They don’t make it easy for citizen initiatives in Alaska.
According to state law, legislatures there are prohibited from repealing a successful initiative for two years. Two whole years. Whoo hoo! And that’s it. After this two-year moratorium, lawmakers can haul out the shredder.
In 2007, voters in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough 
passed a term limits measure that caps the tenure of the borough’s assembly members to two consecutive terms. The Alliance for Concerned Taxpayers gathered signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
For some strange reason, the Alliance doesn’t trust incumbent lawmakers in the borough to leave the term limits on themselves alone. They’re not the trusting type, I guess. But these term limits activists are not just wringing their hands and wailing, “Oh, I sure hope those incumbent lawmakers leave the term limits alone!”
Instead, two years after 2007, Alliance members have been out gathering signatures to put the same term limits measure back on the ballot.
Mike McBride, a spokesman for the group, says it’s easy as pie to get the signatures. “The public wants term limits, that’s the bottom line.… It’s a real popular idea.”
McBride says if the group has to go out and gather signatures every two years to keep term limits in place, they will. Good for them.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on ““A” For Effort”
We need term limts for all federal offices. Representatives, senators, Judges, etc.
Is it not possible to include a provision in the initiative to over-ride the law allowing the legislature to repeal the initiative after two years? Or, have a tandem initiative which amends the law allowing repeal of initiatives so the term limits one can’t be repealed for 4 or 6 or however many years.
A very intresting blog, I found your website on google and thought
I would put a comment. Keep up the good work.