February 14, 2000
Term Limits Bring Wholesale Change Into Legislatures
By FRANCIS X. CLINES
OLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 -- As
term limits gradually take effect in
18 state legislatures across the country, the time strictures so popular
with voters are turning seasoned
leaders from office, nipping political
careers and prompting unusual party maneuvers.
A new sort of fast-forward politicking spawned by term limits is exemplified here in Ohio, where the majority Republican leadership is trying to
name three statehouse speakers to
serve over the next three years before term limits take effect with this
November's elections.
Such fleeting leadership is a far
cry from fabled legislative bosses
like the late Speaker Vern Riffe, who
fiercely wielded the Ohio gavel for
two decades. But it is one of the new
laws of compressed politicking being
forged under term limits, in which
the affected states have initially
been seeing a third or more of their
incumbents forced to depart.
Similar wholesale disruptions of
political life, with local and county
politicians moving more quickly into
the statehouse, have been taking
place in the six states that have
instituted term limits since 1996.
Five more, led by Ohio and Florida,
are introducing limits this year,
while another seven are to have
them in effect by 2007.
California, a pioneer in term limits, saw its statehouse leadership initially decimated, but proponents emphasize that a younger and more
diverse crop of lawmakers took office there. One out of four legislators
in Sacramento is now a woman, up
from 17 percent a decade ago, and
Hispanics hold 19 percent of the
seats, up from 6 percent.
Comparable changes in representation are hoped for by proponents
here and in Florida, where substantial legislative turnover is also approaching. The first year of term
limits in Florida will find 55 of the 120
members of the lower house and 11
of 40 state senators displaced in the
November elections. "It's going to
bring about better government,"
Gov. Jeb Bush predicts.
The intricate musical-chair leadership deal being tried in Ohio is
denounced as back-room desperation
by the Democratic minority. But it is
defended by Republicans as the only
recourse for heading off a state of
constant caucus infighting because
of the large-scale turnover dictated
by the eight-year term limit (four
two-year terms in the House, two
four-year terms in the Senate) that is
about to begin. The Republicans are
trying to project two future speakers
even though they cannot be sure future voters will retain the Republican majority needed to guarantee
the tricky deal.
In the first year, the new limits
mean that 43 members of the 99-member Ohio House elected in 1998,
plus 6 of the 33 sitting senators, cannot run again. The wrenching effect,
similar to that experienced in other
statehouses with term limits, begins
with the traditional leadership posts
where seniority has long been a dominant factor.
"I'm onto my third finance committee chairman in the last year,"
said the current speaker, Jo Ann
Davidson, amazed at how fast this
traditionally powerful plum of a job
has been turning over. Qualified lawmakers, doomed by their long experience, have been resigning early
over the past year to find fresh career opportunities. As a practical
matter, the eight-year maximum is
already amounting to something less
than seven years.
"This is not good; this is not continuity," said Ms. Davidson, who
helped to quickly create the three-speaker deal as a transition while
she is forced out this year after 20
years of service. "I calculate that
term limits is costing the legislature
694 years of collective experience,"
she added. "Now the institutional
memory will be in the hands of the
lobbyists and the legislative staff,
when it should rest with the elected
policy makers."
Just a few years ago, term limits
proved popular with the public, getting better than 70 percent approval
in some states where they were enacted through referendums. Now,
even as the public push for limits is
appearing to wane, there is evidence
that threatened legislators are having second thoughts.
Bills to repeal or liberalize term
limits were submitted last year in 7
of the 18 states that have adopted
them, said Jennie Drage of the National Conference of State Legislatures. None have thus far passed.
Meanwhile, statehouse leaders are
trying to adapt to the new climate by
assigning newcomers to intensive
training in mock debates and committee apprenticeships.
Evidence of the rapidly altered
politics of term limits abounds, whatever the ultimate judgment proves to
be about the quality of lawmaking in
the term-limited states.
In Florida, four members of the
Jacksonville City Council quickly announced for open statehouse seats,
exemplifying the greatly accelerated
career paths of politics in states with
term limits. In Ohio's Hamilton
County, four seats rated safely Republican instantly drew 50 candidates. The opportunity for newcomers presented by term limits has
made the primary slate here next
month the most crowded in 20 years,
with 56 House and 16 Senate nominations still to be settled.
"It's something of a Big Bang,"
Richard Vedder, a political analyst
at Ohio University in Athens, said.
"People have underestimated the political impact this is going to have as
newcomers try to move through uncharted territory."
Visiting lawmakers from Michigan, where term limits went into
effect last year, cautioned their Ohio
colleagues to expect such phenomena as a much more highly compressed style of ambition.
"Freshmen must literally make
their move for the speakership by
the end of their first term," said the
Ohio House minority leader, Jack
Ford, a Democrat. Mr. Ford warned
that well-heeled lobbyists sensing the
accelerated pace were already getting more involved in the grass-roots
nominating process, hoping to build
relationships sooner with promising
candidates.
"We decry the speakers deal," Mr.
Ford said, contending that lobbyists
had a hand in concocting it. "It goes
against representative democracy
as the epitome of back-room arrogance. Imagine trying to decide the
leadership before the lawmakers
who have that responsibility have
even been elected by the people."
Mr. Ford is seconded by the Republican dean of the legislature, Representative Robert E. Netzley, who
says he has never seen such a "ridiculous" deal in his 40 years as a
legislator. "It's just plain stupid to
try and determine leaders that far
down the line," he said.
But Speaker Davidson said the
deal, uncertain as it may be, is the
best way to salvage some needed
continuity and avoid perennial caucus battles. Her designated successors agree.
"Term limits presented Ohio with
a struggle between the past and the
fast-approaching future," said Representative Larry Householder, the
assistant majority leader, who is
slated to be the big winner in the
announced tandem speakership. A
freshman lawmaker only two years
ago, Mr. Householder began an early
and energetic campaign for the leadership. He sensed the term-limit
train coming down the line and traveled the state with campaign signs as
he went door to door to enlist statehouse Republicans.
"I campaigned for it," said Mr.
Householder, a 40-year-old insurance
salesman who is supposed to share
the gavel next year and hold it outright thereafter for the final three
years of his legislative career, assuming he is re-elected during that
time. His partner in the unusual arrangement will be Representative
Bill Harris, a 65-year-old automobile
dealer who is term-limited in 2002
and so, in the new ways of fast-forward politics, wants to resign a
year early to try for the state Senate.
"You can see the turmoil," said
Mr. Harris, who favored term limits
as a private citizen in 1992, when
voters approved the idea and the
focus was on limiting the terms of
members of Congress. Since then,
the United States Supreme Court has
struck down limits in Congress but
not in statehouses.
As a legislator, Mr. Harris has
come to oppose limits as the need for
critical experience in the legislature
became clearer to him. His designated successor, Mr. Householder, is
more optimistic that term limits can
be made to work.
"I'm all for it right now," he said.
"But I think in '04 when I'm term-limited I'll probably be scraping my
nails across the desk as they drag
me out."
