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Subject: Success of Term-Limit Measures Puts 'Incumbents on Notice';Arizona Becomes the
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <29.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

Success of Term-Limit Measures Puts 'Incumbents on
Notice';Arizona Becomes the Final State to Approve King
Holiday<By Bill McAllister=Washington Post Staff Writer=

Conservative Paul M. Weyrich had a ready explanation yesterday
for a riddle that emerged from Tuesday's elections: how voters in
14 states could overwhelmingly endorse term limits for members of
Congress while reelecting legislators in large numbers.

"This way they can say they put their incumbents on notice:
'You're going to leave,' " said Weyrich, a term-limit advocate
and president of the Free Congress Foundation. "They did it in an
antiseptic way: 'Nothing personal, but you're going to have to
leave.' "

The lopsided margins by which the term limits were approved in
every state they were on the ballot was perhaps the most dramatic
outcome of 232 ballot issues in 42 states. California voters en-
dorsed term limits but rejected a wide variety of other measures:
refusing to allow physicans to assist terminally ill patients in
committing suicide, to require employers to provide basic health
care, to sanction a 25 percent cut in welfare payments, or to
give their governor stronger powers to limit state spending.

Arizona became the last state to approve a holiday in honor of
slain civil rights leader the Rev.  Martin Luther King Jr. - an
issue that was harshly criticized and cost the state the 1993
Super Bowl and millions in convention business. Voters there also
rejected by 2-1 a measure to ban most abortions.

Two widely watched education measures failed. Colorado voters re-
jected a plan to offer school vouchers and allow parents to send
their children to private or public schools with the funds. The
measure was similar to one President Bush proposed nationally.
Illinois voters killed a measure that would have declared educa-
tion a basic right and redistributed state spending for schools.

South Dakota voters refused to approve a state income and cor-
porate tax, while Colorado voters approved a measure curtailing
the power of state and local governments to raise taxes. Mas-
sachusetts endorsed the highest cigarette tax in the nation: 51
cents a pack.

The term-limit measures were hailed as a mandate for Congress to
complete the "unfinished business of the founding fathers." Ap-
proval votes ranged from 52 percent in Washington state to 77
percent in Wyoming.

"I think there was a cry and call last night that is going to be
hard to ignore," said Jeff Langan, a spokesman for U.S. Term Lim-
its, a Washington group that helped coordinate the campaign. Not-
ing that voters in Washington state, who rejected a similar pro-
posal last year, had approved the measure, Langan gleefully ad-
ded: "Speaker (Thomas S.) Foley (D-Wash.) is now under a term
limit."

So are House Majority Leader  Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) <and
House Majority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), both of whom come
from states where voters endorsed measures that would give them
eight and six more years, respectively. If the Washington measure
is upheld, Foley could also serve only six more years.

Both term-limit proponents and opponents acknowledged that the
issue is certain to be challenged in the courts over the question
of whether the states can impose limits on members of Congress.

Yesterday the advocates were ecstatic and predicted they had the
momentum to carry the issue to other states next year and to
press Congress to approve a constitutional amendment that would
enact the provisions with certainty.

"I'm probably the happiest guy in town," said James K. Coyne, a
former Republican House member from Pennsylvania who heads the
McLean-based Americans to Limit Congressional Terms. "We have a
mammonth mandate . . . and a window. The only thing we lost last
night was a president who supported us." Coyne blamed the high
return of incumbents on the actions of "an imperial Congress. In
fact, the incumbents cheated this year more than ever before," he
said, citing wide use of congressionally franked mail, congres-
sional television studios and political action committee dona-
tions.

Thomas E. Mann, director of governmental studies at the Brookings
Institution, interpreted the results in another way. "Two funda-
mentally different things happened," he said. "Term limits were
like apple pie. It sounded good and was a nice way to register
your discontent with Congress and politicans in general."

There was virtually no opposition to the term-limit campaigns in
most of the 14 states, he added. But when it came to voting in
individual races, "that is where the information is more mixed,"
Mann said. "Most voters think better of their incumbents than
worse."

The incumbents who lost Tuesday "tended to have some chink in
their armor," Mann said. Overlooked in the balloting was the fact
the "many of the most vulnerable had left already," resigning or
suffering defeats in a primary, he said.<02:22 11-05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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