The New York Observer, November 29th, 2005
The Politicker is prone to rough Mondays; none of us made it to the term limits forum last night.
But thanks to a Politicker reader and comments section maven, we've got a little something to spark discussion. Please not that this is his take, not to be confused with The Politicker's take, which doesn't exist, particularly because...we weren't there.
"Last night at the LGBT Center, the Stonewall Democrats, VID and several other clubs hosted a forum on term limits.
"Unfortunately, the term-limited-about-to-be-unemployed (and absolutely against term limits) councilmember Bill Perkins was absent because he forgot it was was his anniversary. Gale Brewer presented her belief that term limits should be expanded to 12 years due to an Epiphany she had when a small non-profit she cares about to hired a lobbyist partially because of the turnover created by term limits. None of the other panelists, Dick Dadey of Citizens Union, Harry Kresky of the Independence Party and Deborah Goldberg of the Brennen Center seemed to buy that argument.
"The full audience at the Center featured a disproportionate number of Independence Party members, who argued that term limits should be part of a broader initiative including non-partisan elections. The Indies undermined the argument that most people in the audience actually agreed with (by informal poll of the moderator NY1's Davidson Golden), which is that whatever your position on term limits, the Council shouldn't override the will of the people, which passed term limits by ballot initiative."
--EnWhySeaWonk
UPDATE: Azi also attended the forum, and offers his take at The Fifth Estate.
