He’s unimpressed.
“I think the voters have shown over the years a great deal of change within the Legislature. We have quite a bit of turnover, number one,” said Holmberg, R-Grand Forks. “And number two ... I just find it curious that I am being asked, by voting for this measure, to tell the people in Fargo they can't vote who they want to vote for.”
Term limits have become something of a hot topic in North Dakota over the last month. On July 16, the Secretary of State’s Office greenlit a petition that — if it gets enough signatures — could appear as a statewide ballot question next year, asking voters if they want to cap service in the governor’s office and Legislature.
That cap would be eight years in the Senate, another eight in the House, and eight years in the governor’s mansion (sitting legislators’ previous service wouldn’t count against them).
Jared Hendrix, a local GOP official from Minot, is leading that petition drive, which has to hit a little more than 31,000 signatures to make it before voters. He sees it as a way to keep legislators less focused on their relationships in Bismarck, and more focused on issues back home.
"This is one of the most straightforward issues that exists. It's something that is, I think, consistent with the spirit of the American republic,” he said. “I'm not saying that in a melodramatic way, but it's true. … Public service is not something that is permanent. We're not ruled by kings and monarchs, we're ruled by ourselves."
The result could be an elemental change in North Dakota politics. Politicians with decades of service are certainly the minority in North Dakota, but many of them — like Holmberg — hold key leadership positions shaping state government’s business.
Holmberg, who has been in the state Senate since Gerald Ford was president, is probably the perfect foil for anyone who likes the sound of term limits. Decades of service in Bismarck have placed him atop the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and during the pandemic, he has served on the six-member Emergency Commission — chaired by Gov. Doug Burgum — directing vast sums of relief money alongside some of the most powerful men in the state.
But Holmberg is far from the only legislator who dislikes the petition drive. State Reps. Claire Cory, R-Grand Forks, and Zach Ista, D-Grand Forks, are some of the freshest faces in Bismarck — Ista was elected in 2020, Cory was appointed to the Legislature in 2019 while still a UND undergraduate. They don’t like the sound of the proposal, either.
“We have term limits every election cycle,” Cory said.
Ditto for Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, a member of the state House since 2017.
"I've heard the argument about these new people having fresh ideas,” he said. “Well, you know, that's why we have the process we have. We have primaries, we have parties. Anybody and everybody should bring their ideas and run for office, and if the voters like it, then they have the opportunity to vote them in.”
And fewer long-serving legislators means less institutional expertise. More fresh-faced representatives, the argument goes, less experience dealing with lobbyists — who stand to benefit from a chamber with less policy expertise.
"There is also the entrenched bureaucracy, which is the other elephant in the living room, having all this vast, long-term knowledge,” Holmberg added. And in the case of high turnover, “they are working with legislators who are just finding the bathroom.”
The petition would have its biggest effect on a small fraction of the Legislature. Forum News Service columnist Rob Port’s analysis of the history of the Legislature shows that only two governors have ever served 10 or more years (John Hoeven, now senior U.S. senator, and Bill Guy).
And nearly 57% of the current Legislature has served eight or fewer years. In fact, more than three quarters of the Legislature has served 16 or fewer years.
RELATED: Port: You might be surprised at how long North Dakota elected leaders are serving in office
Former Gov. Ed Schafer, a Republican who led the state for two terms in the 1990s, is also skeptical of changing the rules. He’s open to the idea — especially if it can help make elected office more accessible to campaigns without lots of resources, as he put it on a recent podcast appearance.
But he’s not clear on exactly what this petition is supposed to solve. He’s not sure there’s a problem with North Dakota’s unlimited terms, and the petition language, he said, doesn’t make one clear to him.
“If there isn't a problem, what's the basis, or why do you initiate a measure?” he said in a recent Herald interview. “Is it sour grapes?”
Some observers see the push for term limits as part of a larger struggle within the state GOP, which has been roiled by clashes between Burgum and the Legislature as well as a recent expulsion of an ultraconservative GOP representative following sexual harassment allegations.
"Reasonable minds can disagree on this ... but what I think you're seeing here is a little bit of sour grapes with some of the far right voices in the state of North Dakota,” Ista said. “And it’s consistent with this upheaval and disarray that we see in the GOP in North Dakota. The further right faction is upset that the conservatives who are elected aren’t sufficiently toeing the Trump line ... so that rather than going out there, organizing, they need to change the rules.”
RELATED: 44 years in, Sen. Ray Holmberg is tied for longest serving state senator in the nation
Hendrix doesn’t agree. He sees term limits as inherently good — something that will build better and more responsive government in North Dakota.
"I don't read too much into that (political infighting) aspect of it, and I don't think most voters really care. I don't think in those terms,” Hendrix said. He claimed that the issue is polling well. “Maybe (some people) can't wrap their heads around the fact that this is just something that's popular with people."
State Rep. Rick Becker, R-Bismarck, is a defender of term limits — especially for the governor’s office — though he thinks 12 years would have been best.
He said supporters find themselves in a double bind: if they back a measure with a hard cutoff on term limits — one that would immediately cap sitting politicians’ careers — critics say they’re looking for a fight. But under the more lenient terms of the current petition, which would start the clock on sitting politicians' term limits after voters pass the measure, then critics might say they’re hypocrites.
"I think some people play that (infighting) up, to make it a thing, when it's not,” Becker said of the petition’s background. “If it was a civil war, the measure would be retroactive. It's hard to say that it's going to be retribution to existing lawmakers, when it isn't."
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