Proposed measure ties term limits to fundraising

Getting money out of state politics is the motivation for a ballot measure Santa Monica accountant Paul McCauley is backing.

McCauley said his measure would give legislators an option: Raise money and go on junkets and comply with existing term limits, or forego such standard practices and stay in office, unopposed, beyond the term limits.

"The only rationale to raise campaign contributions is to keep myself getting re-elected," McCauley said to PolitickerCA.com. "I think a fair number of them would accept this offer."

Under the proposed ballot measure, which is now circulating for voter signatures, would-be legislators could raise money or go on campaign junkets before they were elected to office.

Once there, however, they could stay in office for up to eight years in the Assembly and 12 years in the state Senate - in both cases, an extra term longer than currently allowed - if they stopped fundraising and junket-going.

Legislators who did so, McCauley said, wouldn't face  re-election for any of those terms as long as they complied with the ban on fundraising and junket trips. As soon as they did otherwise, they'd be subject to existing term limits of six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate, he said.

"What I'm trying to do is reduce the effect of money on day to day operations in Sacramento," McCauley said. "I think as many as half of the legislators might go for it."

McCauley said his proposed ballot measure also tweaks term limits by allowing legislators to run again for the same seats after leaving for a term.

Under current limits, legislators are capped at six and eight years in the Assembly and Senate, regardless of whether they serve the terms consecutively.

EARLIER on PolitickerCA.com:

• New term limits measure collecting signatures