Mayor Bloomberg, Term Limits, and the Power of the Electorate

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Michael Bloomberg wants to serve a third term as mayor of New York City. He even convinced term limit champion Ronald Lauder that the current financial crisis calls for a one time only waver of the two-term limit for the mayor—not for city council members and other elected officials.

There is no need for term limits in democracies--not in local, state, and national jurisdictions. If citizens are fed up with elected officials, as they are now with President Bush and members of Congress, they have the power to throw the rascals out when the next election comes around. If they are satisfied, and even happy, with the performances of the men and women they elected, citizens should have the right of reelecting them as many times as they want. 

In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state-imposed congressional term limits in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton as unconstitutional and thereby invalidated the restrictions imposed in 23 states. The court ruled, “In the absence of a properly passed constitutional amendment, allowing individual States to craft their own qualifications for Congress would thus erode the structure envisioned by the Framers, a structure that was designed, in the words of the Preamble to our Constitution, to form a "more perfect Union." 

However, term limits are in place for more than a dozen state legislatures, more than half of the governors, several of the country’s largest cities, and many more other local jurisdictions. 

Yes, I know that the proponents of term limits do not agree with the argument that term limits are actually undemocratic. They like to point to ancient Greece and Rome where term limits for elected officials did exist. That was at a time when the problems of city states were far less complex and numerous than for today’s local, state, and national governments. Newly elected officials learn on the job. But while newcomers in executive and legislative offices learn the ropes, the permanent bureaucracy and long-lasting lobbyists have the upper hand in pushing their own agendas. Rotation in office does not make sense because it increases the power of unelected and permanent players. 

If Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to run for a third term, he should go for it—after a referendum that repeals term limits for all elected offices in the city.