Two and done?

John Bel Edwards isn't on the Nov. 3 ballot. But he's all over Amendment No. 4.

What the amendment would do: Anyone who has served more than a term and a half as governor could never be elected again. For a governor who serves full four-year terms, that means two and done, for life.

How it works now: Governors can serve two terms in a row, but then they have to sit out a term. After that, they can run again. Edwin Edwards made a career of it, winning four terms between 1972 and 1996.

The catch: The amendment may not stop the two former governors. Bobby Jindal and Edwards are Louisiana's only living former governors. During the session, Democrats argued the amendment can't reach backward and apply to terms already served. If anyone tries to use it against Jindal or Edwards, expect a court fight.

• There's a twist. Sponsor Mike Bayham says he offered to add an exemption for governors who had already served. People close to Edwards turned him down, according to the Louisiana Illuminator and other reports. 

Between the lines: Democrats say the amendment targets Edwards, the man most often mentioned as Landry's toughest possible challenger in 2027. The state Democratic Party has voted to campaign against it. Bayham says the amendment is about Louisiana's future, not its past.

• Edwards hasn't said he's running. When the bill passed, he wrote on X that it looked like he was "living in somebody's head rent-free."

The bigger question: Do term limits even work?

What the research says: Term limits reliably change who holds office. They rarely fix what's wrong with the system, and they often cause new problems.

• They increase turnover, but they also take away voters' power to keep an official who has served them well.
• When experienced lawmakers leave, they take with them their knowledge of policy, procedure and deal-making.
• A California study found that legislative term limits made lawmakers worse at overseeing the executive branch.

The view from inside: Louisiana has lived with legislative term limits since voters approved them in 1995.

• A former lawyer for the Louisiana Legislature tells RedEye that term limits slow lawmaking because new legislators don't yet know its procedures or its language.
• Lobbyists fill the gap. They write the bills, then find lawmakers to carry them. When that happens, the person holding the pen isn't the person voters elected.

The bottom line: If voters say yes, future two-term governors would be done for good. That includes Landry, if he wins a second term in 2027. A judge, not the ballot, will probably decide whether the amendment applies to Jindal and Edwards. And the research offers a caution: term limits change who holds power more reliably than they change how well it's used.