Term limits dumped in Idaho; Legislature overrides veto

BOISE -- Idaho became the first state to repeal term limits today when the Legislature overrode Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's veto.

The 26-8 vote in the state Senate followed a 50-20 vote in the House, both more than the two-thirds majority required. One senator was absent.

''We have to decide what is the best public policy for this state no matter what happens," House Speaker Bruce Newcomb of Burley said. ''Term limits are not in the best interests of this state."

Kempthorne called it an honest difference of opinion when he rejected repeal Thursday.

''You can have good people who honestly have a different view, and that is what happened here," the governor said.

The votes cleared the way for 158 elected county officials and Attorney General Al Lance to appear on the ballot for re-election this fall.

Critics warned the override would backfire.

''For the proponents of term limits, we have galvanized them into a course of action," declared Republican Rep. Dennis Lake of Blackfoot. ''We'll remove term limits in 2002, and they will be right back in 2004. The people will re-impose them."

Kempthorne and other term-limit supporters accused their opponents of ignoring voters and labeled as unconstitutional the attempted repeal of the term-limit initiative that voters adopted in 1994.

Moscow lawmakers, all Republicans, split on the issue. Rep. Tom Trail and Sen. Gary Schroeder voted to overturn the veto. Both are long-standing opponents of term limits.

Rep. Gary Young voted to retain term limits and to sustain Kempthorne's veto.

Young said he wanted term limits overturned for some local offices, but wasn't comfortable with the bill that overturned limits for state and federal officeholders.

By ending all term limits, rather than trying to compromise with term-limit supporters, the Legislature made term limits an issue that would dominate fall campaigns, Young said. "I think the Legislature E gave the term limits people the high ground."

Young said the deciding factor for him was communication with Latah County residents. He said he received many letters recommending he vote to overturn term limits from those connected to politics.

Those who urged him to vote to keep term limits were "just people," he said. "Voters felt pretty strong that our citizens wanted term limits," he said.

After passing it with nearly 60 percent of the vote eight years ago, the subsequent majorities have narrowed. A nonbinding vote on retention of term limits passed with 53 percent in 1998.

The Idaho Republican Party once supported term limits as a way to end the careers of liberal East Coast members of Congress.

But the state GOP made the repeal part of its platform two years ago.

Party leaders say local elected officials were never supposed to be the target and that term limits take away critical experience from government, especially in rural areas where many small towns have struggled to fill local offices.

Currently 18 states limit the terms of state lawmakers.

The U.S. Supreme Court voided the congressional term limits in Idaho's law and similar laws adopted in 15 other states in 1995. Only two states have adopted term limits since that ruling.

The Idaho Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state and local government limits in December. They restrict school board and county commission service to six years in any 11-year period and service in all other elected state, city and county offices to eight years in any 15-year period.

Veteran officeholders could have run write-in campaigns.

Term limits advocates have promised to put the issue before voters in a referendum in November.

It would be the fifth time the Idaho electorate has voted on the issue.