Some pundits, and no small number of voters, believe that the ills of our politics could be cured if we only imposed term limits – everyday people would, for a couple of years, go to their state capitals or to D.C., humbly legislate, and then return to their workaday lives, unsullied and untainted by the grit and grime of being “in the arena,” as Theodore Roosevelt once put it. But the clear problem with mandated term limits is great lawmakers would be sent packing along with the mediocre and lousy ones. Above all, voters themselves have the means to impose term limits – the ballot box. In fact, they demonstrated that in this region Tuesday. The controversial tenure of Greene County District Attorney David Russo will end this year thanks to Republican voters denying him renomination by an overwhelming margin in the primary election. Richard Bower, Fayette County’s district attorney, also lost his primary race, as did Steven Zappala, Allegheny County’s longtime top prosecutor. In Washington County, GOP voters also decided they had had quite enough of the circus surrounding Brenda Davis, the clerk of courts, and she will be out of a job at the end of the year. Voters, when motivated, can impose term limits quite efficiently on their own.

– Uniontown Herald-Standard