State legislators, staff members and lobbyists were told yesterday that legislative term limits are a fact of life, at least for the foreseeable future, and they should get used to it.

Various active and retired lawmakers, as well as academicians, agreed that while the transition to life under term limits has gone well in Ohio, any move to repeal or expand them is premature.

The views were expressed at a daylong forum entitled "Early Returns on Legislative Term Limits'' at the Riffe Center. It was sponsored by Ohio State University's Michael E. Moritz College of Law.

Sen. Mark L. Mallory, D-Cincinnati, said any relaxation of term limits or a repeal movement will have to be started by individuals or groups "that don't have a vested interest'' or it will appear self-serving.

"I don't have much hope that it's going to change any time soon,'' Mallory said.

Former House Speaker JoAnn Davidson said a recent Ohio Poll conducted by the University of Cincinnati found that 62 percent of Ohioans favor term limits.

Davidson said, however, that newspaper editorial boards are re- examining the issue.

Former Senate President Stanley J. Aronoff said, "Something bad has to happen so they (opponents) can say, 'See? That term-limited legislature did that.' That's happening in California. It's not happening here yet.''

Both Davidson and Aronoff said the legislature has done surprisingly well so far under term limits, particularly in the House, where almost half the members were new in 2001.

"Our legislature's running along pretty well,'' Aronoff said. "The new legislators are quick learners.''

Davidson said she had to testify before the House Finance Committee last year as a temporary member of the Taft administration and "Things were pretty much business as usual.''

Former Michigan House Speaker Charles Perricone told the forum that term limits in his state have energized the legislature, made it more feisty and resulted in advancement of bills that never would have surfaced in the old days.

"I was able to move issues that never would have moved,'' said Perricone, a one-term speaker who reached his term limit in 2000.

Perricone said the legislature is now discussing issues that are relevant to the people back home. He said lawmakers are "going home at night and not staying in their condos in the capital.''

The Kalamazoo Republican said the House debated bills on the death penalty and concealed weapons. He said it had been 1938 since a capital- punishment bill had last been voted on in Michigan.

"I voted for term limits, and I would again,'' he said.

Paul Ryder, communications director for Ohio Citizen Action, said the Ohio legislature was nonproductive in the 1990s before term limits. He said new legislators bring a fresh perspective and are not captives of the "Statehouse crowd.''

"They said the legislature lost 698 years of experience,'' Ryder said. "The way I look at it, 698 years of community experience arrived. Community experience makes you more qualified to vote than the legislative experience.''

Steven Huefner, assistant law professor at Ohio State, said his research showed that term limits produced more candidates for each open seat in the legislature. Campaign spending for those seats were higher in 2000 than in 1996 and 1998, before term limits, he said.

Jack Wright, an Ohio State political-science professor, said his research showed that while political- action-committee contributions to legislators increase with the time in office, lawmakers' voting patterns don't change significantly.

"We have corporate America paying a lot of our campaign costs, and so far as I can tell, it hasn't corrupted the system,'' Wright said.

John Carey, a political-science professor from Washington University, St. Louis, said interviews in four states with legislative term limits showed newcomers are more likely to propose legislation and take strong positions on issues, but their political ambitions are no different from those of old-timers.

Carey also said lawmakers where terms are limited feel more free to defy their leadership.

Perricone agreed and said this sits well with the public. "They (the public) know there's some kind of control there and term limits has blown that up,'' he said.