Hidden Term In Term Limits Is Seniority

When term limits kick in for members of the Idaho Legislature, lawmakers will face some major problems.

Exactly when the term limits enacted by a 1994 law will become effective is being debated. It could come in 2002, or it could be 2004.

But whenever the time comes, the Legislature suddenly could lose all its committee chairmen and almost all the members of some major committees.

“That’s not healthy for the Legislature. It will leave the Legislature in a lurch,” said Republican Rep.-elect David Callister of Boise, an incoming freshman.

That’s why he and three-term GOP Rep. Mark Stubbs of Twin Falls want the Legislature to review the time-honored seniority system generally used to determine committee chairmanships.

Stubbs may propose legislation or changes in House rules. One proposal he’s mulling is to allow committee members to pick their chairman. Another is to limit committee chairmanships to four years.

Legislative leaders now pick committee chairmen, and the choices often are the result of complicated political maneuvering notwithstanding the seniority system. Then legislators submit lists of committees on which they would like to serve. Traditionally - though not always - freshmen are relegated to the committees considered less important.

Stubbs and Callister say that highlights the problem: Term limits will rob some of the Legislature’s most important panels of a wealth of experience.

“These committees are the committees that run the state,” Callister said. “If you don’t have institutional knowledge on the committees, every single year you are headed for a train wreck.”

He and Stubbs started the battle for change at the legislative meetings in North Idaho earlier this month. That ruffled some feathers.

House Speaker Michael Simpson said Callister talked “for hours” on the subject at a Republican caucus. Callister says it was only a few minutes.

He pointed out the fact that his class - the 15 Republican and five Democrat freshman who will take office Dec. 5 - will never have a chance to become committee chairmen or leaders. They will be forced out of office by term limits before they can amass the seniority needed for those jobs.

But both Stubbs and Callister say a lot of people now are seriously considering change.

The most visible fight shaping up is the one for majority leader between Sen. Sheila Sorensen and Sen. James Risch, both Boise Republicans.

There also may be no shortage of people willing to run against Republican state Schools Superintendent Anne Fox. Several people are at least talking about making the race in 1998.

The newest addition to the list is Sen. Tim Tucker, the Porthill Democrat who was defeated this month in his bid for a fifth term in the Senate.

Steve Smylie, son of former Republican Gov. Robert E. Smylie and a Boise middle school teacher, is rumored to be interested. Former Democratic Rep. Richard Adams of Grangeville was in Boise recently talking about the race, and a couple of school superintendents also may run against Fox.