Comment 104310

By Okay (anonymous) | Posted September 05, 2014 at 10:43:47 in reply to Comment 104108

The initial reason for term limits is that incumbent representatives have a clearly catalogued advantage over new candidates, with incumbents winning in some juridictions 80%-90% of electoral contests. This fact means that it is hard to be sure that the best candidates actually end up as representatives since new candidates are so severely disadvantaged against sitting representatives.

Where it gets tricky is that since new candidates have it so tough against established councillors, many potential candidates decide against running because the odds are so stacked in favour of the incumbent. The fact that the system discourages new candidates from running further improves the incumbent's odds of winning since they will have less competition. As years go by, these two variables feed off of one another and the quality of government drastically decreases as evidenced by representatives that hold their seats for many many terms.

With term limits at least, there will be a mandatory open race every 2 or 3 terms.

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