respectively. Most alarming to congressmen with greater tenure in office, the initiative would take effect immediately and would beretroactive, if passed (Cannon A4). Another initiative, I-522, proposed eight year limits on state legislators and twelve years for congressmen, and would have also placed restrictions on campaign contribution, to which state party organization chairs quickly announced their opposition. Due to the extreme animosity displayed toward I-522, its backers withdrew their support and joined forces with LIMIT. Following the I-553 proposal, LIMIT hastened to collect well over two-hundred thousand signatures of support and the campaign for passage began. Despite overwhelming endorsement by the general public, the I-553 failed to pass on November 6, 1991 by a fifty-four to forty-six percent margin. This sudden turnaround was credited to then Speaker of the House Tom Foley, who would have been affected by the initiative and thus, addressed the issue with conviction andpassion just days before the scheduled vote (Cannon A5). On the ballot before California citizens in 1990 there were two distinct term-limitation proposals- Proposition 131 and Proposition 140. Under Proposition 131, drafted by Democrat John Van de Kamp, office holders identified in the state constitution would be restricted to two consecutive four-year terms, and elected officials who had served their full term could sit out one term and be eligible for the next (Benjamin 120). Proposition 140, authored by conservative Republican Pete Schabarum, was targeted at "career politicians" and contained far stricter term limit features than Proposition 131. State assembly members were limited to three two-year terms, and given a lifetime ban once their service wascompleted (Benjamin 121). Advocates of Proposition 140 spent much of their campaign attacking "career politicians" and their corruptive nature. On Election Day, Proposition 140 was narr...
