The reversal occurred for two reasons: 1) the amendment was unlikely to pass; and 2) the Republican leadership recognized that the battle of term limits would divide their base voters and divert resources – both money and manpower -- out of Republican campaigns.

          Interestingly, the first reason was not the primary one. Passage of the amendment appeared to be a long shot even when they originally approved it in 2005. To deal with this problem, the plan of extension supporters was to promote the amendment in such a way that a vote for the amendment could be sold as a vote for term limits, as has been attempted in other states.

          What caused the Republican leadership to change course is that it became clear that the issue was creating internal dissention and that the campaign to save the current law was raising money and recruiting volunteers -- and ready for battle. In other words, the cost was going to be great and the prospects for victory were not.

          The specific levers that we can identify for the decision are these:

• STP Chair and RLCer Bob Burg – a professional author and speaker – was speaking at dozens of GOP clubs (as well as Rotary and other civic organizations) around South Florida, creating awareness and active opposition to the 8-year term limits repeal wherever he went. Max Linn was doing the same, mostly but not solely on the west coast.
• The first major move of the STP campaign was to officially ask each legislator to remove the ballot measure. This was followed up by a letter from the Republican Liberty Caucus to all Republican legislators– many hand-delivered – arguing that the term limits referendum was draining resources from the GOP needed for November (see story below).
• Pro-term limits letters to the editor, including Bob Burg’s call to "Remove that Amendment, Mr. Speaker," were starting to appear in major newspapers across the state.
• Among the expanding term limits network, the amendment was becoming an issue in the statewide Republican primary race between Senate President Tom Lee (who originally supported the term limits extension, but later played a key role in squashing it) and Rep. Randy Johnson (who opposed it).
• The Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee, the largest in the state, officially asked the legislature to 'abandon' the ballot measure in its approval of a resolution by John Earley and shepherded by RLCers John Parsons, George Blumel, Palm Beach County REC Chair Sid Dinerstein and others.
• Several RLCers, including John Hallman, Frank Bubb, Jerry Cameron, Mike Meroney and Philip Blumel went up to Tallahassee to lobby on this issue (and others) in early April and spoke to Republican legislators who were worried about November and saw the term limits battle as a costly drain on GOP resources.
• The volume of calls and e-mails the campaign generated was enormous. Sen. Jim Sebesta (R-Tampa), who originally voted to put the term limits repeal on the ballot, told the Sun-Sentinel: "I'm telling you I was wrong. Boy, did I hear from back home. They told me not only 'no' but you-know-what-no."

          Sen. Posey had a similar experience with his constituents ("they felt like they were slapped in the face," he said) and introduced SJR Resolution 2788 to take the term limits extension off the ballot. With the urging of Senate President Lee, the Republican-dominated Senate passed it 26-14 with one week to go in the session.

          Then it was up to the House. While letting it go to the very last day of session, they came through as well and voted 103-14 to take it off the ballot.

          Thus, the voter-approved term limits law is safe, the GOP is in a better stead to face the November elections and the RLC played an important role in bringing about both results.