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Sunday, March 30, 1997

Popular mayor and term limits collide in Houston

By JOAN THOMPSON

ssociated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - Some might say having a popular mayor and a law limiting his time in office was a foregone collision.

Term limits approved in 1991 have supporters of Mayor Bob Lanier saying he should get to run for a fourth term - even though by law he can't.

And a Houston lawmaker has taken a bill to Austin to allow just that.

It's got the mayor going from bemusing to podium-pounding over the rising speculation that he will seek another term if the limit is extended from six years to eight years.

"I haven't tried to stop it, but I'm not trying to make it happen," says Lanier, who says he wrongly has been tagged with being involved in the legislative lobbying effort.

Lanier, 72, says he likely won't run again but does not want to rule out a re-election bid.

"I don't want to appear to be a clear lame duck," the lame duck mayor says.

The term limits debate has some voters angry over what they perceive as an end run to circumvent the 1991 vote. Others say term limits was a bad idea from the beginning.

A House committee recently approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, that would let Lanier and three city council members seek their fourth two-year terms this fall.

It also would force a November referendum asking voters to change the limits from three two-year terms to two four-year terms beginning with the 1999 municipal elections.

"The one problem with term limits is when you have a chief executive or even a city council person who is overwhelmingly popular, they don't allow for the continuation of that leadership," Wilson says.

A group of prominent business leaders calling themselves The Friends of Houston backs the bill. They say Lanier needs another term to continue plans for a downtown baseball stadium and neighborhood revitalization projects.

The legislation still must go before the full House. A potential uphill fight in the Senate and skepticism from Gov. George W. Bush also loom.

Another bill calls for a November vote to change Houston's terms to a two four-year-term cap. But it would not allow Lanier and others to seek a fourth two-year term.

Clymer Wright, a businessman who has considered a mayoral run, led the 1991 drive for term limits and says he'll fight plans to change them.

"There's some people obviously who think they need Mayor Lanier and only Mayor Lanier in office," he said.

Voters spoke in 1991 when they set the three two-year terms and then again in 1994 when they rejected changing it to two four-year terms, he said.

"Why do we keep having this turmoil about term limits? Because the politicians can't stand it" nor can special interest groups, Wright said.

Richard Murray, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Lanier - a former Texas Transportation Commission chairman - enjoys powerful support.

"I think he would be a favorite for re-election," Murray said. "But I think there will be a larger anti-Lanier vote because of people who think this is violating a larger principle ... the principle of voter-imposed term limits and opposition to the state Legislature injecting itself into a local issue."

Some voters agree.

"I'm not in favor of term limits, but I don't believe you reverse what people have voted on and approved midstream," says D.Z. Cofield, a Houston minister. "If it is an issue to be revisited, it should be revisited after this administration."

Another voter, Mildred Yongue, says term limits should be abolished. She thinks Lanier is doing a good job and probably would vote for him again.

"Why should he be forced to play musical chairs to keep his programs going?" she and her brother, C.M. Yongue, wrote in a letter to the editor published by the Houston Chronicle.

At a recent news conference, Lanier pounded the podium as he said he unfairly was being lambasted for the term limits issue.

Lanier backed term limits six years ago but his opinion has shifted.

"My feeling is today that two four-year terms would be a better system," he says, because with two-year terms "you find yourself running for office about half the time." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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