Californians continue to be disappointed with their elected officials (as every poll shows) and involved Californians continue to see election reform as a logical answer to bringing “representative” back to representative democracy.

One option that is gathering momentum is term limit reform. While a future column will take a deeper look at George Washington, FDR and Willie Brown, suffice it to say that for a variety of reasons, term limits have not worked out the way we intended. For starters, term limits are a direct challenge to representative democracy. Why shouldn’t we have whomever we elect for as long as we elect them?

There is also a practical side. A California State Assembly Person is limited to six years (three terms) on the job. Done right, it is not an easy job and between the learning curve required and the constant fundraising and campaigning (an election every two years), how much are we really getting out of our elected officials?

Now, there is now some momentum gathering to ease term limits in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times has a front page article today about the Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters (among others) who are asking the City Council to bring this issue to the voters in November.

For those of us who support term limit reform, local or statewide, this is a significant step forward and very welcome. If you have a chance, read the article and let me know what you think. Thank you.