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Legislators Vote Against Capping Their Careers

Illinois State Capitol
flickr/danxoneil

  Voters may still get the chance to decide if they want to limit how long legislators can serve ... but no thanks to legislators themselves.

Although elections have been compared to popularity contests, as a whole, "politicians" aren't all that popular.

Which may be way polls show voters find the idea of term limits so appealing.

Unless, of course, you're a legislator.

Senator Darin LaHood, a Republican from Peoria, nonetheless introduced a term limits plan.

"It would prohibit someone form holding office as a state senator or state representative or a combination of those offices for more than ten years," he explained.

But after a quick hearing, Democrats -- who control the Senate -- successfully kept the measure bottled up in committee.

Still, Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner is funding an effort to collect 400,000 voter signatures. If successful, voters in November would get the chance to decide if they want to amend the constitution to keep lawmakers from serving more than eight years.

Amanda Vinicky moved to Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV PBS in 2017.
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