McCombie skewers Smiddy’s opposition to term limits | Courtesy of Shutterstock
McCombie skewers Smiddy’s opposition to term limits | Courtesy of Shutterstock
Tony McCombie, Republican candidate for a House seat from District 71, responded to her opponent’s stance on term limits recently via a Facebook post, suggesting her challenger aimed to placate powers in Springfield.
Indicating that state Rep. Mike Smiddy of Port Byron may have misplaced his allegiance by coming out publicly against term limits, McCombie said that Smiddy favored legislators’ pull over voters’ power.
“By opposing term limits, Mike Smiddy is proving he'd rather protect the politicians in power than empower the voters,” McCombie said. “We need term limits to change the culture in Springfield and fix the broken status quo.”
Polling conducted at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale has demonstrated that approximately 4 out of 5 Illinois residents support term limits; yet Chicago Democrat Mike Madigan has been Illinois House Speaker for all but two of the past 33 years that he has served as a state representative.
Additionally, a citizens group recently sought to place a redistricting amendment on the November ballot in an effort to remove remapping from politicians’ domains and make the process nonpartisan — an issue parallel to term limits in terms of power distribution.
“I am proud to support term limits,” McCombie said. “It’s time to bring new ideas and fresh faces to state government. I will be a strong supporter of legislative term limits and independent redistricting, reforms needed to change the culture of corruption in Springfield.”
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