Content area
Full Text
The public has evidenced continuing support for state legislative term limits, while those who most closely observe the impacts of term limits often support their repeal or extension. This article examines this paradox of term limit support among two groups of knowledgeable observers-party chairs and lobbyists in Florida. The findings support the idea that to know term limits is NOT to love them. They also suggest that among these political elites, support for the repeal of term limits is not a matter of self-interest, but rather reflects a concern about the institutional viability of an important state representative body.
Keywords: state politics; term limits; elite opinion
Over more than a decade, political scientists have studied the implementation of legislative term limits in fifteen states and have documented a variety of negative impacts: increased power of the governor, interest groups, and state senate; less collegiality and civil discourse; more reliance on staff and bureaucracy; more spending on elections; and less responsiveness to the citizenry (see, for example, Carey, Niemi, and Powell 2000; Farmer, Rausch, and Green 2002; Sarbaugh-Thompson et al. 2004; Kousser 2005; Carey et al. 2006). Yet in an apparent disconnect, term limits remain immensely popular with the public.
This article attempts to answer the question, Why does this disconnect exist? Is to know term limits, NOT to love them-or, alternatively, to be ignorant of their effect is to love them? It builds on the simple notion of information. Those with more information about the effect of term limits (those knowledgeable and attentive) will dislike them the most. It also helps answer the question why to know them is NOT to love them. It is not self-interest but rather a concern for the functioning of the state legislative institution-a finding that seems encouraging in the sense of "what's in it for me" politics, but troubling in light of possible persuasion of a public largely ignorant or unconcerned about institutional stability.
While the adoption of new legislative term limits seems to have taken its course in states (no new term limits have been adopted since 2000), they have become even more important since their impact is now becoming known.1 They have taken effect in states including some of the nation's largest-California, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio-and...