Yonkers City Council member Anthony Merante is making term limits a cornerstone of his mayoral campaign. In additional to carrying a petition to add a referendum to this year’s ballot, Merante is also now petitioning to create an entirely new ballot line specifically to restore term limits.
A few days after the November 2022 general election, the City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy proposed an extension of term limits for the council and mayor. After a raucous and rushed 10-day process, the council approved the extension to allow four consecutive 4-year terms. Council members Merante, Pineda-Isaac, and Williams opposed this extension. Though, four years prior, Merante and Williams voted in favor of an extension from two to three terms. And Pineda-Isaac herself ran, won, and is now serving a third term.
It is time elected officials respect the will of the people.
Anthony Merante
Since the extension passed last year, citizens from all over Yonkers have been trying to reverse this move. Twelve voters are being represented by Michael Sussman in a lawsuit that argues the city is required to hold a referendum on term limits. This lawsuit was rejected by a Westchester court on April 20th, though an appeal was filed. In addition, another group hatched a plan to bring this question to the voters via a state-regulated petitioning process.
The Referendum on Term Limits
The group, Yonkers Voters for Term Limits, planned to capitalize on the candidate petitioning process to collect the roughly five thousand signatures required to compel the City to let the people vote on this issue. This issue had actually already been voted on twice before in 1993 and 2001. In those prior referendums, voters overwhelmingly supported retaining term limits. While the legal and logistical particulars of this referendum process are complex, the method is simple. They need to reach a lot of voters.
The candidate petitioning season has ended and the totals so far for this referendum campaign have come up short of expectations. Merante leads head and shoulders above Pineda-Isaac and Coleman in signatures. He submitted over two thousand signatures for his candidacy and also over 1,400 signatures for the term limits referendum. Pineda-Isaac eclipsed Merante’s candidacy petitions by collecting almost three thousand for herself. Although, she only collected 575 signatures for term limits. Coleman’s campaign initially was eager to participate in this bi-partisan effort. However, after collecting over 2,000 candidate petitions, the campaign said they decided instead to focus solely on the race for mayor and therefore only 48 signatures for term limits.
The only way to assure that the people get their power back is to elect council members and a mayor who are committed to returning term limits to the voters.
Anthony Merante – Yonkers City Council Member
Beyond the mayoral campaigns, numerous individuals collected hundreds of signatures on their own as well. But, the goal of five thousand is still far off. With so many signatures left to collect to get the term limits question on November’s ballot, much more canvassing work would need to be done.
A Ballot Line for Term Limits
That additional canvassing comes in a related effort to create a new ballot line based on term limits itself. The “Restore Term Limits” party is an issue-based party specifically for candidates wishing to roll back term limits in Yonkers. The state requires that 1,500 signatures are submitted by May 23rd to secure this new line for November.
For participating candidates like Ron Schutté, this is an opportunity to campaign even more in the fifth district against his incumbent opponent, Mike Breen. After publicly stating he was against extending term limits, Breen voted for it anyway and now stands for a fourth term. Having this new ballot line affords Schutté the opportunity to continue running even if he loses the June primary. Meaning, November may see Breen the Republican vs Schutté the Term Limiter.
This ballot line may also be a vehicle for Democrats and independents to vote for Merante against Spano. Party allegiance is strong and voters don’t often cross the aisle. However, Merante is hoping that there are enough non-Republican voters frustrated with Spano that they will tick his name on this new line.
A game of inches
Both the term limits referendum and the new party ballot line are Hail Mary’s. They are difficult to initiate, and even harder to make successful. But, considering the current mayor has amassed so much power in his 12 years, opponents like Merante are not taking any opportunity for granted. With such an uphill battle before them, turning out voters on a niche issue like term limits may provide just enough to get them over the top.
