by Nick Tomboulides
If you’ve read any anti-term limits editorials lately, you’re probably familiar with the remarkable claim that lobbyists love term limits. After studying dozens of these articles published in various states over the past few months, here’s what I’ve noticed:
- The claim is repeated in every commentary against state term limits.
- The claim is never accompanied by any supporting evidence or data.
To get to the bottom of it, I decided to follow the money. After all, if lobbyists are such big fans of term limits, they would have given most of their precious campaign contributions to pro-term limits initiatives, like ours.
Turns out that isn’t the case at all. Take Michigan, where in 2022, politicians foisted an anti-term limits amendment on the people. As you can see in the chart to our right, a total of 24 individuals and organizations poured almost $1.35 million into the ballot committees aiming to DEFEAT term limits.
It makes sense. Lobbyists and the special interests they represent don’t want to see their co-dependent relationships with career politicians come to an end. The committee opposed to the extension on term limits, “No More Time For Career Politicians”, only raised a little over $140,000, or a mere 10.5% in comparison to the Voters for Transparency and Term Limits Committee. If term limits truly benefitted lobbyists, those contributions would have gone to the committee advocating for stricter terms.
Term limits make lobbyists work harder. Term limits ensure a constant influx of new ideas into government. Term limits force lobbyists to make arguments on the merits, rather than rely on sentimental relationships. Lobbyists don’t like that.
Newspaper columnists who repeat the “lobbyists” myth without proper research are therefore doing a disservice to honest debate. Their theory is presumably that all these lobbyists who supported the weakening of term limits wanted to weaken their own power — a ridiculous notion.
Next time you see this myth in print, don’t hesitate to call it out. A letter to the editor can go a long way toward informing readers and forcing a newspaper to set the record straight.
Nick Tomboulides is the Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Term Limits.
Last Updated 7/30/25