Term Limits

One of the larger (ongoing) topics swirling around is the topic of term limits for elected officials. This is not likely to get done any time soon. An act of law limiting the power and influence of the lawmakers themselves is a hard sell for anyone. However, a de facto limit can be imposed within a political party.

At the Texas GOP Convention, much thought was put into this. We were pitched the idea of effectively using the Right of Association to impose term limits on our own candidates. If a person has held office for a certain number of terms, they are ineligible to secure a Republican nomination from the Republican Party of Texas. they would be welcome to run as a Democrat or as an Independent, just not on the Republican ticket.

We all know a person who ran, won, and worked as a Republican has little to no chance of securing a nomination on the Democrat ticket. We also know Independents secure 10% or less of the vote. This policy effectively drains the Texas GOP swamp.

This may not be a sweeping policy to fix the entire issue, but we can clean up our side of the street at the very least. Even the people who have no time to research candidates and vet policymakers should have some guidance from their party and their party’s delegates. This mechanism forces that to be the case.