In July, while running for state representative, Debbie Mayfield signed a pledge to push for term limits in Congress. She was to leave her seat in the state Senate in accordance with the Florida Constitution’s legislative term limits.
Despite these restrictions, Mayfield, a Melbourne Republican who has served in Congress since 2008, could soon return to the same Senate seat he left.
“It’s hypocritical,” said Nick Tombolides, CEO of US Term Limits, a Palm Beach-based advocacy group that designed and created the pledge. “That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done.”
Mayfield doesn’t think so, saying he is “happy to trust the voters.”
Term limits were approved by Florida voters in 1992, but some members have bounced from chamber to chamber as their terms in a seat expire, far exceeding the constitutional limit that only applies to consecutive terms in a single seat. The term of office has been extended beyond that.
Supporters argue that term limits reduce special interest groups’ control of the legislative branch and give more power to the people because voters most often restore incumbents to office. Additionally, greater fluidity in seats increases the diversity of ideas and prevents one person from holding a leadership role for decades at a time.
However, opponents generally argue that politicians with longer tenures are beneficial because they have accumulated institutional knowledge from experience along the way and are insulated from pressure from the executive branch. Otherwise, influence simply shifts to other people with longevity in the process: lobbyists.
Mayfield was first elected to the state House in 2008, winning the seat previously held by her husband, Stan, who died of cancer during the campaign. After working there for eight years, he ran for state senate in 2016 and was elected. This year, after being forced out of the Senate due to term limits, he ran again for the House and won.
Now, her former Senate seat will soon be vacant. Brevard County Republican Randy Fine, who won the race to replace her, is running for the vacant U.S. House seat. The seat is vacant after U.S. Rep. Mike Walz was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next national security adviser.
Florida law requires incumbent legislators to resign in order to run for another office for a term that overlaps with their current term. Mr. Fine’s resignation is effective March 31. Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet called a special election to replace him, but Mayfield has announced his candidacy for his old seat.
“Serving in the State Senate means fighting for issues important to Space Coast communities, including solving the insurance crisis, cutting taxes to make Florida more affordable, supporting President Trump’s immigration reform, and protecting our waterways.” “It provides a more impactful platform for said in a statement posted on X last month. “Although this is an unexpected opportunity, I am ready to meet it head-on.”
In a separate statement, Mayfield defended his candidacy against his old opponent, saying, “Brevard voters have come to expect fierce, results-oriented leadership in the Legislature.”
That’s why she said in a text message to the U.S. that she “trusts my constituents and am willing to defend both my policy ideas and accomplishments for the privilege of serving the Space Coast once again in the Florida Senate.” TODAY Network – Florida Capital Bureau.
History of term limits in Florida
Term limits in the United States have promoted term limits at all levels of government for decades. The group’s president, Philip Blumel, helped gather signatures for the Eight is Enough campaign to put the amendment on the 1992 ballot in Florida.
The leader of this movement was his father, George, who led efforts to pass term limits on the Palm Beach County Commission and in several other states.
Once term limits were established in Florida, efforts to repeal them failed. A bill introduced in 2005 by former state Rep. Baxter Troutman to expand the legislative term limit to 12 years died. A similar bill introduced in 2014 by former state Rep. Keith Perry also failed to gain traction.
Meanwhile, some state lawmakers from both parties have a habit of moving chambers or districts to stay in Congress.
For example, former Congressman Thad Altman of the Republican Party of India moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate and back again. Also, Sen. Geraldine Thompson, a Windermere Democrat, is serving her second term in the Senate after previously serving two terms. He has appeared in the House of Commons many times since 2006.
Recently, lawmakers have been trying to impose term limits on local governments.
In 2022, Congress approved a 12-year limit on school boards. The following year, they lowered it to eight years. Perry voted in favor of the bill as a state senator.
Term limits have long been popular among the public and continue to be so today. A Pew Research Center survey of American adults last year found that 87% of respondents supported setting term limits for members of Congress.
“Anything that limits the power of politicians is always popular with the public,” said Kathryn DePalo Gould, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University in Miami.
But the reality of term limits does not always match the promise of removing the control of special interests.
DePalo Gould wrote a book in 2015 called “The Failure of Term Limits in Florida,” concluding that special interests and their lobbyists continue to enjoy significant influence.
New members “don’t have an institutional memory. They don’t necessarily have policy privileges. So lobbyists have power, and staff who don’t leave at the same rate have power.” she said.
“Most of the idea (for term limits) was, ‘Let’s get rid of professional politicians because they’re too attached to special interests and interest groups in Tallahassee.’ And now interest groups But… they actually hold the center of power. So they didn’t really achieve that goal, at least not as much as many people expected.”
But Thombrides disagrees with that criticism. He argues that Florida and other states with legislative term limits are better than states without them.
“If you compare how Florida operates to other states with large numbers of career politicians, like Mississippi or New Jersey, it’s like night and day,” Tombourides said. “Power is so concentrated in these other states that member states simply cannot accept new and innovative ideas.”
What about Congressional term limits?
Tombourides believes the example of Florida and other states regarding term limits should be applied to Congress. But it will be an uphill battle and will likely require constitutional amendments.
A 1992 ballot measure passed by Florida voters included term limits for legislators from the Sunshine State. But a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1995 invalidated that restriction and those passed in other states.
In US Term Limits Inc. v. Thornton, the court ruled that states could not impose racial qualifications for federal jobs. The majority said that imposing term limits on Congress would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The ruling came amid an unsuccessful effort to impose term limits on Congress.
Two months before the ruling, the U.S. House of Representatives, now dominated by Republicans after the 1994 midterm elections, voted 227-204 to pass a constitutional amendment that would place a 12-year cap on seats in both chambers of Congress. However, the vote failed because constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in each chamber. This bill was part of the Republican Party’s Deal with America that year and was the only bill that did not pass.
However, many of those who supported the bill chose to run for several more terms. The bill’s sponsor, former Congressman Bill McCollum, served in the House of Representatives for 20 years before joining the House in 2001 and later became Florida’s attorney general.
Despite the lack of movement on the issue, bills to impose term limits continue to be debated in Congress.
As a U.S. representative in 2017, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposed a bill that would limit House members to three terms and senators to two terms.
Sen. Rick Scott pushed this idea in his first campaign for the Senate in 2018, when he ran under term limits. Mr. DeSantis embraced the idea during the Republican presidential nomination race earlier this year, encouraging other states to vote to hold conventions.
However, although Republicans are poised to take control of both chambers of Congress next year, their majority will be slim, leaving little chance of passing the term limits amendment. And even if passed, 38 states would need to approve the bill.
“It’s possible that it could pass in the states, but the two-thirds (requirement) in the House and Senate is not going to happen, so that’s not a possibility,” DePalo Gould said.
Not so, Tombourides said, believing the momentum for term limits in Congress is on his side. He pointed to nine states voting in favor of enacting a treaty to address term limits, and DeSantis’ support in urging other states to follow suit.
As more states seek to enact the treaty, “there is increasing pressure on Congress to propose amendments itself,” he said.
Tombrides also believes the U.S. Supreme Court, which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority, could overturn the liberal-led U.S. Term Limits Inc. v. Thornton precedent.
But these legal machinations are far from certain, and the two-thirds hurdle in Congress remains too high. Still, given the concept’s popularity with the public, calls for term limits in Congress and pledges by candidates to support the concept are likely to continue.
Fine, the state senator who will temporarily replace Mayfield, has already signed the U.S. Term Limits Pledge as part of his bid for Congress. “Proud to be the first candidate for CD 6 to sign the term limits pledge!” he posted on X.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
