Term Limits Weaken Ties between Congress and State Legislatures

by Karl Kurtz

Because I am one of the NCSL liaisons to the California Legislature, I was asked by our Washington, D.C. office (the arm of NCSL that represents the states before the federal government) a few weeks ago to identify California legislators who are close to two members of Congress and therefore might be able to influence their actions.  It turned out to be a much more difficult task than I had anticipated.  My contacts in California had a hard time in coming up with legislators who have strong personal connections to these particular members of Congress.

Why is this so?  It turns out that this is an unexpected and little noted side effect of term limits for two reasons. 

First, the majority of the members of the California congressional delegation have previously served in the state legislature, so they ought to have a lot of friends back in Sacramento.  But with six- and eight-year term limits in the state Assembly and Senate, respectively, the turnover of legislators means that members of Congress not far removed from serving in the legislature soon lose touch with those in the state capitol.  One of the members of Congress with whom we want to connect served in Sacramento several decades ago, so all of his personal friends are long gone.

Second, term-limited legislators who want to remain in politics are more likely to challenge sitting members of Congress than are non-term-limited legislators who can bide their time until there is an open congressional seat.   This is true both across parties and within the same party.  Since term limits were imposed in California, there have been three challenges of incumbent congressmen by termed-out state legislators in Democratic primaries--Hilda Solis vs. Marty Martinez, Juan Vargas vs. Bob Filner and Joe Nation vs. Lynn Woolsey.  The first was successful, the second two were not.  Such events, rarely heard of before term limits, are likely to cause incumbent members of Congress to look over their shoulders at state legislators and perhaps to keep their distance from the politicians back home.

Is this effect confined to California.  It may just be more observable in a state with 53 members of Congress, and California's shorter-than-most (along with Arkansas and Michigan) lifetime term limits may exaggerate the effects.  Two separate academic articles in a recent issue of State Politics and Policy Quarterly (only abstracts available at the link) by Jeff Lazarus of Georgia State University and Jennifer Steen of Boston College document the fact that term-limited state legislators more frequently challenge incumbent members of Congress than do non-term-limited lawmakers. 

We would like to hear from other term-limited states on this question.  Just add a comment below or send us an email.

In the grand scheme of things, the ties between members of Congress and state legislators are not the most important quality of representative democracy or America's version of federalism.  But to us at NCSL, who rely on these relationships for much of our influence on federal policy issues in Washington, D.C., it's a big deal.

Comments

[Bob Filner]

Hey--Congressman Bob Filner is alive and well--and Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committe. Juan Vargas is a lobbyist for the Safeco Insurance Company. Although Juan makes more money than Bob, Bob has beaten Juan in three different primary elections!

[Karl Kurtz]

Oops! Sorry about that, Congressman Filner. I didn't do my fact checking. I have corrected the posting and made it clear that you, not Juan Vargas, were the winner. Thanks for setting the record straight. I have also added Joe Nation's challenge to Lynn Woolsey since the original posting.