Debate Over Term Limits Turns More Partisan With Bush Support

President Bush’s endorsement of term limitations for state legislators and members of Congress could reshape the politics of the issue, accelerating its transformation from a populist struggle between insiders and outsiders into a partisan battle between Democrats and Republicans, analysts say.

With that possibility in sight, some leading term limit supporters expressed mixed emotions over Bush’s endorsement Friday of a limit-setting initiative on the California ballot.

On one hand, advocates welcomed the increased visibility that presidential support brings to the issue. But many worry that his high-profile involvement will allow opponents to characterize term limitations as a Republican attempt to accomplish through procedural reform what the party has been unable to do through direct elections: dislodge Democratic majorities in Congress and most state legislatures.

“There was no need for the President to get involved in it,” said Eddie Mahe, a GOP consultant who has backed term limitation efforts, “because it adds a partisan tone to the cause that does it no good.”

In fact, partisan tones already have begun to color the issue. Though polls show overwhelming public support for limiting congressional terms, a recent New York Times/CBS survey showed the margin of support was only about half as great among rank-and-file Democrats as among Republicans.

A handful of prominent Democrats and liberals have endorsed term limitations, among them Ralph Nader, Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate John R. Silber, Texas gubernatorial candidate Ann Richards, Colorado Senate nominee Josie Heath and California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, who launched one of the two term limit initiatives on next month’s ballot.

But more leading Republicans have signed up for the cause, which was endorsed in general terms in the GOP’s 1988 platform. The initiative Bush endorsed Friday was launched by Republican Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum. In Colorado, Republican state Sen. Terry Considine led the drive that put a term limit initiative on this year’s ballot. Mahe, the GOP political operative, has organized a group called Americans to Limit Congressional Terms to support grass-roots drives around the country.

Vice President Dan Quayle backed the idea weeks before the President. Florida Gov. Bob Martinez has endorsed term limitations, as have Sen. Pete Wilson and Clayton W. Williams, the GOP gubernatorial candidates in California and Texas, respectively. Four GOP Senate challengers--all of them current or former congressmen--are also calling for limits.

Though some Republicans, such as former President Ronald Reagan, don’t like the idea, opposition has been much more intense among Democrats. Organized labor fought the limit initiative that Oklahoma voters approved last month. In Colorado, Democratic Rep. Patricia Schroeder has been among the most outspoken opponents of the state ballot initiative, which attempts to limit the terms not only of local legislators but the state’s congressional delegation as well. In California, the campaign against the term limit initiatives is being bankrolled and organized by Democrats in the state Legislature, and gubernatorial nominee Dianne Feinstein has joined the opposition.

With control of more than two-thirds of all state legislative chambers, and majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats have the most to lose from any reform that diminishes the advantages of incumbency.

But with Bush’s endorsement, some believe, the possibility grows that opponents may persuade voters that Republicans are pushing term limits in their own self-interest. That debate will begin in the last days of this campaign, but it is more likely to emerge in 1992.