As I See It, Should Governor Be a Lifetime Job?

As I See It…I’m Brad Williams.

During this campaign season in Wisconsin, I’ve been seeing ads criticizing some candidates…like a U.S. Senator, and a state legislator…for being in office too long. The message is, a politician who stays on the job too many years just cares about themselves, and not about you, so replace those people with somebody else. But how long is too long for an elected official? We have term limits on the president, but when it comes to other jobs, Americans are literally all over the map. I saw a U.S. map posted on-line, specifically showing term limits for governors by state. Virginia is the only state that limits a governor to one term, at a time. Somebody can be Virginia governor more than once, but not twice in a row. A majority of the states have a two-term limit, such as Michigan. There’s no limit to governors’ terms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Just ask Tommy Thompson, he won four times in the Badger State. But maybe we should ask Tommy whether he feels differently now, if there should be a time limit for that job. Plenty of time before the next election cycle to argue about that idea. I’m Brad Williams, on WIZM.