VOTE NO ON QUESTION J -- No matter when you vote during this election season

The IHHAAC Board urges voters to reject increasing

the terms limits for the County Executive and Council by

voting AGAINST Question J.

See attachment and below.

Speaking on September 16 before the Democratic Central Committee, County Executive Rushern Baker advanced a new and novel argument in favor of eliminating term limits: they are disrespectful and treat voters as "immature". There are at least two things wrong with that argument.

First, we the voters put those term limits in place because of the poor quality and too-often corrupt political leadership which the County has experienced historically and as a check against machine politics where incumbents are impossible to dislodge, no matter how offensive (or criminal) their behavior or incompetent their performance.

Second, it is the political slates which are disrespectful of voters and treat us as immature. Look at voters lined up at any polling station and you will see many of them carrying glossy full color mailers showing the smiling faces of each of the candidates who bought their way on to that slate. Those voters are not being asked to think and make an informed decision, all they are expected to do is to follow the instructions on the mailer: vote for the candidates on the slate–and they do. Thus are voters treated like sheep, queued up to be sheared.

Finally, the slates themselves are anti-Democratic. If there was a viable 2-party system in Prince George's County, people might have a real choice. Since there is not a 2-party system, there is almost no competition. Further, because there is no meaningful competition, the outcome of the November election has already been decided by the Primary in June in which only 89,000 of the 510,000 registered voters went to the polls out of a County population of 890,000. Try arguing why/how 10 percent of the population should choose the political leadership for themselves plus the other 90 percent who didn't vote.

Since term limits were passed in 1992, no County Executive or County Council member has lost re-election. Many have run unopposed. Those with challengers have mostly won in landslides. Further, the longer politicians remain in office, the more they become beholden to and captive of special interests, developers, financial backers, and slate makers.

Baker seems to want to make this a referendum on his Administration. The good which he has done the past four years is a marked improvement over what came before, but there is still much that needs to be done during his second term. (We'll have much more to say about this in the upcoming IHHAAC Annual Report to Members and during our Annual Meeting on November 9.)

But Question J also applies to the nine members of the County Council, where the good, the bad and the indifferent too often abide. Term limits force periodic change in order to avoid a permanent political class and to allow new blood to come forward. Who is to say that the newly elected office holder won’t be better than the outgoing term-limited one.

We urge you to vote AGAINST Question J.