Speaker Blasts Vote That May End His Tenure

WASHINGTON —  House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) on Friday blasted a term-limitation initiative that could cut short his political career and rejected suggestions that his own reputation is at stake.

Foley said proponents of Initiative 553, on Tuesday’s ballot in his home state, were pushing term limits for elected officials by waging “a campaign of disinformation.”

“I don’t take it as a personal matter at all,” Foley said before departing for Seattle to begin a statewide media swing against the ballot measure.

The 13-term lawmaker, the most powerful member of Congress, does not face an election until next year. But, if Initiative 553 is passed and is upheld by the courts, that would be his last run for office.

All members of Washington state’s eight-member House delegation would be retired in three years under the initiative. Foley and others in the delegation have been outspoken opponents of measure.

“The people who are running the initiative . . . have been guilty of deceiving the electorate, and a kind of election fraud,” Foley said. He faulted the measure’s supporters for telling the public that it could limit congressional terms by initiative when, he said, that is clearly unconstitutional.