Demographics

Key Demographics Supporting Term Limits

What group of people will be easiest to motivate?

According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2013, 75% of Americans are in support of congressional term limits. The issue was slightly more popular among blacks and females. When it comes to age the concept is universally supported, those under 30yrs and over 65yrs both awarded term limits 74% approval. Given these statistics, the key demographics that support term limits for Boulder City council would be politically educated younger upper middle class families. These young families would encourage democratic ideas and would embrace diverse new faces.

What group will be the most difficult?

The most difficult group to motivate will be those in office. Though there is a great deal of support for implementation of term limits, those in place to vote and enact new legislation lack incentive to enforce these limitations on themselves.

What areas will be crucial to promoting your interest?

The state of Colorado has already enacted legislation to limit the term of state level senators, however, congressional term limits have not been instituted on the national level. We would focus our interests on battlegrounds states. Colorado would be perfect, specifically Denver because of its size and volatility. Being one of the few states enforcing term limits on state legislators, Colorado is a crucial area to focus our efforts. On the local level the university would be a perfect setting to gain support for term limits in the city of Boulder. This is due to the fact that young people are more politically active than they have ever been previously in their lives and political views are generally established by the age of 25. These students typically come from educated upper middle class families and, as stated previously, this is our key demographic. 

Here's a look at the range of experience on the current Boulder City Council:

• Matt Appelbaum: 16 years (non-consecutive terms)
• Lisa Morzel: 16 years (non-consecutive terms)
• Suzanne Jones: 4 years
• Andrew Shoemaker: 2 years
• Sam Weaver: 2 years
• Mary Young: 2 years
• Aaron Brockett: 6 months
• Jan Burton: 6 months
• Bob Yates: 6 months

Get involved: Here is the email for the Boulder City Council, use it to contact members directly! council@bouldercolorado.gov

Sources:

http://user.govoutreach.com/boulder/faq.php?cid=21446

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Term%20Limits%20in%20Colorado.pdf

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_29869378/3-term-limit-boulder-city-council-pitched-november

Assignment Number Four

Assignment: Make an argument for which party is best to support your interest (Democrat or Republican).  How would you influence the party to adopt your cause?  Be creative and use prior
examples of groups influencing parties.  Post to blog <1000 words.

Republicans are currently the party most open to the idea of term limits. According to termlimits.org, republican candidates showed widespread support for term limits before exiting the race. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, and Rand Paul being term limits strongest supporters; Donald Trump has yet to way in, simply promising to look seriously into the issue.
Republicans are most likely to back term limits, but to say democrats aren’t in support is incorrect. According to Gallup “Republicans and independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue.” The Gallop poll went on to indicate 82% of the GOP, 79% of Independents, 65% of Democrats are in favor of term limits for member of congress.
 After FDR served and unprecedented 12 years, congress implemented term limit legislation on the Presidency. Truman, a Democrat, inquired as to why this didn’t include the senate members as well. Written in Truman’s own hand, Letters stored in the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum at the University of Missouri, state “The Congress has passed a resolution for a Constitutional Amendment limiting the terms of the President to two. That resolution should have also contained a provision for two terms for Senators-12 years, and for members of the House-12 years. It should have contained a provision that House members should have a period of service of four years.” 

https://www.termlimits.org/where-do-the-presidential-candidates-stand-on-term-limits/ http://www.gallup.com/poll/159881/americans-call-term-limits-end-electoral-college.aspx https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/trumanpapers/psf/longhand/index.php?documentVersion=both&documentid=hst-psf_naid735381-01&pagenumber=1 
One way I would influence the party to adopt our cause would to provide evidence of why keeping the same members of congress in office for 12 years is limiting political change. In order to influence the party to adopt our cause, we would have to pay the party significant benefits so the party would want to support our position. Incentives and proof would be essential in convincing our party to support our cause. “Term limits provide fresh faces with fresh ideas to elected office. They reduce lobbyist and special interest influence and make room in Congress for the citizen legislator.” A good example of someone influencing a party would be JP Morgan and Chase Bank supporting Hillary Clinton this election. In order to get the influence, they desired they had to donate enough money to express their interest. These two in particular donated close to $1,000,000. 
 https://www.termlimits.org/about/

https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00000019&cycle=Career