With many officials making plans to run for different government posts when their terms are up, it seems the real motive behind using term limits has been put to the wayside.
State Sen. Joanne Emmons announced Thursday her candidacy to run for one of two open seats on the MSU Board of Trustees, state Sen. Dianne Byrum filed paperwork the same day to run for a seat in the state House, and state Sen. John Schwarz has stepped foot into the upcoming gubernatorial race.
All three senators are approaching the end of their term limits.
With different elections quickly approaching, many voters will begin choosing among a variety of faces - most of them familiar. The practice of setting term limits has allowed a select group of individuals to play musical chairs inside Michigan’s political arena.
One of the reasons term limits were put into play was to combat the development of the “career politician,” but instead of politicians dropping out of the political arena after being term-limited, they just tap into other offices, often switching seats with other term-limited politicians.
It seems the same old faces are doing a variety of jobs. This can be a good thing, because politicians who stay in the political arena often have quite a bit of expertise that may be needed to balance out newcomers.
Emmons said she is more than qualified to deal with legislative issues on the board after 16 years as a state senator and representative. So maybe term limits do allow for the chance to become a better politician.
At the same time, it can be argued that politicians who remain in office for long periods are more susceptible to become corrupt over time. In addition, new faces running for office hardly ever are seen.
But with many politicians wanting to move to several different kinds of offices after they become term-limited, an old adage seems to come into play: A jack-of-all-trades is an expert at none.
It seems as though people may have been sold a lemon when they voted for term limits. If anything, term limits have allowed interested parties to watch as politicians jump around from the state Senate, to the state House and to Congress.
Perhaps the idea of term limits needs to be revisited to make sure they are accomplishing the purpose that many people thought they would.
