Potatoes aren’t the only thing they have in Idaho. They also have potatohead career politicians.
Okay, that wasn’t nice. I apologize to any career politicians or potatoes who were offended.
But on the other hand, Idaho voters are being treated like potato salad. And that’s not right either. Idaho politicians have tried again and again to trash term limits. But the people of Idaho have refused to play along.
So now the politicians are taking the people to court. Last year, 6th District Judge Randy Smith heard a challenge to the Idaho term limits law. It pertained to the desire of county-level officials to remain on the job.
Of course, as soon as Judge Smith’s ruling made clear his bias against term limits, the true purpose of the lawsuit rapidly emerged. All kinds of statewide lobbyists and statewide politicians crawled out of the potato bag to demand an end to term limits.
Judge Smith stressed a section of the Idaho code stating that “Any person legally qualified to hold such office is entitled to become a candidate.”
But I think Judge Smith is missing something. After all, under term limits, whether one is “legally qualified” depends on how many terms one has served! And Judge Smith also admitted that the state constitution “allows the people the . . . right to propose laws and enact the same by initiative.”
The Idaho Supreme Court is about to decide this question. Let’s hope they realize that the constitutionally protected voting rights of the Idaho citizen cannot be sliced and diced at will.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.