Inouye's Democratic Challenger Reaches Out to The Tea Party for Support on Term Limits

BONDED PLEDGES OFFER NEW APPROACH TO TERM LIMITS

JULY 22^ND, 2010
KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII

     With the most senior Senator in the nation and being a state that has never removed an incumbent from Congress, Hawaii is a natural battleground for promoting term limits in this year’s election.  And while some may debate their value, as many as 83% of Americans support term limits.[1] 

     Bonded Term Limits Pledges offer candidates a new approach to providing voters the option of term limits directly at the ballot box.  It’s a simple process where a candidate makes a choice to limit their own terms in office, and then backs that promise with a meaningful portion of their personal assets.  To do so, the candidate provides a promissory note to a non-profit organization of their choosing.  If the candidate should later break their word, the note becomes legally binding and the assets are forfeited.

     The first response some candidates have is that “their word is their bond”.  Although I have no reason to doubt them on a personal level, the failed term limits pledges of the 1994 Contract with America clearly demonstrates how quickly citizen candidates turn into career politicians.  More importantly, a Bonded Pledge is simple and inexpensive to make, and exposes the candidates to absolutely no risk, as long as they are true to their word.

     The second argument you will hear comes from candidates who support term limits but believe that self-imposing is bad for their constituents because it forces effective legislators to step down from office.  This is certainly a logical argument, but it relies on the same arrogant point that all incumbents make: That THEY are the most effective legislators, and THEY alone are able to best represent their constituents.
     These candidates also fail to inform voters of the extreme unlikeliness that a constitutional amendment for term limits will ever be passed.  While it sounds good on the campaign trail, their support of term limits is virtually pointless as it neither provides voters with a realistic hope for mandatory term limits, nor a personal guarantee of voluntary term limits.

     So when you hear a candidate who supports term limits, applaud them.  But then aggressively request them to back that support with something more than an empty campaign promise.  Those who have already self-imposed should be given the greatest scrutiny.  Making a Bonded Term Limits Pledge exposes them to absolutely no new risk, as long as they are true to their word.

     For now, I am proud to be the lone candidate in Hawaii to have made a Bonded Term Limits Pledge.  However, I would prefer to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to isolate our incumbents in their clear opposition to such a highly popular idea.   Bonded Term Limits Pledges provide a unique opportunity for challengers from all parties to come together in unified opposition to Hawaii’s nearly invincible political machine. No single candidate or political party can do that alone.

Andy Woerner
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate – Hawaii
Election Reform – Term Limits – Balanced Budget

More information about Mr. Woerner can be found at the candidate’s website: www.andyforussenatehawaii.com

Information about the Alliance for Bonded Term Limits can be found at www.bondedtermlimits.org

[1]http://www.termlimits.org/files/PulseOpinionTermLimitsPoll.pdf

Reflecting on Independence Day

Two hundred and thirty-four years ago today the promise of America was summed up in one of the greatest single sentences ever to be written:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is a sentence that will stand the test of time and will forever inspire hope in the hearts of those who are subjected to the dark realities of oppression.

But most Americans, myself included, are surely an embarrassment to the great men who risked their very lives to pen those inspiring words. On this Independence Day, reflect on their passion and how they might apply it if they were with us today.
There are many avenues where those ideals can be profoundly applied, but we must first find the strength to declare our own “declarations of independence” from the relentless grips of comfort, apathy, ignorance, and pride. I worry that the British were a much less formidable foe.

Andy Woerner
Candidate for U.S. Senate-Hawaii
Election Reform - Term Limits - Balanced Budget
www.andyforussenatehawaii.com