Term limits still are causing waves

It’s like there’s a game of musical chairs going on between the state’s House and Senate.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Eight years after laws took effect to limit the amount of time state lawmakers can hold office, the turnover tactic still draws strong reactions from backers and detractors.

The creators of the idea insist the term limits do their job: keeping lawmakers from becoming entrenched in office. But the politicians who have to live within the restrictions still loathe them, at least privately.

Ohio voters in 1992 overwhelmingly approved the change to the Ohio Constitution that limited state representatives to four consecutive two-year terms and state senators to two four-year terms, beginning in 2000. Those left in the first class of newcomers have been forced to find other jobs, and many do so by jumping to from one chamber to the other, or by keeping an eye out for future employment while legislating.

Half-hearted efforts to repeal or extend the limits have failed.

Backers promised new ideas would sprout at the Statehouse. The ideas may be new, but they are coming from many of the same people.

This year, the hall traffic between the House and Senate will be busy as ever. Nine people who began the current session as House members are running for the Senate — two already have been appointed to those seats but face election in November— and three who began the session as Senators are running for the House. One of them already has been seated. All 99 House seats are up for election, along with 16 of 33 Senate seats.

Twenty-five members of the Senate used to be in the House and seven former Senate members are representatives.

“It really saddens me to see members have to play musical chairs between the two houses,” Senate Democratic Leader Ray Miller of Columbus, a former House member, said. “Recently, we lost Sen. Randy Gardner, an outstanding member — the opposite party of me, but just a very fine person. He would have run for re-election here if he could.”

In all, 23 House members and six senators are being forced out. In 2000, 42 House members and six senators were shown the door.

The change in turnover in the House isn’t surprising to former Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, a suburban Columbus Republican. In 2000, her last year, many members left early for other jobs or the number of House members leaving because of limits would have been closer to 50, she said.

“They come here and it sounds like a long time when it gets started. It’s human nature to think what are the other opportunities,” Davidson said. “I don’t think that means they have any less interest, any less commitment.”

All the chamber-switching and job hunting is fine with David Zanotti, a conservative suburban Clevelander who helped get the issue before voters 16 years ago. Term limits have kept politicians from developing the arrogance he blames for the speaking-fees scandal of the early 1990s, in which several lawmakers accepted multiple fees from the same source to get around ethics laws. He said he and other backers had considered making the eight years a permanent term limit.

Lawmakers who sit out for four years can return, as did Rep. William Batchelder, the Medina Republican who resumed his House career this year after 10 years as a judge.

Former Senate President Richard Finan, a suburban Cincinnati Republican who was in the Legislature for 30 years, remains a staunch opponent. He said people starting out a legislative career have a decision to make. He supports chamber switching as a way to gain valuable experience.

“If they want to be here for longer than that [eight years], they have to be prepared to go to the other house,” Finan said. “If they are just going to stay eight years, their effectiveness is limited.”

Finan chose to leave government after his clock ran out in 2002. He now works as a lobbyist, mostly for institutions and charities in the Cincinnati area.

Zanotti, president of the Ohio Roundtable think tank, concedes that term limits haven’t meant as much new blood as backers had predicted, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t working.

“We never said it would cure everything, but we’re happy with the results so far,” he said.

Miller is not so happy.

“I don’t know any profession that does that: Once a person gains eight years of experience, then they’re forced to leave. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.