A movement to rein in incumbent elected officials died and was reincarnated Wednesday when a Du Page County activist conceded a term-limit referendum drive had failed, but announced a new effort to achieve the same goal.
Though 1992 is supposed to be an anti-incumbent year across the nation, the effort this summer by Wheaton resident Faye Smith to create a term limit referendum on the ballot flopped.
Smith and other activists had sought to place a non-binding referendum on the November ballot in Du Page to limit local elected officials to eight years in office.
At an April news conference, organizers confidently predicted they would get the 35,000 signatures needed by Aug. 17 to put the measure on the ballot. Though a similar measure succeeded in California, such a grass-roots effort was less successful here.
Not nearly enough petitions were gathered, Smith said. She only knows of 700 signatures obtained.
Smith attributed the failed effort to poor organization, not lack of popular support, and announced Wednesday on the steps of the county complex in Wheaton a campaign with similar aims.
In coming days, a group she heads called Taxpayers Coalition for Term Limitation will mail out pledge forms to all candidates for the County Board, the Illinois legislature and Congress, asking them to promise not to serve more than two terms if elected. Incumbents` previous service would not count against them, Smith said.
Smith was accompanied only by her daughter Wednesday, although Taxpayers Coalition for Term Limitation has 125 members, she said.
The group is affiliated with an organization called U.S. Term Limits. The national group, which is pushing the pledges in all 50 states, has promised to advertise names of elected officials who will not take the pledge, Smith said. Incumbents reacted to the pledge proposal with either skepticism or enthusiasm, depending on political alliances and how long they`ve been in office.
James ”Pate” Philip, a Wood Dale Republican who has served 16 years in the Illinois Senate, where he is the minority party leader, scoffed at the idea. Politicians who serve repeated terms in office gain valuable experience, knowledge and clout that can be useful for constituents, he said.
First-term County Board Chairman Aldo Botti, who has railed against entrenched incumbents such as Philip, said he would sign the pledge.
”I don`t buy this seniority stuff,” he said. ”Some of them have been there for 10 years, and they haven`t learned.”
