This is a point we should consider. Do term limits actually produce better results? Are states with term limits less corrupt or more successful in some discernible way that could be attributed to term limits?
Temperature rises on Grassley as SCOTUS fight escalates
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This is a point we should consider. Do term limits actually produce better results? Are states with term limits less corrupt or more successful in some discernible way that could be attributed to term limits?
rom Sacramento — The vision of legislative term limit advocates — that of "citizen legislators" dominating California's Capitol — always was a fantasy. Now a think tank proves it.
The research group has splattered indelible facts all over the Norman Rockwell image of a selfless local merchant serving a few years in Sacramento, then returning home to tend the store and resume community volunteerism.
"The record disputes the idea that legislators will return to their pharmacy, return to their farm, return to their law firm," says Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies.
"Once they get into government, they find they are good at it, and they like it."
Well, not all are good at it — at least not the governing. But they do tend to like the perks and the power.
The center Tuesday produced a report titled "Citizen Legislators or Political Musical Chairs?"
The report concludes unequivocally that the answer is musical chairs.
"California's term limits have not created an environment in which citizen legislators temporarily serve in the state Capitol and then return to the private sector," the reports says. Rather, "professional legislators…continue to seek careers in other government positions — a form of political musical chairs for governmental office."
"Indeed," the report continues, "politicians are now moving faster and faster to the music."
And, mixing metaphors, it adds, "Most termed-out legislators do not beat their political spears into plowshares and return to the civilian sector....Term limits…have converted the state Legislature into a 'farm team' of potential candidates for other public offices."
The governmental studies center compared legislators before and after term limits. It found:
•"A growing portion of newcomers to the Legislature are not citizen legislators at all, but rather politicians who have served in local government."
In 1990 — as voters were approving term limits — 28% of those elected to the Assembly came from local government. By 2010, the number had risen to 68%. For the Senate, the number rose during that period from 35% to 70%.
•"Termed-out members are just as likely to seek other public-sector jobs as were pre-term limits predecessors."
In the 1980s, 60% of Assembly members and 30% of senators, upon leaving the Legislature, either ran for another office or landed some government appointment. In 2008, 60% of termed-out Assembly members and 40% of vanquished senators hung onto government employment.
Under California's term limits — among the most restrictive in the nation — three two-year terms are allowed in the Assembly and two four-year stints are permitted in the Senate.
Anyone who has watched the legislative process in Sacramento has witnessed the obvious: Newly elected lawmakers start plotting to capture their next office even before they're sworn in to the one they've just won.
"They're running all the time, for one office or another," complains Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
She gets tired of term-limited politicians showing up with their hands out. "We raise money over and over again, one after another after another....
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/21/local/la-me-cap-term-limits-20110721
This seems to be the way it works in term-limited Florida as well.
The research group has splattered indelible facts all over the Norman Rockwell image of a selfless local merchant serving a few years in Sacramento, then returning home to tend the store and resume community volunteerism.
"The record disputes the idea that legislators will return to their pharmacy, return to their farm, return to their law firm," says Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies.
"Once they get into government, they find they are good at it, and they like it."
Well, not all are good at it — at least not the governing. But they do tend to like the perks and the power.
The center Tuesday produced a report titled "Citizen Legislators or Political Musical Chairs?"
The report concludes unequivocally that the answer is musical chairs.
"California's term limits have not created an environment in which citizen legislators temporarily serve in the state Capitol and then return to the private sector," the reports says. Rather, "professional legislators…continue to seek careers in other government positions — a form of political musical chairs for governmental office."
"Indeed," the report continues, "politicians are now moving faster and faster to the music."
And, mixing metaphors, it adds, "Most termed-out legislators do not beat their political spears into plowshares and return to the civilian sector....Term limits…have converted the state Legislature into a 'farm team' of potential candidates for other public offices."
The governmental studies center compared legislators before and after term limits. It found:
•"A growing portion of newcomers to the Legislature are not citizen legislators at all, but rather politicians who have served in local government."
In 1990 — as voters were approving term limits — 28% of those elected to the Assembly came from local government. By 2010, the number had risen to 68%. For the Senate, the number rose during that period from 35% to 70%.
•"Termed-out members are just as likely to seek other public-sector jobs as were pre-term limits predecessors."
In the 1980s, 60% of Assembly members and 30% of senators, upon leaving the Legislature, either ran for another office or landed some government appointment. In 2008, 60% of termed-out Assembly members and 40% of vanquished senators hung onto government employment.
Under California's term limits — among the most restrictive in the nation — three two-year terms are allowed in the Assembly and two four-year stints are permitted in the Senate.
Anyone who has watched the legislative process in Sacramento has witnessed the obvious: Newly elected lawmakers start plotting to capture their next office even before they're sworn in to the one they've just won.
"They're running all the time, for one office or another," complains Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
She gets tired of term-limited politicians showing up with their hands out. "We raise money over and over again, one after another after another....
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/21/local/la-me-cap-term-limits-20110721
This seems to be the way it works in term-limited Florida as well.
Sounds like they complaining about having to run for different offices instead of just getting reelected to their lifetime term.
I would wager, but it can't be proven...IF Obama ran in '16, he'd win again. The GOP is putty in his hands when the general public is the deterrmining factor.
I think that IF Obama could run again in '16, he'd win again. When the citizens of the USA are allowed to choose between Obama and the GOPO, "we the people" choose Obama.
Of course this can never be proven, but with the featherweights the GOP is offering up at this time, Obama is clearly the most capable.
