How Far Will It Go?

How important was last week's decision by the State Supreme Court upholding a charter-rule county's authority to term limit its elected officials?

Here in the 6 newsroom, we are still assessing the impact. We've tried very hard to explain the story in a straight forward and easy to understand way. But it's complicated. The ruling covers a number of pages and includes lots of legal language.

And right now, there's no consensus on what it all means. Several commissioners - who appear directly impacted - say they'll continue their campaigns with the hope of serving another term. Other commissioners are suspending their campaigns and returning campaign donations. One, John Schmid, has joined a lawsuit seeking to oust Sheriff Tim Hutchison

No doubt last week's decision is huge. The ruling very likely will alter the look of county commission. Longtime politicians could suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in and new faces may arise as a result.

And what about the other county offices? As we mentioned, there's an effort to include the Sheriff in the term limits debate. If successful, will the fees offices be next?

It's one thing to replace 13 incumbent commissioners.. But if the Sheriff's office and fees offices turn over, then you're talking about hundreds of people who deal directly with the public. That's a lot of institutional knowledge. A rapid turnover could create major chaos.

But would that be a reason not to seek to term limit those offices? The genie's already out of the bottle on that one. Term limit supporters argue that that decision was made in 1994, when more than 60,000 registered Knox County voters said yes to limiting the terms of office for county office holders to two terms.