BY MARIANNA NASH 
The Queens Courier

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 7:09 PM EDT 
In 1993, the group New Yorkers for Term Limits (NYTL) led a successful campaign to codify the city term limits law, which states that local officeholders can run for no more than two four-year terms. The group defended the law in 1996 when incumbents and special interest groups fought to add a third term.
On June 9, in response to rumors that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and members of the City Council were interested in changing the law, the group polled 600 likely voters in New York City by phone to gauge what they thought of the term limits law. An overwhelming 73 to 22 percent of voters supported having term limits. Additionally, 61 to 29 percent were against changing the law.

“This is reflective of the New York City voting population,” said NYTL Executive Director Allen Roth. “We wanted to demonstrate the views of the citizens. They said ‘no’ [to new term limits].”

The citizens group credits term limits with introducing diversity and competition to local elections. Term limits provide opportunities for creative, motivated citizens, rather than “career politicians,” to run.

Results of the poll showed that a broad base of voters approve of the term limits law.

“Some politicians and pundits may be unhappy with the most sweeping reform of City politics in recent years, but voters remain very pleased with the term limits law. In two elections, over a million New Yorkers voted for term limits. And any politician who ignores the voters’ voice should be prepared to be punished,” said Roth.

African-Americans, women, and voters under 30 showed respectively 81, 75 and 79 percent support for term limits. The numbers reflect NYTL’s goal of increasing diversity among City Council candidates.

The survey cited the recent federal criminal investigation into the “slush fund” (an amount of money secretly set aside for personal interests) in City Council that involved over $17 million in taxpayer money. Asked if term limits should be extended for the politicians involved in the scandal, only 7 percent thought they should, as compared to 78 percent who disagreed.

Some critics of the law say that career politicians are not deterred by term limits. Andrew Moesel, spokesperson for Councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr., said that although the councilmember believes the limits should be extended to 3 or 4 terms, “they need to be changed by the people.” Vallone would not support a referendum to change the law “without the people’s will.”

“We took a covenant with the people of this city,” said Councilmember Tony Avella. Changing the law is “the worst thing an elected official can do.” Avella found talk of the mayor or fellow councilmembers changing the term limits “upsetting.”

The survey asked voters whether the city needed more “professional politicians with long experience” or “new people from outside the political system” as candidates. 59 percent thought more new people should run while 28 percent favored professional politicians.

Additionally, 58 to 19 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who had voted to extend term limits, while 17 percent said the candidate’s stance would have no impact on their vote.

The poll was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research and had a plus or minus 4 percent margin of error.