Schabarum to Seek Term Limits for California Congressional Delegation

As voters in the state of Washington were deciding whether to impose term limits on members of Congress, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum announced plans Tuesday for an initiative to limit the terms of California’s congressional delegation.

A co-author of Proposition 140, which for the first time imposed term limits on California officials, including legislators and the governor, Schabarum said that his group, Citizens for Term Limits, will submit the new initiative to the state attorney general on Friday.

That is the first step in what is likely to be a lengthy, expensive effort to qualify the initiative for the November, 1992, ballot.

“I’m willing to devote the next year of my life to fight this battle,” Schabarum said.

The job is certain to be a formidable one. To qualify, the measure will require the gathering of 615,958 valid signatures at a cost of $400,000, according to Schabarum, who says he will need an additional $2.5 million to run a successful campaign.

And, as Washington state voters have been told, state efforts to limit congressional terms raise serious constitutional questions.

The Schabarum initiative would limit California’s members of the House of Representatives to four consecutive two-year terms and the state’s U.S. senators to two consecutive six-year terms. Members of the House could run again after sitting out at least three years; senators could run again after five years out of office.

Last year, Colorado voters became the first in the nation to approve congressional term limits. But the 12-year limit would have no effect until the year 2002 and has yet to be challenged in court, said Karl Kurtz, who follows term-limit issues for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.

Last month, the California Supreme Court upheld the term-limit provisions of Proposition 140, which imposed lifetime service limits for all state elected officials except the insurance commissioner.

Attorney Joseph Remcho, who led the effort to overturn Proposition 140 on behalf of the Legislature, said lawmakers have until Jan. 8 to file an appeal to the federal courts. No decision has been made whether to do so.

A congressional term-limit measure initiative would be easier to challenge than one such as Proposition 140, which imposes the limits only on state officials, Remcho said.

“The federal Constitution clearly sets the qualifications for office for members of Congress, just as the California Constitution sets the qualifications for membership in the Legislature,” Remcho said. To impose limits on the congressional delegation, he said, “would take a change in the federal Constitution.”