A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate is vowing term limits.
Businessman Patrick Hughes says the seat for which he is running has turned over regularly over the last two decades, but that’s not the norm. “What’s happened with this Senate seat is unusual, and maybe beneficial for the people of Illinois, but across this country and in Congress, it’s entrenched interests,” he said. “You know how difficult it is to beat an incumbent typically, and that just leads to people being in Washington for too long.”
Hughes says if he’s elected, he’ll work to enact term limits for everyone. As for himself, he says he wouldn’t serve any more than two terms.
A promise of term limits helped Republicans gain control of the U.S. House in 1994. They held control for 12 years but never enacted term limits.
The Senate seat for which Hughes is running hasn’t seen a senator re-elected since Democrat Alan J. Dixon in 1986. Dixon sought a third term in 1992, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by Carol Moseley-Braun, who went on to be elected. She ran for re-election in 1998 and was defeated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald did not seek re-election in 2004, at which time Democrat Barack Obama was elected. He resigned in 2008 after being elected president, and Democrat Roland W. Burris was appointed to the seat. Burris is not seeking election this year, so a new senator will be sworn in next January.
(Originally posted at WGIL.com)