St. Petersburg House Democrat Rick Kriseman has been concerned for awhile amount the lack of institutional knowledge in Tallahassee. He's also expressed frustration about how there always seems to be an ongoing perpetual election cycle that he and other representatives must contend with because they run for for re-election every two years
So Kriseman today announced legislation today that aims to deal with those issues by extending the current term-length structure in the Legislature. Under his proposal, representatives would run for four-year terms instead of the current two, and state senators who currently run every four years would instead run for six-year terms. The bill would also extend term limits for all legislators to 12 years from the current 8.
That last part is something we've heard more and more legislators from both sides of the aisle discuss in recent years in Florida. Because legislators only serve for eight years at a time, those who have ambitions of becoming say, House Speaker or Senate President, begin lobbying sometimes for such positions before they're even elected into the Legislature.
For example, House Republicans voted last year – in 2010- to have Chris Dorworth become their House Speaker – in 2014! That proved to be just a wee bit embarrassing when it was revealed that he is still fighting a 2008 foreclosure on his 8,200-square-foot home. And oh yeah, he had his driver's license temporarily suspended as well.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.