EDITORIAL GET OUT AND VOTE -- NO ON R TERM LIMITS MEASURE IS POLITICS AT ITS WORST.

DISGUSTED with the cynical, self-serving nature of Los Angeles city politics?

If so, then like most Angelenos, you may be tempted to sit out Tuesday's election -- and that would be a terrible mistake.

Because if you're an L.A. resident who's fed up with sleazy, unprincipled politicians, then you need to show up on Tuesday to make sure the sleazy, unprincipled politicians don't get their dream come true -- the passage of Measure R.

Measure R is the product of an elaborate deception with one intended goal -- helping City Council members to stay in office for four more years and collect an extra $1 million apiece in salary and benefits.

The measure's official name ``Council member term limits of three terms; city lobbying, campaign finance and ethics laws'' is misleading on two fronts. It suggests that Measure R would impose term limits on the City Council, when it would only weaken them, letting council members stay in office for three terms instead of the current limit of two.

And the proposed ``campaign finance and ethics laws'' are nothing more than toothless policies written by lobbyists to make Measure R seem more palatable to the unsuspecting voter.

That's the whole idea. Council members knew that voters would never back a naked assault on term limits. So they tried to gussy it up as ``ethics reform.''

Yet council members rushed the measure onto the ballot without letting the city's Ethics Commission take a look or soliciting any public comment. They ignored their own attorney's warning that the measure is probably unconstitutional because it conflates two separate issues. And during the campaign, they have turned a blind eye to deceitful mailers that distort the nature of the measure, as though it were simply good-government legislation.

But if Measure R is really about ethics reform, about ferreting the special interests out of City Hall, then why is its campaign awash in special-interest money?

To date, the pro-Measure R campaign has raised more than $536,000 -- mostly from the contractors, developers, unions and other insiders who are quite comfortable with business as usual in City Hall. These special interests have invested handsomely in the current council members -- they want to keep them around.

A judge has already ruled that Measure R is both deceitful and unconstitutional, but the City Council used taxpayer money to hire private lawyers and wage an expensive appeal, which is why the measure remains on the ballot at all. And though, if passed, Measure R could still get struck down, there's no guarantee of that happening, as the group that's led the legal fight against it plans to give up if voters pass the initiative Tuesday.

We can't count on the judicial system to bail us out on this one. If council members' lies and scheming -- compounded by voter apathy -- allow Measure R to pass, we could be stuck with it for a long time.

Worse, we'll be stuck with them -- the political hucksters who created this ruse for their own benefit -- for four more years.

So please, don't skip this election. If you don't vote, the politicians win.

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) Daily News endorsements

(2) CALIFORNIA ELECTION 2006

SOURCE: Secretary of State, Legislative Analyst, Daily News research

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist