Term Limits for Legislators

Re “Term Limits Distract Returning Legislators,” Jan. 6: Those who are still unaware of what our representatives’ No. 1 priority is should reread the paragraph that has an unidentified Assembly member stating, “I’ve got one goal in life. That is: Get elected to the Senate.” As for the job of legislating in the meantime: “Wasted energy.”

The public should realize that starting with their first day in office, our elected officials are just preparing for the next election--to try and stay in public office forever. The job of creating meaningful legislation is only a secondary task for them.

Let’s start to fight back and demand more of their time on the job that we are paying them for. A new statewide proposition should be that upon running for another office (i.e., the Assembly member running for the Senate), the legislator should resign from his current office. This way we can appoint someone who would not think that the job is “wasted energy.”

ANDREW H. BURAK

Oxnard

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I particularly enjoyed reading “Ideas Are Easy; What the State Needs Is Ability” (by George Skelton, Jan. 5). My main concern with term limits was that we would be getting rid of some of the most able politicians. You might disagree about the merits of Willie Brown or Jesse Unruh, but you cannot ignore their achievements. What I found insightful was best expressed by Skelton’s line: “What’s needed in a capital is the ability--the expertise, knowledge and power--to hone and implement the ideas.”

FRED D. OBERLANDER II

Irvine