Coffee Talk

The United States of America was born of the desire to live in a nation that ensured liberty for all its citizens—one that gave its people a say in their government through representative democracy. Our first president, George Washington, was urged to seek a third term, but declined. The concept of serving no more than two-terms became a tradition until the 20th century, when Franklin Roosevelt successfully sought a third and then a fourth term. In 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified, limiting presidents to serve no more than two terms. Here in Oklahoma, we’ve always had term limits for our governors. Oklahoma’s constitution originally limited governors to a single, four-year term of office. This term limit was extended to two terms with the adoption of State Question 436 in 1966.

In the 1980’s, a movement began to extend the concept of term limits to other elected offices, including state legislatures. In 1989, a group of citizens began an initiative petition drive to put term limits for the House and Senate to a vote of the people. In 1990, it was approved overwhelmingly by voters, and Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to enact term limits for legislative seats.

I want to state that we had many fine citizens who served long, honorable careers in the legislature before term limits. But at the same time, there was a group of “good old boys” being reelected for decades on end, who were more interested in retaining their office and power than in moving our state forward. With the 12-year term limit on legislative service, we began to see a more diverse group of individuals running for office, bringing new ideas and energy to the State Capitol and helping pass progressive legislative to develop Oklahoma’s economy and enhance our quality of life.

This session, Senator Randy Brogdon, a Republican from Owasso, successfully amended a bill on the Senate floor to place a 12 year limit on the terms of Oklahoma’s statewide elected officials. Senator Brogdon said that term limits have brought fresh ideas and innovative thinking to the State Legislature, and that extending these limits to all statewide offices would have the same positive impact. I completely agree. If this measure is approved by the full House of Representatives, voters will have the opportunity to have their say on this issue.