Longer terms have been tried
I got an e-mail in response to this story on some legislators wanting to seek longer terms, hoping to expand from two-years to four-years. Brad Crone, a political consultant here in Raleigh, wrote to say there's nothing new under the sun:
FYI, voters rejected extending 2-year terms to 4-year terms in 1982 in a campaign led by Greensboro's Tom Gilmore. It was the first statewide campaign I worked on. The vote was 66-34 if I remember correctly. It was very easy to defeat because voters don't like giving up the right to vote.
Although not quite the same thing, I would point out that the voters did give up the right to vote (on bonds) when they voted in Amendment One a few years back.
Of course, Amendment One was coated in a whole discussion about economic development and got kind of esoteric.
The idea of making sure legislative critters don't get to big for their britches is a lot more straightforward argument.
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