By Nick Tomboulides, CEO of U.S. Term Limits.
In Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Malcolm famously says: “you were so preoccupied with whether you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should.”
I’m now thinking State Rep. Debbie Mayfield has never heard that line.Mayfield and her team are celebrating, as the Florida Supreme Court recently ruled that she may stay on the ballot in the upcoming special election for State Senate district 19. The case centered on if a politician who term limited out after eight years can run again after sitting out only a few weeks.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd had previously thrown Mayfield off the ballot. Byrd believed ― as any reasonable person would ― that Mayfield, having just finished eight consecutive years in the State Senate between 2016-2024, was term limited and not eligible to be a state senator again in 2025.Byrd’s interpretation of our term limits law is the same one the framers of that law had. It’s also the same interpretation most Floridians have today. The law was expressly designed to demolish the idea of career politicians and restore citizen government. But our State Supreme Court apparently didn’t get the memo.In ruling for Mayfield, the justices just created a dangerous precedent that may lead to the total dilution of term limits. From this point on, termed-out legislators will hand pick and fund ghost candidates whose job is to win the election and immediately resign. Then the ex-legislator, similar to Mayfield, can game the system and run in the special election claiming their term limits clock has been reset. The practical effect of this bait-and-switch will be to abolish term limits altogether. If Florida starts looking more like Illinois and New York ― states that have no term limits and can’t build jails fast enough for all their corrupt politicians ― we will have Debbie Mayfield and this Court to thank.
