Frosh: Term Limits Don’t Mean You Get to Be Fresh

Frosh: Term Limits Don’t Mean You Get to Be Fresh

In the years before term limits, new legislators seemed to know their place.  They were excited to be here, but smart enough to know that they had a lot to learn before they start trying to run the place.  If we fast forward to the term limit era of today, you see otherwise smart adults acting nothing short of petulant in their first terms in office. 

Everyone can watch and see that they don’t yet understand the rules and parliamentary procedure.  For the most part, veterans pitch in and offer help when they make their first motions or attempt to amend a bill.  This has to be learned by doing and most are very patient with the newbie legislators.  But when freshmen legislators disregard “customs” of the body in which they serve and act like bulls in our china closet, a painful correction is soon to follow.

There are customs that lend more to mutual respect than procedure, and they are being lost as more and more freshmen are being thrust into positions of responsibility which they are in no way ready to handle.  For instance, there is a history to every issue that is important to learn before you go out and shoot off your mouth or run a bill.  That history includes the circumstances of the historical theater as well as the players.  Some issues “belong” to certain veteran members and they have spent large chunks of their careers becoming experts on those issues and have vetted a wide variety of ideas along the way.  I have seen a couple freshmen dig themselves a hole in their careers by ignoring the custom of respecting the territories of veteran legislators.  And, it can get really ugly when it happens.

This is partly driven by constituents who themselves may only be really good at one job, but seem to think that “their” lawmaker is supposed to be an expert at everything and leading the charge fixing every possible perceived problem that exists in their universe.  The freshmen are so uniquely aware of how hard they worked to get elected, and how easy it would be to get themselves unelected, that they tend to spring into the ring on every hot-button issue that crosses their desks.  So, they run goof-ball bills that are full of problems and then get all pissy when the body reacts to their A) Generally bad idea, B) Retread idea that has been through the body multiple times and failed, or C) Incredibly cheeky behavior in running a bill that is well-known to be the life’s work of a fellow member.  But, it is largely due to term limits which create a very real need to get the ball rolling right away on issues you came there to address.

I had a run-in with a particularly insolent freshman recently and I had forgotten how unreal these conversations could be.  It was behind a closed office door and I am the only witness.  First, I should tell you that this legislator is a wealthy businessman who (I presume) grew bored of counting his money and decided to come down and save us all from ourselves by pouring a ton of that money into his own campaign and took the job away from a long-time legislator.  He also spread his money all over the map on the political efforts of others for the last few decades and has garnered a whole mess of “friends” as a result.  While I was happy to see the other chap he beat hit the retirement circuit, I think we may have a nightmare on our hands with this freshman. 

The conversation was about his very first bill.  In his one bill of about three paragraphs, he had managed to offend the principles of his own political platform in two major areas and offend the aforementioned customs of the body in another.  He was also being played as a patsy by the people who brought him the bill in the first place…I sat down with the guy to try and help him to see why his own caucus was turning up their collective noses at his bill and see if his goal with the legislation could be accomplished another way through a couple simple amendments.  To be honest, I thought the bill sucked.  There was NO way I was going to vote for it.  But, to be helpful, I was going to help him to work his first bill through the process and accommodate the concerns of various personalities.

To say this freshman didn’t appreciate my help would be an understatement.  He immediately lurched into a twisted and bizarre series of non-verbal and loudly verbal messages.  He threatened me to basically watch my back in the future because he “had a long memory” and this wasn’t over.  I felt his behavior to be fresh, even for a freshman, and told him so in low calm tones that only infuriated him more.  His next big bill was also a disaster and resulted in a huge amount of heartburn for several members who took him at his word that he had done his homework.  I believe the courts are still battling out the legality of his 2^nd bill.  Needless to say, I decided to let him have the rope to hang himself on his second stinker bill…

I was laughing when I saw a well-respected fellow member go on the record with the press (in regards to this big shot freshman member's frequent outbursts) and suggest that “Freshmen should be seen and not heard.”   If people in the gallery looking on knew what was going on, they could have been as entertained as I was watching this guy’s face as he read the article.  You could almost hear the hissing of the wind leaving his sails.  When this happens to the pompous, it is a real treat to behold.