Leadership Changes in Term-limited States

by Nancy Rhyme and Karl Kurtz

'Tis the season for legislatures to select new leadership for the coming biennium.  They're coming so fast and furious we're having a hard time keeping up.  We'll start a roundup of leadership changes with term-limited states, where leadership change is a constant, and follow up with other states in subsequent posts:

• The Arkansas Senate made a series of noteworthy selections of leadership, many of them occasioned by term limits: a former speaker of the House, Bob Johnson, was elected president pro tem of the Senate, newly elected Senator Joyce Elliott, an African-American woman who defeated an incumbent senator, was elected majority leader over Sen. Johnson's choice for the post, and Republican Sen. Gilbert Baker was chosen to chair the Joint Budget Committee by a body that is controlled 27-8 by the Democrats.
• Hannah Pingree (D) is the new speaker in Maine. To date, she is the youngest speaker in the country at age 32, but stay tuned.  Pingree's mother, Chellie Pingree, a former state Senate leader, won election to Congress earlier this month. Rep. John Piotti will be majority leader, and Republicans chose Rep. Josh Tardy minority leader.  Elizabeth "Libby" Mitchell (D) will be the Senate president in Maine and the first women there to have served as presiding officer in both chambers. Sen. Kevin Raye (R) will be the minority leader.
• Rep. Armond Budish has been chosen as speaker by Democrats who are taking control of the Ohio House, and the Republicans elected Rep. Bill Batchelder as minority leader. Sen. Bill Harris has been reelected Senate President by his Republican colleagues.

• In the Florida Senate a "team of rivals" scenario is playing out with Senate president-designate Jeff Atwater (R) naming Miami Sen. Alex Villalobos to be Rules Committee chair.  Atwater beat Villalobos three years ago for the Senate president's post under Florida's system of electing future leaders two years in advance--a system that pre-dates term limits in the state. The arrangement was meant to end the feud between senators who backed Villalobos to lead the chamber and those who backed Atwater.  Rep. Ray Sansom has been selected as speaker of the House.
• Sen. Steven Horsford was elected majority leader by his Democratic colleagues who have won control of the Senate in Nevada.  He is the first African American elected to leadership in that state. Rep. Barbara Buckley will return as speaker.
• Rep. Bob Bergren will be the speaker of the evenly divided Montana House of Representatives.  Current Speaker Scott Sales will be the House Republican leader. The House is  tied with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Under state law Democrats get the speaker's post in a tied chamber because the governor is a Democrat.
• No changes in Oklahoma: Sen. Glen Coffee (R) is the pro tem but will not have to shre the position with a co-leader from the Democrats as he did in a previously tied chamber. Rep. Chris Benge stays on as speaker.  Oklahoma's unique term limits provision that allows a total of 12 years of service regardless of which chamber encourages stability in leadership because members seeking leadership positions focus their career on one chamber.