Backed by poll, Jacksonville Councilmembers push two-term limit

A controversial bill to allow a referendum to change Jacksonville’s long-standing two-term limit for many elected officials is slated to return to the Council floor Tuesday evening.

Ahead of that, U.S. Term Limits, along with Jacksonville City Councilmen John Crescimbeni, Greg Anderson, and Tommy Hazouri, convened to sound the alarm against relaxing term limits and present a Rasmussen/Pulse Research poll that showed that people still favor term limits — contrary to what some on Council have suggested.

400 people polled via phone from Aug. 9 – 11 resoundingly opposed term limit tweaks, wanting to keep the limit for elected officials at two terms consecutive.

72 percent opposed the proposed change of terms from two to three consecutive; 71 percent believe that changes would benefit Council members, not the public; 52 percent were less likely to support a Council member that voted to rescind current term limits.

That last fact jibes with history: In 1991, six of ten incumbents who opposed term limits lost their re-election bids.

The Council members on hand — political veterans all — spoke to this reality, accepting awards for supporting term limits.

The poll numbers, said the U.S. Term Limits representative, were consistent with findings across the state and the country.

He also noted the similarity between these results and the 1991 referendum to impose term limits, supported by 82 percent of people.

The group will work on educating people if a referendum comes to pass.

Across the board, the contention is that people don’t feel connected to their elected officials writ large.