiana in 2012. Take your message to the voters. It's hard work, but there's nothing more powerful than beating an incumbent.

Granted, it's hard to beat an incumbent. They have influence, money and the power of the bully pulpit. Those are all things that need to be reformed. Ranked choice voting would help. Campaign finance reform would help, but an arbitrary number of years or terms someone can serve in Congress is not helpful, in my opinion.

I do believe in term limits for executive offices. Executives are singular individuals, and the longer they are in power the more they become drunk by it. Granted, this same argument can be used against the powerful Senators and Congresspeople, but one voice there is simply one voice. One voice as the President carries significantly more weight.

I know some will disagree with me, and that's fine. If term limits pass, I'm ok with it. I just think that term limits for the U.S. House and Senate don't need to be implemented because the mechanism exists to fix the problem of people hanging around the Capitol Building for too long.

Run for Office. Vote.

Is Mike Pence Stealing Eric Holcomb's Hot Pockets?

Vice President Mike Pence
Photo: The White House

A few days ago, it came to light that former Indiana Governor Mike Pence has not bothered to update his voter registration.

He's still registered to vote at 4750 N. Meridian, better known as the Indiana Governor's Mansion. While the national news just picked up on this story, local news station WRTV reported on this back in May 2018.

Hoosiers will note that the Vice President moved out of that location and into his new government digs in Washington in January of 2017. That means that the United States' highest-ranking head nodder has voted in the 2018 primary and general elections, the 2019 primary and general elections and the 2020 primary election using that registration.

Pence's refusal to change his registration to One Observatory Circle, Washington DC brings to mind a scandal that almost cost an Indiana legend a chance to vote for himself. in 2012.

Astute political observers will note that the late former Senator Richard Lugar utilized a voting address of an Indy house he had not lived in for decades for many years despite living in Virginia full time. The Senator would hang his hat at the Howard Johnson's (or whatever hotel he booked...it didn't have to be a Ho Jo) when he would come to the state and visit. 

Lugar ended up getting called on the carpet and registered at his Decatur Township tree farm for voting purposes. That meant that he was essentially my neighbor though he never invited me over for tea.

Democrats do it too. Evan Bayh got caught during the campaign for Senate in 2016 using an empty condo he at least owned in Washington Township as his local address for voting purposes. Bayh, like Lugar, lived in Virginia. Of course, he wasn't a sitting Senator at that point. He'd somehow make due staying in hotels when he visited Indy. At least he made the effort, am I right?

Of course, in 2020, Pence and his boss want to rail against mail-in ballots as having the potential of voter fraud, but they both voted by mail in the primary election this year with Pence doing it from his old residence in Indiana. They aren't the only ones, either in the Trump Administration who utilized voted by mailing it in. Yet, to hear Trump tell it, mail-in voting is a sure-fire way for an election to be rigged. 

I do have a suggestion, though. If Indiana election officials ever force Pence to live in Governor Holcomb's basement, that would be a sure fire riot of an SNL skit. Holcomb and Pence bickering over who ate the last Hot Pocket.

If push came to shove, though, maybe Pence could call up Evan and see if he still has that condo.