Term Limits. Another 22 Term Out

In December, twenty-two Assemblymembers will be reaching their “term-out tipping point”. The group includes 17 Democrats and 5 Republicans. This group will bring the total number of California legislators affected by term limits to; 195 termed out of the Assembly and 28 termed out of both houses.

Although the standard definition of “terming out” refers to the date that a legislator leaves office, it might be more accurate to use it to describe the “tipping point” during their final term on which they become ineligible to run again. According to the state constitution, this date is the first day of the second half of their final term in office. Assembly terms (two years long) reach their midpoint in an oddnumbered year while Senate terms (four years) tip during even-numbered years.

California Term Limits Statistics (as of 12/5/2011)

Legislators with Term Limits Era Service: 432
Termed out of Assembly: 195
Termed out of Senate: 84
Termed out of both houses: 28

The legislators terming out of the Assembly on December 5th are; Jim Beall, Julia Brownley, Charles M. Calderon, Wilmer Amina Carter, Gilbert Cedillo, Paul Cook, Mike Davis, Mike Eng, Mike Feuer, Felipe Fuentes*, Cathleen Galgiani, Martin Garrick, Mary Hayashi, Jared Huffman, Kevin Jeffries, Fiona Ma, Tony Mendoza, Anthony Portantino, Jim Silva, Cameron Smyth, Jose Solorio, and Sandré Swanson.

* NOTE: Fuentes was elected in a Special Election in May 2007. All others on this list were elected in November 2006 and sworn into office in December 2006.