FAQ
TERM LIMITS FOR LEGISLATORS
Prepared
by House Research
Missouri House of Representatives
Since
the admission of Missouri to the Union in 1821, members
of the state House of Representatives have served two-year
terms and members of the state Senate have served four-year
terms, with half of the Senate being elected every two years.
Until 1992 there was no limit on the number of terms that
a person could be elected to the House or Senate.
In
November of 1992, an amendment to the Missouri Constitution
was approved to limit total service in the House to eight
years and total service in the Senate to eight years, with
total legislative service limited to sixteen years. Service
prior to the effective date of the amendment is not counted
in calculation of the limit. (Article III, Section 8, Missouri
Constitution)
The
amendment applied to all persons elected to the legislature
after November 3, 1992. For most state legislators, this
meant that service begun as the result of election in November
of 1994 counted against their limit. There were, however,
a few senators and representatives elected in special elections
between November 1992 and November 1994. Until the adoption
of an amendment to Section 8 in November 2002, there was
no provision for partial terms; so, because they could not
serve their full terms if elected in 2000, there were eight
House members who could not run again for the House in 2000,
even though they had served less than eight years. And a
state senator who had been elected to fill out one year
of a term could not run for the Senate in 1998, even though
he had served only five years in the Senate.
The
initial effect of the term limits amendment occurred in
the 2002 election, when 73 House members and 12 Senate members
were not eligible to run for re-election.
As
of April 18, 2005, assuming continuous re-election, the
number of members of the House who will not be eligible
to run for re-election in a particular year are:
For
the 2006 election, 11 members will not be eligible to run
again for the House;
For
the 2008 election, 30 members will not be eligible to run
again for the House;
For
the 2010 election, 83 members will not be eligible to run
again for the House; and
For
the 2012 election, 38 members will not be eligible to run
again for the House.
These
numbers will go down as members retire, resign, are defeated,
and otherwise leave the House.
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