Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Term Limit Co-Chair Using ‘Trojan Horse’ To Make Point
FARMINGTON — A 10- foot high “Trojan horse” is touring the state to persuade voters to defeat Referred Issue 3 on the November 4 General Election ballot.
Bob Porto, cochairman of Arkansas Term Limits, parked the wooden horse at the Farmington Public Library for about an hour last week, hoping to talk to voters about the proposed state constitutional amendment, referred to voters by the Arkansas Legislature.
Porto is using a “Trojan horse,” he said, because Issue 3 is “set up and sold” on the ballot as an ethics amendment only.
“They want to deceive voters into tricking them to vote for ethics when all they are doing is creating career politicians,” Porto said. “We’re educating voters that you have to vote against ethics so you won’t have career politicians.”
The amendment would prohibit elected state officials from accepting gifts from lobbyists, prohibit legislators from setting up their own salaries, require lawmakers to be out of office for two years, instead of one, before they can be lobbyists, prohibit certain contributions from corporations to candidates running for office and establish term limits for legislators.
It would establish a seven-member independent commission to set salaries for the General Assembly, elected constitutional officers, justices and judges.
Porto said Arkansas Term Limits is opposed to Issue 3 because the ballot title does not clearly show that passing the amendment would lengthen term limits.
Currently, House members serve two- year terms and are limited to a total of three terms. Senate members serve four-year terms, up to a maximum of eight years.
Issue 3 proposes to allow Senate and House members to serve a maximum of 16 years, whether in either chamber or a mix of serving in both.
“Our only recourse is to educate voters because we deserve better than to be deceived,” Porto said.
Porto said Arkansas voters have already shown they support term limits for state legislators. In 1992, he said, 62 percent of the voters passed term limits on the ballot. The Legislature filed suit against the election results, which were then confirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Porto said.
“Now, they know they can’t do it openly, so they are hiding they want to lengthen term limits,” Portco said.
Porto said term limits reduce the power of incumbency and provide more choices for voters in primary elections.
“Before term limits, we had seats in the eastern part of Arkansas that stayed in one family for over 100 years,” Porto said.
James McEntire of Fayetteville listened to Porto’s arguments outside the Farmington Library and said he did not know about Issue 3 on the ballot.
“I’m all for term limits,” McEntire said, adding he would vote against Issue 3. “I really believe they are too long now and I sure don’t want to lengthen them. People would become professional politicians.”
State Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, who represents this area, said he will vote for Issue 3 but will probably hold his nose when doing it.
“I think overall the benefits outweigh the bad parts of the amendment,” Lindsey said, pointing to the sections that deal with ethics in the General Assembly.
He said he believes the use of a “Trojan horse” is probably appropriate because the ballot title does not state term limits would be lengthened.
“If you are opposed to lengthening term limits, I can understand folks voting against it just because of that,” Lindsey said, but added voters already have a way to limit terms and that is through the ballot box.