October Flemming Leadership Training Focuses on States with Term Limits

As devolution has increased the responsibilities of states, we now look more to state leaders to find solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems. Term limits are moving this increased responsibility for innovative policy making into the hands of less seasoned leaders. With shorter terms, state legislators are more likely to move into leadership positions more quickly.

This high turnover rate puts more of a premium on the capacity of state leaders. In response, CPA designed a Flemming Fellows leadership training program specifically for term-limited legislators. In early October, legislators from nine of the 18 states with term limits gathered in Estes Park, Colorado to explore a values-based, consensus-building approach to leadership-the hallmark of CPA’s leadership training. These newest Flemming Fellows represent Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana and Oregon.

At the retreat, the Fellows discussed pitfalls of term limits they believe are becoming more evident:

• Term limits cause a higher rate of turnover among legislative leadership-and, in effect, cause legislatures to lose the experienced institutional memory of seasoned legislators.
• Since term-limited legislators feel they have less time to shepherd ideas over the course of several terms, they are less inclined to get involved in complex issues that require long-term advocacy strategies.