Proponents of legislative term limits argue that they facilitate the election of “citizen legislators”- individuals who come from and then immediately return to private life- instead of “career politicians.” However, a report by the Center of Governmental Studies (CGS) on the California legislature questions whether this is in fact the case.
California limits lawmakers to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate. CGS’s report suggests that, rather than increasing the number of citizen legislators, the term limits have increased the number of legislators with previous public sector experience. For example, in 1990, 28% of the state Assembly and 35% of the state Senate had previously served as elected local officials. By 2008, those percentages had more than doubled, to 70% for the House and 72% for the Senate.
Another consequence is for termed-out Assembly members to move on to the Senate; the number of state senators with previous experience in the Assembly increased from 68% in 1990 to 93% in 2008. And in general, legislators were just as likely (and in the Senate, more likely) to move to another elected or appointed position in the public sector as they were before term limits were enacted.
