Expand term limits for all offices

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To the editor:

The essence of democracy is choice — the power of ordinary citizens to choose our representatives at all levels of government by making selections from among the various candidates competing for our votes. Unfortunately, because of the Democratic Party dictatorship that exists here in the Bronx and New York City, we citizens — for many, many years — have had very few contested elections. The only reason we now have some semblance of democracy here in the “People’s Republic of the Bronx” is because of term limits.

In 1993, Ronald Lauder, a billionaire Republican, spent several million dollars to put a referendum on the New York City ballot that gave voters the right to establish eight-year term limits for the offices of Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough President and member of the City Council. This law was bitterly opposed by the Democratic Party establishment whose members, until then, with very few exceptions, remained in office until they either attained higher office, retired or died.

Thankfully, given this opportunity, we citizens, in our collective wisdom, voted overwhelmingly in favor of this referendum, which, despite desperate efforts by Democratic Party politicians to rescind it, remains the law today.

And it is only because of these precious term limits that this year the people of this area had the power to chose between former Councilman Oliver Koppell and state Sen. Jeff Klein, and last year, to choose among four choices in the Democratic mayoral primary, and between Eliot Spitzer and Scott Stringer for Comptroller.

To establish a real democracy, what we voters now need throughout New York State is an expansion of term limits to all levels of government, including all state and federal elected officials. And this can realistically be done by “grandfathering” into their current positions all presently elected officials on those levels of government.

Most politicians, in my opinion, are corrupt, self-serving slime whose loyalty is not to their constituents, but to their political party and to the special interests who pay them (in legal ways) for favorable legislation. I have made no secret that I include Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz among this group.

He isn’t a convicted felon like fellow politicians Larry Seabrook, Alan Hevesi, Pedro Espada or Efrain Gonzalez (…who knows what the future holds?), but he’s an enabler of corruption, a hypocrite who falsely poses as a reformer.

I challenge any local religious institution that has space — like Riverdale Temple or CSAIR — to invite the assemblyman and myself to participate in an hour-long discussion of issues and politics. The format could be similar to a Sunday morning interview program, with me asking questions.

I will donate $500 to either organization, with an additional for refreshments. I will also contribute $100 to any charity of Mr. Dinowitz’s choice.

Alvin Gordon

term limits, Ronald Lauder, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Alvin Gordon

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