Term Limits: the Promise of Change

Unlike many of my political writing colleagues, I think term limits are a good idea.

This feeling was reinforced Tuesday as I watched Kenny Hahn try to make a point at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, a prisoner of his wheelchair, his speech rambling, his once-strong voice weak and halting.

Hahn, 71, a supervisor for 39 years, has been partially paralyzed since suffering a stroke in 1987. He’s been in and out of the hospital for a variety of ailments and often lacks the stamina to stay through the entire supervisors’ meetings.

The subject before the board was the high cost of transporting prisoners from jail to courtrooms. Hahn went into a monologue on an old proposal to combine the Municipal and Superior courts, once regarded as a long-range way of reducing prisoners’ court appearances. But the old idea was irrelevant to the discussion. Hahn then wandered even farther afield, offering a lengthy explanation of the Municipal Court system.

I couldn’t help thinking of the Kenny Hahn I had met in 1970. With his wit, brains and almost flawless political instincts, he outsmarted the other supervisors, humbled bureaucrats and loaded up his poor South L.A. districts with parks, broad streets and health-care facilities. He so dominated the news that, as far as L.A. was concerned, Kenny Hahn was the Board of Supervisors.

I couldn’t stand watching any more, so I left.

Hahn has scheduled a news conference for next Wednesday, where he may announce his retirement. So this may be his last term.

But the fact that Hahn has hung on so long, and was reelected in 1988 while infirm from his stroke, made me think about the need for change in county and city governments and how term limits might spur the process.

Hahn is not the only old-timer. Illness badly weakened the body and mind of Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, but he remained on the job until death removed him. Los Angeles County Supervisors Ed Edelman, Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana are long-timers. So are most of the members of the Los Angeles City Council. Mayor Tom Bradley, in office since 1973, may run for another four-year term.

People hate to quit these jobs. Their desire to hold on is reinforced by the electoral system. Gerrymandered districts help ease incumbents’ reelections. So do campaign contributions, most of which flow to incumbents. Hahn’s last major challenge was in 1968.

On the state level, incumbents’ reluctance to quit helped power the term limit movement which resulted in voter approval last year of Proposition 140.

You’ve heard the arguments:

Term limits nullify the voter’s right to choose. They deprive us of experienced legislators, a situation made worse in Sacramento by Proposition 140’s cost-cutting features. In Sacramento, critics say, smaller staffs and the inexperienced Legislature will leave the Capitol open to domination by smart lobbyists working for a few powerful business interests.

That’s a laugh. The lobbyists have been running the place since some time in the mid-19th Century. And you can argue that the voters’ right to choose was nullified a long time ago by the campaign contributions and gerrymandered districts. As for experience, what about new ideas?

One point is certain. Term limits promise change, a development already being felt in Los Angeles County politics.

Monday, I talked to State Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who is running for Hahn’s supervisorial seat.

Approval of legislative term limits meant Watson would have to leave the Senate in seven years. She looked around for another job, and set her sights on Hahn’s. “I think it is time to move,” she said. “You go when you have the chips. You don’t wait until you become a lame duck.”

Watson is well-known. She can raise money. She’s a black woman in a district where many African-American leaders feel--as much as they appreciate Hahn--that it is now time for a black to hold the seat. All this means Hahn will have a tough race. That certainly must be a factor as he decides whether to announce his retirement next Wednesday.

Proposition 140 is also bringing change in the city. Without it, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) might have spent many more years in the Assembly. Now, he’s running for mayor.

It means stress and change for the politicians, but also a fresh outlook. As Watson said, “You can stay too long at the fair.”