BackboneAmerica

Term limits for judges won’t have enough petition signatures to make the 2008 ballot, proponents announced, vowing to push for other conservative initiatives instead .

Former Senate President John Andrews said his issue committee, Limit the Power, has had volunteers carrying petitions for its proposed Initiative 43 since January — but will fall short at the May 14 deadline because there was insufficient funding to supplement the volunteer effort with paid signature-gatherers.

The proposal, detailed here, would have limited all state judges to three four-year terms, something no other state has done. It was a modification of a similar ballot issue in 2006, Amendment 40, which lost with 43% of the vote.

Andrews said his group will now work on helping pass the ballot issues for right to work and public payroll standards, and on defeating the Ritter severance tax increase and the Romanoff anti-TABOR proposal.

“Court reform will have to wait for another year,” he said. “Our focus this year will be on curbing the undue power of labor unions, trial lawyers, and the spending lobby here in Colorado.”