Just Passing Through? Explaining the Career Lengths of State Legislators

This paper explores the attitudes of state legislators toward holding office and working in the legislature. Creating and distributing an original survey to current and former officeholders, I evaluate how they view the job of legislating, evaluate their chambers, assess their levels of success, and decide to run again or retire. These responses reveal members who are motivated by the ability to influence public policy and give back to their communities. Variation is found in responses to the goals of public service, how the chamber is evaluated, and members ’ ability to advance their agenda based on the seniority of the respondent and their status as a former or current legislator. Modeling the length of time house members serve in office reveals higher levels of satisfaction with the chamber, the resources provided, and the ability to make a difference in terms of public policy positively associated with longer stays in office. These results show state legislators are not monolithic, but motivated by different goals illustrated in their patterns of officeholding. Legislators decide to run and serve in state government for a variety of reasons includin