BOSTON — A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group is renewing its criticism of U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan for reneging on a previous pledge to support term limits for congressional lawmakers.
The group U.S. Term Limits has paid for a billboard ad along Interstate 93 in Methuen, criticizing the Westford Democrat for backing away from a proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution limiting House members to three terms, or six years, and senators to two terms, or 12 years.
It’s the second time the group has targeted Trahan, who was reelected to a fourth term in November after running unopposed in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes 35 communities.
“Trahan pledged that she would support the U.S. Term Limits amendment limiting congressional terms,” CEO Nicolas Tomboulides said in a statement. “Yet she broke her pledge. The people of Massachusetts deserve to know how Representative Trahan is playing the D.C. game, and that she did not honor her term limits promise.”
Trahan signed the pledge in 2018 but the group said she has since abandoned her support. She isn’t a co-sponsor of the latest term limit bill, filed by U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-South Carolina, and 96 other mostly GOP co-sponsors.
Trahan was first elected to the seat in 2018 after emerging from a crowded Democratic primary of 10 candidates and winning the general election. She serves as co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, which oversees the minority caucus’ strategic communications, among other responsibilities.
“Congresswoman Trahan ran for Congress because Washington isn’t working, and she is committed to lowering costs and creating opportunities for working families like the one she grew up in,” a Trahan spokesman, Francis Grubar, said in a statement. “She will continue pushing for reforms that finally make government work better, including banning members of Congress from trading stocks and holding Donald Trump and his family members accountable for their corrupt self-dealing.”
None of the state’s 11-member, all-Democratic congressional delegation have signed on to the current version of the term limits resolution, including House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Rep. Seth Moulton, a Salem Democrat who won a sixth term last year.
The billboard ad targeting Trahan is part of a nationwide campaign by U.S. Term Limits to “inform term limits supporters” where candidates and lawmakers stand on the issue.
The group, which has ties to Republican and Libertarian groups, said polling has shown at least 82% of Americans, spanning demographics and political affiliations, support congressional term limits.
More than 150 members of Congress have pledged to support the U.S. Term Limits resolution, the highest number of term limits pledge signers, the group said.
Much of the support for term limits among lawmakers comes from Republicans, who control the House of Representatives and Senate, and most of the co-sponsors of the joint resolution are GOP lawmakers. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is one few Democrats to sign on to the bill.
To set term limits, the joint resolution would need to be approved with a two-thirds vote in Congress or a national convention of state legislatures. It would also need to be ratified by three-quarters of the states to be added to the U.S. Constitution.
“U.S. Term Limits stands up against government malpractice. We are the voice of the American citizen,” the group posted on its website. “We want a government of the people, by the people, and for the people – not a ruling class who care more about deals to benefit themselves, than their constituents.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.