No term limits for commissioners
Term limits is not a partisan issue, at least not on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.
A resolution calling for a limit of two consecutive four-year terms was defeated on a 6-5 vote last night, with Republicans and Democrats taking both sides.
The resolution was introduced by Republican Mike Winstead and seconded by Democrat Paul Gibson. Democrat Kirk Perkins spoke in favor.
Speaking against were Democrats Skip Alston and Bruce Davis and Republican Steve Arnold.
The argument against is a compelling one: Voters can impose their own term limits by not re-electing commissioners they don't like.
As a practical matter, of course, it's not always so easy to dump an entrenched incumbent. The longer someone stays in office, the harder it is to get him out. Name recognition alone creates a big advantage, and incumbents usually raise more campaign money.
Winstead's resolution had some other problems. It only asked the Guilford County legislative delegation to introduce a local bill at the earliest opportunity to allow Guilford County to set term limits for its commissioners. Even that might have required an amendment to the state constitution.
Still, it was interesting that the resolution's leading supporters -- Winstead, Gibson and Perkins -- are in their first term, while two of the most vocal opponents -- Alston and Arnold -- are the board's longest-serving members.
The desire to stay in office is common to Democrats and Republicans alike.
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.