Other States Join Term Limit Movement : Lawmakers: Polls find voters back reform in most areas where issue is on ballot. Some call it a national referendum.

California is by no means the only state in the nation that--according to the polls--seems determined to send career politicians packing. Voters coast-to-coast appear poised to strike a major blow for congressional term limits on Nov. 3 by passing proposals to curb legislative tenures in as many as 13 other states.

The effort to restrict the terms of representatives and senators is on so many ballots that some have suggested it is tantamount to a national referendum. And in most of the states, polls show that voters overwhelmingly favor the initiatives to promote legislative turnover.

Opponents--including Common Cause and the League of Women Voters as well as corporate and labor interests--concede that their best hope to sidetrack the growing national movement may be the courts. Congressional term limits are expected to be challenged as unconstitutional.

Aside from the legal question, critics contend that term limits will sap Congress of its most expert lawmakers and cede greater authority to non-elected staffers and lobbyists as well as to the executive. They also argue that the prospect of the greatest turnover in Congress this year since World War II proves that voters already have the power to limit terms at each election.

But none of this has dampened the enthusiasm for a political prairie fire that began in California, Colorado and Oklahoma two years ago and has fanned across the country. The defeat of a congressional term limit proposal in Washington state last year appears to have been an aberration; a revised measure is on the ballot there again this fall.

“The general assumption is that they probably will pass in most cases,” said Roger H. Davidson, a University of Maryland political science professor. “This is one of those issues that . . . is enormously popular, especially in today’s climate.”

Although California and Oklahoma restricted the terms of state lawmakers in 1990, the only state to adopt congressional term limits is Colorado, which enacted 12-year limits for representatives and senators the same year.

Two years later, the movement squarely targets Congress. Still, in most instances, the term limit measures would also restrict state lawmakers and governors and other statewide officials.

The California initiative would limit House members to three two-year terms and U.S. senators to two six-year terms. Here is a look at the proposals and their political prospects in several other states:

MICHIGAN: A measure to limit House members to three two-year terms in any 12-year period and U.S. senators to two six-year terms is favored by 75% of voters and opposed by 23%, a Detroit Free Press poll found this month. The measure would also restrict the tenure of state legislators and executive branch officials.

In Michigan, the principal forces running a vigorous media campaign against the measure include the Michigan Education Assn., the United Auto Workers union, the AFL-CIO, various corporations, two former governors, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters. Such coalitions have formed in a number of other states as well.

“We will lose clout,” said Kathy Pelleran, executive director of Michigan Citizens Committee Against Term Limits. “We will be put at the bottom of the seniority ladder and will be putting our hands out for crumbs from other states’ leaders who don’t necessarily share our priorities.”

OHIO: An initiative to limit U.S. senators to two consecutive terms and members of the House to four terms was backed by 72% of voters and opposed by 20% in a Columbus Dispatch poll taken last month. Terms of state officials would also be capped.

“It’s probably more of a conservative movement and the recent polls show that more Republicans favor it than Democrats,” said John Jazwa, treasurer of the Ohio term limit campaign. But he added that the 8,000 volunteers and 1,200 contributors mobilized by his movement nonetheless constitute “a cross-section of people.”

FLORIDA: A measure stipulating that no state or federal officeholder can appear on the ballot for reelection if he or she has served eight consecutive years in a single post appears to have broad support. A largely grass-roots effort there enlisted 12,000 volunteers to collect 530,000 signatures to put the proposal on the ballot and has raised $800,000 for the campaign.

“It’s just people who are frustrated by the process and see this as . . . (an) opportunity to make a real change,” said Phil Handy, a businessman who heads Florida’s “Eight is Enough” campaign.

WASHINGTON: The successful campaign to defeat the retroactive Washington proposal last year--stressing the clout the state would lose to California if House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) was ousted--has produced a new wrinkle in two states.

The term limit measure in Washington--restricting U.S. senators to 12 out of 18 years and representatives to six out of 12 years--would take effect only if nine other states pass such curbs as well.

“The most powerful argument for this is that our Congress is corrupted by special interests,” said James K. Coyne III, a former GOP lawmaker and founder of Americans to Limit Congressional Terms, a Washington-based advocacy group. “Members of Congress, seduced by being in power for a lifetime, end up selling their souls to special interests to get the funds to be reelected.”

MISSOURI: A measure to limit House members to four terms and U.S. senators to two was supported by 71% of voters and opposed by 20% in a survey conducted by the University of Missouri Media Research Opinion Bureau in mid-September. A separate proposal to restrict state lawmakers’ terms to eight years in the same chamber and a total of 16 years of legislative service also was backed by a wide margin.

The proposal contains a key caveat: The limits on congressional terms would not kick in until half of the nation’s other states take similar action.

OTHER STATES: The other eight states that have term limit measures on their ballots are Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Among the various proposals, most would restrict U.S. senators to two terms. The limitations for House members in general would restrict them to three or four terms.

All of these states except Nevada and North Dakota also propose to restrict the tenure of state legislators and statewide elected officials in various ways as well.

Surveys have found widespread public support for the term limit measures in Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and South Dakota. Recent polling has not been done in some states.