EDITORIALS

Editorial: Term limits talk is a curious aspect of Scott campaign

The Editorial Board
Florida Gov. Rick Scott announces his bid to run for the U.S. Senate at a news conference Monday, April 9, 2018, in Orlando, Fla.

After seven-plus years leading Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has several key issues to run on — and perhaps some things to run from — as he seeks to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson this fall.

But in either case, his launch of that campaign seemed a bit odd.

Scott teed off his senatorial bid with a TV ad talking about term limits.

Specifically, he advocates that members of Congress serve just 12 years — which equates to six House terms or two in the Senate.

The U.S. Constitution limits the president to two four-year terms, plus two years of another president’s term, if necessary, for a total of 10 years. Federal lawmakers don’t face a ceiling. At the state level, just 15 states impose terms limits for lawmakers, while 36 do so for governors. All the states with legislative limits, including Florida, also cap their governor’s service.

Scott, who himself is term-limited out this year, may be attempting a swipe at Nelson, who served 12 years in the House and is in his 18th year in the Senate.

As the Tampa Bay Times reported, Scott calls for an end of “this concept of career politicians.”

The idea seems to be popular. Eighty-two percent of voters support federal term limits, according to the Times.

But enacting that would be a herculean task.

Establishing term limits means amending the Constitution, requiring two-thirds of Congress and then three-quarters of the states to go along.

And the idea is so 1990s. Among the 15 states with term limits, only one — Nebraska — has adopted them since 1996.

The idea may be wildly popular with voters, yet clearly little to no appetite exists in state capitals for implementing these caps.

That wasn’t always the case. A generation ago, 19 states, including Florida, enacted term limits on federal lawmakers.

But the U.S. Supreme Court struck down those laws in 1995, as the 5-4 majority declared that the qualifications for who can serve in Congress are “fixed” in the Constitution and must be uniform across the country. Allowing states to establish such regulations individually “would thus erode the structure envisioned by the Framers,” the majority declared.

The minority rejected that, saying the states, or rather the people of the individual states, could exercise powers in areas where the Constitution was “silent,” and setting eligibility requirements for federal office was one of them.

The court’s debate spills over into contemporary disagreements about them.

Critics of term limits argue that the people should be allowed to elect whomever they want for as long as they want. GOP Rep. Peter King of New York told the Times term limits are “anti-democratic.” Additionally, they maintain that term limits fuel confused, lackluster government by forcing out officials with experience and seniority.

Proponents, however, counter with Scott’s argument. That no one should be a “career” politician and that government is renewed by regularly replacing incumbents with fresh thinkers. We also might see more validity in the critics’ point if gerrymandering did not create an incumbent-protection racket.

Still, our question remains: Why would Gov. Scott, who it “nonsense” to say terms limits can’t be established, even raise this issue?

If he wanted to highlight how long Nelson has been a fixture in Washington, he could do so more creatively — such as pointing out that Florida’s senior senator first went to Washington when Jimmy Carter was president, or that he was serving on Capitol Hill before the space shuttle made its first flight, before MTV first aired and before the first CD player hit the market.

Hyping term limits — an idea that has little support in the halls of power and is never going to happen as long as that 1995 ruling holds — is a true nothing-burger. Scott should retire this part of his message, and start telling voters exactly why they should retire Bill Nelson.