Term-limited Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson is unabashedly throwing his weight behind top aide Mary Lou Berger in the 2012 race for Aaronson’s south-county District 5 seat. But Commissioner Karen Marcus says she hasn’t decided whether she’ll support anyone for the north-county District 1 seat she’s represented since 1984.

“I’ll talk to some of my residents and see what they want my role to be,” Marcus said today.

Marcus denied a rumor she’s trying to persuade Riviera Beach Councilwoman Dawn Pardo to run.

“I haven’t even talked to Dawn,” said Marcus. Referring to Boca Raton conservative activist Jack Furnari‘s recent blog post that mentioned the Marcus-Pardo rumor, Marcus said, “That’s people in the south county that think they know what’s going on up here. But they really don’t know.”

Pardo hasn’t returned calls to comment on whether she’s interested in running.

In a case Palm Beach County has been watching closely, the Fourth District Court of Appeals today reversed a Broward County judge’s ruling and upheld that county’s voter-approved term limits law for county commissioners.

Palm Beach County’s term limits law has not been challenged. But the 4th DCA has jurisdiction over Palm Beach County, so a ruling overturning Broward term limits would have also overturned Palm Beach County’s limits.

It’s likely today’s ruling will be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court by foes of term limits.

Palm Beach County Commissioners Karen Marcus (elected in 1984) and Burt Aaronson (elected in 1992) both face term limits in 2012. Marcus has said she’d consider running for an eighth term and Aaronson said he’d definitely run for a sixth term if term limits were overturned.

Democratic activist Rick Neuhoff, on the possibility that he’ll be running against five-term Palm Beach County commissioner Burt Aaronson in 2012, says: “I think any time that any elected official has been in office for so long that they proclaim themselves royalty, that’s a problem.”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column, where you’ll also find:

* How long it took Aaronson, a critic of long wait times at Tax Collector offices, to get his driver license renewed last week.

* Which two local Dems were singled out for criticism amid all the Rick Scott and GOP bashing at last week’s “Awake the State” rally.

* What might lead former Lake Worth city commissioner Cara Jennings to run for mayor in next month’s special election.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson says he’ll seek a sixth term in 2012 if courts strike down the county’s voter-approved term limits law.

“Definitely I’ll run again…if it’s allowed,” Aaronson said this morning.

Aaronson, who turns 83 next week, has said in the past that he’d consider running for reelection if county term limits are abolished. He’s also flirted with a Democratic primary challenge of Tax Collector Anne Gannon.

More than 70 percent of Palm Beach County voters in 2002 approved a law limiting commissioners to two four-year terms. For Aaronson, who was first elected in 1992, the term limits clock started ticking in 2004, meaning he’s ineligible to run again in 2012. But a Broward County ruling that struck down term limits there could end up invalidating Palm Beach County’s law if an appeals court upholds the Broward decision. A final ruling could come later this year.

Democratic activist Rick Neuhoff is the only candidate who has opened a 2012 for Aaronson’s seat.

Even if the courts throw out Palm Beach County’s term limits law for county commissioners, local GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein says his party’s longest-serving local official, Commissioner Karen Marcus, shouldn’t run again in 2012 because voters overwhelmingly supported term limits in a 2002 referendum.

Marcus, who’s in her seventh term, opposes term limits but says she hasn’t decided whether she’d run in 2012 if she’s allowed.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

More than 70 percent of county voters approved a two-term limit for commissioners in a 2002 referendum. No one has challenged the Palm Beach County law, but a challenge to a similar term limits law in Broward County could lead to Palm Beach County’s law being thrown out, as the Politics column reported back in November.

More than 70 percent of Palm Beach County voters approved term limits for county commissioners in 2002. No one has challenged the law in court. But a Broward County decision has called Palm Beach County’s law into question.

If Palm Beach County’s law gets tossed, seven-term incumbent Karen Marcus and five-termer Burt Aaronson could run for reelection in 2012. So far, neither one is ruling it out.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Republican congressional challenger Allen West says House members should serve no more than eight years and Senators no more than 12. And no legislator should serve more than 12 years in combined House and Senate service, West says.

If term limits aren’t made law, West says he’d voluntarily abide by them anyways.

“I do not want to stay up in Washington, D.C., and become part of the culture that I think is corrupting people,” said West, who’s running against two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein.

West brought up term limits in a discussion of House Minority Leader John Boehner’s visit to West Palm Beach this morning to promote West’s campaign. West said the GOP “Pledge To America” that Boehner and other GOP leaders put forward last month falls short because it doesn’t mention term limits. West said he also wished the manifesto had more detail about curbing illegal immigration and about banning earmarks and pork-barrel spending.

WEST PALM BEACH — Chances that term-limited Mayor Lois Frankel can run for a third term in 2011 took a hit today.

City Commissioners Jeri Muoio and Kimberly Mitchell now say they oppose putting a question on the November ballot asking voters if they want to extend the mayoral limits from two terms to three. Muoio and Mitchell had been sympathetic to putting the question before voters on the general election ballot.

With Commissioner Molly Douglas also opposed, that means at least three of five commissioners are against setting a referendum on extending term limits for the mayor. If voters don’t approve a change to the city charter, Frankel can’t seek a third term in March.

Both Douglas and Muoio have opened campaigns for mayor, but there was speculation Muoio would step aside if Frankel were a candidate. Mitchell is also the subject of frequent mayoral speculation.

If commissioners don’t put a question on the ballot, supporters can force a referendum by collecting about 5,800 signatures. But a petition drive launched last month appears to be short of the goal, and county Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher has said she needs to have signatures verified and language approved by Aug. 20.

(more…)

UPDATE: Mayor Lois Frankel didn’t directly answer a question about the poll, telling a reporter “When I’m ready to talk about if and what I’m going to do, I’m going to let you know.”

Tongues are wagging again in West Palm Beach over the latest round of political polling calls, which included lots of questions about Mayor Lois Frankel and the term limits law that will prevent her from seeking a third term in March 2011.

Respondents over the weekend were asked their opinions of Frankel, former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and former West Palm Beach Mayor Nancy Graham. They were also asked about the city’s term-limits law and whether it should be scrapped or extended to three four-year terms instead of two for the mayor. There were also questions about the pay dispute between the city and the police union.

The Police Benevolent Association did conduct a poll a few weeks back. But PBA leaders say they’re not behind this poll.

Frankel couldn’t immediately be reached this morning.

For Frankel to run for a third term in March, voters would have to change the city charter. The most likely scenario for doing that would be through a referendum on the November ballot. To get a question on the ballot, the county Elections Office says it would need language by mid-August.

For that to happen, a petition drive to force a ballot question would have to begin soon.

Stay tuned.

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel says she’s made no decision on what she plans to do when her second term expires next March.

Frankel can’t seek a third term unless the city charter is changed, a process that would probably require a petition drive and referendum between now and November.

“I have no initiative under way,” Frankel said, and nothing planned. But, she added, “a lot of things could happen” in the next few months.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.