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This year the state legislature tried to close a revolving door. In 2007 Congress tried to close their version of that door. I’m not sure how well either of them will work over time, but if it’s important to close revolving doors, maybe we should try closing another revolving door – the one from one federal elective office to the Presidency.
Admittedly, few sitting legislators have been elected as President, but you have to go back to 1900 to find a presidential election where a Senator did not seek the presidency (there were generally members of the house seeking it as well). Maybe if we placed a two year restriction after leaving a federal legislative office before a person could seek the presidency we might have fewer members of Congress trying to use their offices as stepping stones to the Oval Office.
Of course that would simply guarantee two year presidential campaigns, but at least those campaigns would not include a guaranteed fallback of a seat in the Senate for sitting senators.
2 replies on “Revolving Doors”
For years, I was opposed to Term Limits, because I thought it was something that eventually the people could be brought around to seeing that their votes could constitute term limits. I beginning to think, though, that Utah republicans are a perfect example of why term limits would be helpful. Attach an “R” to your name and nearly 2/3 of Utahns think you can do no wrong. The biggest advocates of ethics reform in Utah have largely been Democrats. I’m beginning to see the Republicans in Utah as not much more than a political gangster machine.
I know that feeling. It is my hope to help reform the party from the inside so that office-holders with an R next to their name are held accountable by the party rather than being blindly supported for perpetual re-election.