Court Upholds Term Limits

In your editorial (“Court Says OK--but Is It OK?” Oct. 11) you claim that Sacramento will lose valuable experience as a result of the implementation of Proposition 140. But if experience is a prerequisite for good government, why are two of our veteran legislators going to jail on corruption charges? Why can’t our practiced professionals set the state budget or address other major policy issues that confront California? The answer: because they have the wrong kind of experience. Theirs is experience of the Capitol’s corridors of power, of caucus politics, of the whole hothouse political scene.

Our professional politicians do a great job fund-raising and campaigning--but they know little of the real issues of concern to California. Men and women with experience of everyday life, of small business and the professions, of trades and of daily work in ordinary communities--these are the people with the proper experience to serve in our Legislature.

Would you have us believe that out of a state composed of more than 30 million persons, there are only 120 with the skills necessary to represent the rest of us?

Along with the majority of California’s voters who put Proposition 140 into the state Constitution back in November, I am absolutely confident that we can find many competent men and women to serve in Sacramento.

Proposition 140’s term limits will assure turnover in office so that citizens from all occupations and backgrounds will have a chance to bring fresh ideas and new leadership into the state Capitol. It is only after we fill our Legislature with representatives in touch with, and responsive to, public opinion that the problems facing California will be properly addressed.

PETE SCHABARUM

Author of Proposition 140

Los Angeles