Last of old guard gone from Missouri's Senate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- When term limits purged the House of Representatives of experience two years ago, the Senate still boasted several members whose legislative tenures spanned generations.

As of last week, however, the institutional memory of those serving in the Missouri Legislature, with a handful of exceptions, goes back no further than 1999.

Because only half the Senate's 34 seats are on the ballot each election cycle, term limits hit the upper chamber in two waves. In the House, major turnover occurred all at once as the terms of all 163 members expire every two years.

During the first legislative session after the House was swept of veterans, the dearth of experience in the lower chamber often showed. The starkest example was when the House found itself unable to grapple with a difficult budget situation and punted the task to the Senate, whose two lead budget writers both had served in the legislature since 1965.

With the departure of those and other distinguished senators, Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, told the 11 new senators sworn in Wednesday that they have big shoes to fill.

"You are now part of a strong tradition of leadership, and I challenge you, in this time of great change, to honor this tradition by helping us lead so that the people of our state can lead better lives," Gibbons said.

On the first day of the 2005 legislative session, the Senate's two longest-serving members had been in the body just six years. One, state Sen. Steve Stoll, D-Festus, subsequently resigned Thursday to become city administrator of his hometown. The other, state Sen. Sarah Steelman, R-Rolla, will step down Monday to be sworn in as state treasurer.

As a result, no senator who served in the chamber prior to 2001 will remain.

"We are losing a lot with term limits," Stoll said. "We'll see what happens with that in the years to come."

But the Senate isn't entirely devoid of legislative experience, since most members previously served in the House. Of those lower-chamber transfers, however, only five joined the legislature before Missouri voters approved term limits in 1992, and just two have been around since at least the 1980s.

State Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, was first elected to the House in 1985 and moved to the Senate in 2003. The dean of the legislature, state Sen. Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis, joined the House in 1979 before switching to the Senate in 2001.

When Dougherty is forced out two years from now, he will have participated in 28 legislative sessions. In the future, those who stick around for the maximum time in both chambers generally will only be able to achieve 16 years of combined service. The limits apply only to terms won after 1992.

Dougherty said term limits prevent lawmakers from developing the same level of command of their craft that was once common in the legislature.

"The biggest thing is people are really getting short-shifted," Dougherty said. "We don't have an ability to have people here with expertise who know the problems, some of the things that worked in the past and what hasn't worked."

Although an individual can as a constitutional matter serve 16 years, Dougherty noted many members, especially in the House, don't stay around long enough to hit the cap. For example, all three of Southeast Missouri's freshman senators came from the House but none served a full eight years in that chamber.

Dougherty predicts an eventual shift in power to unelected bureaucrats and lobbyists, which he believes will hurt the public policy interests of Missourians.

"The problem with that is the bureaucrats and lobbyists are not voted in, are not voted out but are here much longer than legislators," Dougherty said. "They are the ones beginning to build up the power and expertise."

mpowers@semissourian.com

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