Term limits don't better Legislature, study says
Some findings: Experienced politicians shuffle jobs; new officials tend to repeat battles
By Melinda Deslatte
Associated Press
BATON ROUGE — Term limits are the boogeyman waiting around the corner
for Louisiana's long-serving lawmakers. Legislators complain about
them, wish to reverse them and are looking to remain in politics
despite them. But they can't get rid of them.
As
Louisiana gets its first taste of state-level term limits in 2007, a
new report on their impact around the country seems only to bolster
state legislators' disdain for them.
The study says term limits haven't fulfilled the promise that the
composition of state House and Senate chambers would dramatically
change, offering more women, minorities or younger people a chance to
serve. And the traditional cast of characters has not been swept out of
politics because they simply switch political jobs.
Some voters were hoping for decidedly different results when they
started enacting term limits in 1990 in California, Colorado and
Oklahoma — or when Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved them in
1995.
Seventeen senators and 48 House members — nearly half of
Louisiana's lawmakers — cannot run for their current posts next
year.
That has started rounds of lament in the state Legislature as the end
nears for many. "The worst vote that I ever made," Rep. Peppi
Bruneau, R-New Orleans, said during the legislative session earlier
this year.
A
Louisiana lawmaker gets 12 years, or three terms, in a legislative
chamber. While voters look to the possibility of a new political day
and a slew of new faces at the state Capitol in 2008, a study released
last week could dampen those ideas. It says 1,200 legislators in 13
states have been forced out, governors and other executive offices have
gained more power, and new legislators repeat battles because they lack
experience.
The study suggests outgoing politicians are replaced
with new ones who end up much the same, or the old politicians simply
shuffle around to new posts.
The study was done by the Joint
Project on Term Limits — a collaborative of the National Conference of
State Legislatures, the Council on State Governments, the State
Legislative Leaders Foundation and a group of political science
professionals.
"Term limits in states have done more to limit
rather than enhance the effectiveness of the legislative branch," said
Karl Kurtz, a lead researcher in the review and director of state
services
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