And then there are the intangibles. In California and Michigan, which have some of the strictest term limits in the country, political observers have detected a sharp decline in collegiality as new members with little time to make an impression replace long-serving members who took time to cultivate relationships. They don't sit down and make the friends they used to make. Frankly, there's a lack of trust. The spirit of cooperation that you'd like to see just isn't there.
Nobody is willing to meet other people half way.
Proponents of term limits anticipated, for instance, that the reform would make legislators more responsive to constituents by taking away the option of making a career of legislative service. In fact, many scholars argue that term limits actually diminish the need of legislators to be responsive by reducing the value of the electoral process that would otherwise be used to keep them in line. John David Rausch Jr., an expert on term limits, says the evidence so far has suggested that term limits put a premium on upward mobility that pits the needs of constituents against the career imperatives of legislators. He notes that GOP lawmakers termed out of the Michigan legislature have filled so many posts in Gov. John Engler's administration that the party is becoming worried there won't be jobs waiting for the members who get the boot this year. Ethan Wallison is a staff writer at Roll Call.