Tim Lynch at Cato at Liberty makes an interesting claim, that recently members of Congress aren’t necessarily representatives of their districts. He points out that Tom Delay is on the ballot in Texas, but has also declared himself to be a Virginian. Granted in Delay’s case part of the problem is the ruling of judge that is preventing Delay from retiring and thus take his name off the ballot this November, but Lynch points to other examples.
- Bob Dole announces his bid for President in Russel Kansas, but after losing lives in the Watergate.
- Elizabeth Dole moved to North Carolina to become a Senator.
- Bill and Hillary Clinton moved to New York so Hillary could become a Senator.
Lynch also points to William Weld, the former governor of Massachussetts, who came to New York to run for governor there.
All this is used as justification for term limits. Not sure I see the connection here. After all, there is still the voting process that these people have to go through. If the people in those “districts” felt that these people weren’t going to do at least an adequate job representing them, then why vote for them? And how does term limits prevent this problem other than increasing turn over which may be a good thing, or maybe not.
Overall the thinking here seems very muddled at best.
