Idaho and Oregon turn legislator term limits Topsy-Turvy.

• Position: On First Reading - Brief Article

Three hundred and thirty state lawmakers in 11 states lose their jobs to term limits this year, but Idaho's lawmakers won't be among them nor will Oregon legislators ... yet.

Idaho became the first Legislature in the country to overturn term limits when the House and Senate voted 5020 and 27-8 to repeal the limits passed by voter initiative in 1994. When Governor Dirk Kempthorne vetoed the measure, both chambers had more than the two-thirds vote needed to override, which they did Feb. 1. Term limits would have affected Idaho lawmakers beginning in 2004.

"If I truly thought that this [limiting terms] was a grass roots movement that came from the people of Idaho, I wouldn't be here," says Speaker Bruce Newcomb. "But I don't believe it is. I think it was something that was brought to us by outside interests."

Still, a new term limits initiative is already circulating among voters to be decided in November.

In Oregon, it was not the legislature, but a state supreme court decision Jan. 11 that declared the limitations unconstitutional, allowing 14 representatives and 13 senators who had reached their limit in office to run for re-election in November if they choose.

The court did not actually rule on the limits themselves, but found that the ballot measure voters approved framing the restrictions violated a requirement that initiatives make no more than one unrelated change to the Oregon Constitution at a time.

It is the first term limits law to be tossed by the courts since 1997 when Massachusetts and Washington limitations were held...