GOP Begins Drive to Let Reagan Run for 3rd Term

The National Republican Campaign Committee wants to remove the constitutional barrier that prevents President Reagan from running for a third term, an official said today.

Committee spokeswoman Barbara Pardue said Rep. Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan has sent letters to 300,000 Republicans, urging them to sign a “constitutional petition” urging Congress to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which limits Presidents to two four-year terms.

Pardue said the mailing was not cleared with the President. Reagan, who at 75 is history’s oldest U.S. President, has voiced support of lifting the two-term limit beginning with his successor only.

In the letter, Vander Jagt pledges that he personally will introduce in the House the legislation to repeal the amendment if he receives enough names on the petitions.

“I don’t know about you, but with the Soviets flexing their military muscles and madmen like Moammar Kadafi on the loose, I rest easier knowing Ronald Reagan is my President,” the letter says.

Vander Jagt describes the 22nd Amendment, passed by Congress in 1947, as “an absolute insult to you and me and every other voter in this country and it should be repealed.”

Although the letter ends with an appeal for financial contributions to the National Republican Campaign Committee, Pardue denied that the mailing was merely a fund-raising gimmick.

Repealing the amendment would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures.

Reagan has criticized the law as inhibiting those in the White House.