Nick Tomboulides, the executive director of U.S. Term Limits, offered the following response to an open letter to him from U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Wilcox about a term limits pledge:
I don’t know U.S. Senate candidate Todd Wilcox, but he seems to be a patriot and man of integrity. My issue with Wilcox is not a personal one, but rather about his policy stance on term limits for members of Congress.
Americans are sick and tired of career politicians in Washington trying to run our lives. This system has failed miserably. People understand that term limits are necessary to address the problem.
We provide the U.S. Term Limits pledge to every candidate for the U.S. House and Senate. It simply asks that candidates honor the will of the voters, by co-sponsoring a congressional term limits amendment of 6 years in the House, 12 years in the Senate and no longer limit.
We presented the pledge to Wilcox on several occasions and he refused to sign it, instead relying on his promise of a self-imposed limit. While his vow is admirable, how would it affect the 30-year tenure of Nancy Pelosi? What about Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell?
For term limits to work, they must be applied to all of the career politicians in Washington. It is impossible to do this in Congress without the U.S. Term Limits pledge. Since 38 pledge signers already serve in Congress -- including Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz – these members are bound to support a specific amendment.
It would be impossible for Todd Wilcox, or any other senator, to obtain the two-thirds majority needed for a term limits amendment without support from these 38 principled members.
Over the years, many candidates with impressive backgrounds have refused the pledge on the basis that they don’t sign any pledges. They said at the time, as Wilcox does now, that their word should be enough.
Few of those lawmakers kept their word. The ash heap of undependable politicians ruined it for the honest guys, including Todd Wilcox.
This is the same standard in every other area of life. For example, if someone applies for a loan at a bank, the banker doesn't assume he has good credit because he’s a nice guy. He does a credit check. Even good people need to go through airport security, not because they're the bad guys, but because there's no system for knowing who is.
So, the pledge operates on the assumption that candidates' words need to be secured by a written commitment. If politicians had a record for truth-telling, perhaps this wouldn’t be necessary.
Several qualified candidates are vying for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat in 2016. Of that bunch, only U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera have signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge. U.S. Rep. David Jolly and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy have not; Jolly stridently opposes term limits.
It’s still my hope that Wilcox, who speaks highly of term limits, will make a commitment to the people of Florida by signing the U.S. Term Limits Pledge. Until then, our organization will continue to do its job by letting the public know where the candidates stand.
Nick Tomboulides is the executive director of U.S. Term Limits which was founded to give a voice to the 75 percent of Americans who believe term limits can fix this broken system. Since 1992, it has helped enact term limits on thousands of politicians in the United States,including the Florida Legislature. This February, USTL led a successful grassroots campaign to make Florida the first state in the nation to call for term limits on Congress through an Article V Convention.
