State Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Hilton Head Island, made the right choice to live by her commitment to limit her own term of office in Columbia.

She made a pledge six years ago to stay in office for only three terms.

She says in hindsight it was a mistake to sign a voluntary pledge with a national group called U.S. Term Limits (www.termlimits.org). She says she now realizes it "was a naive but well-intentioned decision made on an inexperienced perception rather than with an understanding of the operation of the state legislature."

But everybody who could draw breath six years ago knew how the legislature works: on seniority. It was clear, or should have been clear, from the beginning for all those who sign term-limit pledges -- and all who vote for these candidates -- what was at stake.

The same is true in Washington, where voluntary term limits were a pillar of the short-lived "Contract With America" movement by Republican leadership. In South Carolina, all one had to do was look at the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and the longtime "junior" senator, Fritz Hollings, to see the value of seniority in the legislative process. It has been so for generations.

It is ironic that the U.S. Term Limits organization sees term limits as a way to keep politicians from being beholden to special interest groups. It is itself a special-interest group. There is a risk in signing on with these groups, and that includes the national "no new taxes" pledge that so many South Carolina legislators are unwisely beholden to.

Gilham has changed her mind about the value of term limits for the citizen-legislators in Columbia, which she sees as different from career politicians in Washington. But, to her credit, Gilham has not changed her mind about the value of living up to personal commitments. She has done so when many political heavyweights say she should simply say she's changed her mind.

Gilham joins others who have made that tough choice. The most visible might be Gov. Mark Sanford, who made a commitment to serve only three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and lived by it. After the fact, he explained his continued support for term limits in Congress in a book called "The Trust Committed to Me."

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis made a term-limit pledge and lived up to it. So did former state Rep. Chip Campsen, a conservative from the Charleston area. Like Gilham, Campsen agonized over whether he must live up to an earlier pledge and, in the end, did so.

Gilham relied on biblical passages to help make a decision she said she apologized for but is at peace with.

The term-limit question is not a fringe issue. It has been debated for many years, even with some suggestions to write it into the Constitution.

Those who buy into it, but then opt out when it hits home, lose credibility. As Gilham noted, that is not good for a public that is already highly skeptical about the commitments of those serving in public office.