by Nick Tomboulides
Tallahassee, FL— U.S. Term Limits (USTL) presented “Defender of Term Limits” awards to eight Florida legislators this week for their commitments to protecting the state’s citizen-initiated and voter-approved eight-year term limits law.
The eight recipients were: Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Duval), Sen. Joe Negron (R-Martin), Rep. Amanda Murphy (D-Pasco), Rep. Cary Pigman (R-Highlands), Rep. Frank Artiles (R-Miami Dade), Rep. Larry Metz (R-Lake), Rep. John Wood (R-Polk) and Rep. John Tobia (R-Melbourne Beach).
All eight recipients in the bipartisan group had signed USTL’s legislator pledge, promising to take no action that aids or abets the abolition or lengthening of Florida’s current term limits.
“Even though voters passed eight-year term limits in a landslide, aspiring career politicians in Tallahassee haven’t stopped scheming to get rid of them,” said USTL President Philip Blumel, a West Palm Beach resident whose group frequently fights term limits attacks out of the Legislature. “By standing up for the people’s term limits, these legislators have taken a truly courageous stand and we applaud them for it.”
Florida’s term limits were enacted with 77 percent of the vote in 1992 and support has only risen since. According to the most recent Quinnipiac poll on the subject, 79 percent of voters support retaining the current limits without any change.
U.S. Term Limits is the leader of the national movement to enact limitations on terms that elective officials can serve. Founded in 1992, it played a key role in campaigns to limit the terms of 15 state legislatures and 23 congressional delegations. The latter limits were struck down in a landmark 1995 Supreme Court decision, U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton.