Term limits a simple concept, a nightmare issue

By David McGrath Schwartz

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Twelve years after voters added term limits to the state’s constitution, Nevada still can’t figure them out, leading to chaos on this year’s ballot.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller is arguing that a number of veteran lawmakers, including Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and university Regent Thalia Dondero, can’t run for reelection under Nevada’s term limits, passed in 1994 and 1996.

However, some district attorneys, including those in Clark and Washoe counties, disagree and are refusing to move forward with the case.

All that’s certain is that the issue has become a legal morass headed for the Nevada courts.

Some politicians being challenged have been campaigning for months. Filing for office closed May 16.

Last week, Miller started issuing challenges to candidates across the state, and his office is continuing to research candidates running for office to see whether — at least as far as his office is concerned — term limits bar them from this fall’s ballot.

The unforeseen challenge has upset a number of candidates who thought they could run for one more term this year.

“I filed my application for reelection at 8:01 a.m. on May 5,” Regent Howard Rosenberg said. “I got a call from Secretary of State Miller on May 22. I find that very, very difficult.”

Similarly, Dondero, who was elected as a regent in 1996 and had served for 20 years on the Clark County Commission, said: “You would think everybody would have gotten together and decided what the ruling was going to be earlier on, so everybody was on the same page. I don’t think people would have signed up if they had known differently.”

Miller defended his office, saying it couldn’t challenge a candidate until he filed for office, a position based on verbal advice from the attorney general’s office.

However, Miller earlier could have issued an interpretation of term limits that, if nothing else, would have set a policy that could have helped clear up the legal questions well before this month’s candidate filing deadline.

Miller, though, insists a review could not have been launched until a candidate asked his office for an opinion, which did not occur until this month when Washoe County School Board member Jonnie Pullman did so.

“These candidates were aware for 14 years that this issue was subject to different interpretations,” Miller said. “At any point they could have come to us to ask for an interpretation.” He also said that candidates could have asked a court for a ruling during that time.

Rosenberg, an art teacher at the University of Nevada, Reno, dismissed the argument.

“I’ve been a schoolteacher a long, long time,” he said. “If I suspect there will be a problem, I don’t wait to be asked.”

Cheryl Lau, who was secretary of state from 1991 to 1995, said both the candidates and the secretary of state could have acted more promptly.

“In my experience, people took personal responsibility for knowing if they would be term limited out,” said Lau, a Republican. “The secretary of state probably should have noticed there was a need for clarification, either prior to or during filing, so people understand where they are.”

At issue is when the term limits went into effect. Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto believe that the 12-year limit on holding a particular office began ticking for anyone who took office after the 1996 election was certified November 27 of that year. The challenged candidates believe term limits should not apply to their terms won in 1996.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger and the candidates think the term limits apply to terms begun in 1998.

As a result it’s still unclear who will be allowed to run for office. In Dondero’s case, she is the only candidate who filed for her seat. If she is kicked off the ballot, it is uncertain how a replacement would be picked. Miller said his office is still researching that question.

Initially, the secretary of state’s office thought the term-limit challenge would apply only to a handful of school board members in Northern Nevada counties, according to a source familiar with the discussions. But hours before candidate filing closed May 16, some elected officials, including Woodbury, received word that Miller would challenge their candidacies.

“It was out of left field,” Woodbury said in an earlier interview. (Woodbury was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment.)

With filing now closed, only a judge could reopen the ballot to allow others to run.

Cortez Masto said the issue was brought to her office’s attention only after Washoe County’s Pullman asked the secretary of state’s office for a ruling.

“The main goal now is to get this into the courts,” she said.

With Roger and other district attorneys finding there is no probable cause to go to court, Woodbury and others remain candidates — for now. But a state Supreme Court ruling could change that, Cortez Masto said.

Pershing County District Attorney Jim Shirley is moving forward with the challenge to school board member Todd Plimpton. A District Court judge there is scheduled to hear the matter June 20. If that decision is appealed, a Nevada Supreme Court ruling could apply to officeholders statewide.

Masto also said her office could challenge a possibly term-limited official after the election is over.

“That’s why we think it’s important for a court to hear the matter now,” she said.