Time’s up on term limits
Rep. Trahan breaks her word
If U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan of the Lowell-based 3rd Congressional District abided by her pledge to support term limits, she’d be into her third and last term in Congress.
But, alas, promises by politicians are only made to be broken. If reneging on campaign promises were a crime, the prisons would be overflowing.
Trahan is not the first politician to go back on her word, nor will she be the last.
But she is the first to be the subject of a billboard in her district, accusing her of breaking her pledge supporting term limits.
The billboard, paid for by the non-partisan US Term Limits, is located on Interstate 93 in Methuen. It accuses Trahan of “breaking” her pledge.
Trahan said she won’t be “bullied” by the billboard or the organization. She said she signed off on the bill promoting term limits after she found out what the job of a member of the House was all about.
Trahan, when she first ran for the open 3rd Congressional District House in 2018, pledged to support the national drive to limit the two-year term of members of the House to six years, and the six-year term of senators to 12 years.
She won the Democrat primary over Dan Koh of Andover by 145 votes following a recount. Republican opposition was token. At the time she was praised by US Term Limits as the first candidate in a crowded Democrat field to support term limits. Now they are calling her a traitor.
There are currently no limits to the number of terms members of Congress can serve.
Were term limits the law of the land, which it is not, Trahan would be joined by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Boston who was elected at the same time.
Also, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Would not be seeking re-election to a third sixyear term and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey who has been in Congress for 47 years, would have been back driving a Hood’s ice cream truck a long time ago.
The same holds true for the rest of the state’s Congressional delegation, all Democrats, except for newcomer U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Newton.
For most of the people who make up the Massachusetts delegation to Congress, politics is the only profession they have practiced for any length of time.
And when they do eventually leave — if they are not defeated, which is rare in Democrat Massachusetts — they usually return home as millionaires, like John Kerry, or get millionaire-like jobs, like former U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, now the $900,000 plus president of the University of Massachusetts.
This not to take anything away from Trahan. She is a hard-working, accessible legislator who has been effective in bringing home federal grants and appropriations for her district.
And when she signed the term limits pledge put forward by US Term Limits (USTL), which aims to create a Congress dominated by citizens instead of career politicians, she was locked in a tight race with Koh.
In addition, she was following in the footsteps of former US Rep. Marty Meehan for whom she worked for when Meehan held the seat.
Meehan was also for term limits. When he took office in 1992 he pledged to serve for eight years, or four terms. Instead, he broke his pledge to US Term Limits too and served for 14 years or seven terms.
Like Meehan, Trahan maintains that the longer a member serves in Congress, the more effective the member becomes.
Which is true. But the problem is that they often stay too long and do not to make way for newer people.
For instance, Trahan has bragged about being appointed co-chair of the Congressional Cambodia Caucus. Lowell has the largest per capita Cambodian population in the country. It has a Cambodian American mayor, two Cambodian members of the Massachusetts Legislature and two members of the City Council
If term limits were in effect, one of them could succeed Trahan. Then there would be a real Cambodian on the Congressional Cambodia Caucus.