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Common Sense

Their Own Private Idaho

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What if they held an election and nobody came? Terrible, right? What if they held an election and lots of people came, but the politicians ignored us? Worse.

What if they held two elections and the people came out in droves, two separate times on the same issue, and the politicians still told them “get lost!”? That would be Idaho.

The people of Idaho went to the polls in 1994 and placed term limits on their state legislators and local office holders. Instead of accepting this vote of the people, the legislators introduced bills to repeal term limits.

But too many representatives were scared the public backlash might cost them their seats. So they placed a very confusing measure on the ballot to try to fool the people into voting down term limits. The voters saw through it.Even then, still more bills were introduced to repeal the term limits law.

One of the reasons Idaho politicians think they can get away with snubbing their noses at the people they’re supposed to be working for is the terrible lack of competition for legislative seats. The advantages of incumbency have meant that most of the legislators face no serious opposition.

Idaho politicians won’t get away with it. Activist Donna Weaver and a group of supporters around the state are committed to a political process that’s open to the people. The politicians have launched unprecedented and mean-spirited attacks on these patriotic citizens, but Weaver and company won’t budge from their stance that this beautiful state isn’t the politicians’ own private Idaho.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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