Musical chairs

"One thing that the term limits on state officials has done in California," mused Paul Jacob of US Term Limits when he dropped in to see me days after I returned from the Golden State, "it does force folks to seek other offices if they want to stay in politics.

"if you've served three two-year terms in the state assembly, for example, you are eligible to serve two fouryear terms in the senate. Or you can go from senate to assembly. But once you've served the maximum years in each chamber, that's it-you've got to do something else because you can't serve any longer."

Jacob's observations were bome out in the results of primaries for legislative seats, as many present and former legislators simply made the first step toward moving to another chamber. As HUMAN EVENTs reported last week (page 16), Republican State Sen. Dave Kelley and State Assemblyman Jim Battin, strong conservatives both, managed a "job swap" in the Palm Desert area; Battin won nomination to the "termed out" Kelley's senate seat, while Kelley won nomination to Battin's open assembly seat.

In Ventura County, termed out Assemblyman Tom McClintock-a swashbuckling conservative known for his public jousting with moderate former Gov. (1990-98) Pete Wilson-won the nomination to the state senate seat of lameduck GOP incumbent Cathie Wright. McClintock won the GOP primary by more than 2 to 1 over Ventura County Superviser Judy Mikels, who not only had Wright's backing but the leftover funds from her campaign coffers.

Similarly, another conservative sparkplug, former State Sen. Phil Wyman, roared back into the arena two weeks ago. Wyman, who lost a bid for Congress in 1992, won nomination in the historically Republican High Desert assembly district (along the Nevada border), where incumbent Keith Olberg was termed out. Wyman defeated moderate Victorville City Manager James L. Cox.

On the Democratic side, term limits spelled the end of the career of one of America's best-known old Leftists, State Sen. Tom Hayden (who, interestingly, was one of the few elected Democrats in the state to support term limits). With Hayden forced to relinquish his Los Angeles-Santa Monica seat, the runaway winner of the Democratic primary was Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, who demolished fellow state legislator WallY Knox. Kuehl, the only avowed lesbian in the state legislature, is perhaps best known for portraying "Zelda" on the old "Dobie Gillis" television series.

Mainly because of term limits, 32 of the 80 assembly seats and nine of the 40 senate seats had no incumbents seeking re-election.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 24, 2000
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