A news story on the front page Monday reported some local officials’ views of whether there should be term limits for members of the Chattanooga City Council.
Should candidates be eligible to run again and again, with no limit on the number of terms? Or should every elected official be limited to just two terms, or some other number?
Elected officials at the local, state and federal levels serve terms of varying lengths — with some facing term limits and some not.
Our view is that we are fortunate to have the opportunity to re-elect good local officials time after time — but that even one term is too long for a bad official.
George Washington established a voluntary two-term limit for our presidents. No one was elected to a third term until Franklin D. Roosevelt came along. He was first elected in 1932. He enjoyed his power so much that he ran and was re-elected to a second term, then a third — then a fourth! He died in office in 1945.