School of Professional and Continuing Studies

State Legislative Term Limits: Two Decades of Lessons

Schedule | Speakers | Registration | Hotel Options | Sponsors

The Center for Ethics in Public Life at the University of Missouri–St. Louis presents the 1st Annual Public Ethics Conference.

Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a lifetime limit of eight years in each of the State Senate and House of Representatives in 1992. Twenty years later this conference will explore the effects of term limits on the legislative process and state policy, and help develop strategies for legislative success in the new term-limited reality. The conference will bring together current and former Missouri legislators, state and local elected officials and administrators, lobbyists, advocates, political scientists, attorneys, legislative staff and the interested public to discuss term limits from a variety of perspectives and informed by experience and the best empirical scholarship on the subject.

Saturday’s program will include: a panel discussion with current and former legislators (including the just term limited Speaker of the House Steven Tilley); political scholars presenting their in-depth research into the effects of term limits on policy and the legislative process; discussions with some of the original architects of the term limits policy; and a discussion of next steps for the best legislative outcomes.

CLEs (Continuing Legal Education) units are being offered for this conference and those interested will be asked to sign-in for them when they arrive for check-in at the Conference.

Register Online or Contact Mary Gough (314) 516-5974. You can also visit the Center for Ethics in Public Life website.

Schedule

Friday, October 5, 2012

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Speakers

Senator Franc Flotron
Elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1982 he served as Assistant Minority Floor Leader in the House from 1986 to 1988. Elected to the Senate in 1988 representing the 7th District Senator Flotron became the youngest Republican Minority Floor Leader ever in 1992 and was re-elected to that position in 1994. Senator Flotron was a leader in areas dealing with the business environment, education, health care, economic development and campaign finance reform. Now a principal at Flotron & McIntosh Governmental Consultants Senator Flotron brings the perspective of both a legislator and a lobbyist to the issue of term limits. 

Paul Jacob (president of the Liberty Initiative Fund)
The Liberty Initiative Fund is a national organization helping citizens place issues on state and local ballots to protect individual liberty and hold government accountable. For more than a decade, Jacob served as executive director and then president of U.S. Term Limits, becoming the movement’s leading voice. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, the late columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly called Paul “the most hated man in Washington.”

Representative Chris Kelly
Elected to the House of Representatives from District 24 in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, and most recently in 2008 Representative Kelly is unique among currently sitting legislators in having served in the legislature prior to the implementation of term limits in 1992. His legislative focus included sponsoring legislation making drinking and driving illegal, creating the durable power of attorney for health care, establishing Missouri’s Abuse and Lose Law, advocating for Campaign Finance Reform, and sponsoring Missouri Federal Reimbursement Allowance Legislation, as well as leading the legislative effort to create the Katy Trail. Between his terms in the House Representative Kelly has also served as Chairman of the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission and as Boone County Associate Circuit Judge.

Dr. Thad Kousser (Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California San-Diego)
Dr. Kousser has authored, co-authored, or edited the books The Power of American Governors (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Politics in the American States, 10th Edition (CQ Press, 2012), The Logic of American Politics, 4th and 5th Editions (CQ Press, 2009 and 2011), The New Political Geography of California (Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2008), Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and Adapting to Term Limits: Recent Experiences and New Directions (Public Policy Institute of California, 2004)  His work has also been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Legislative Studies Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. He is a recipient of the UCSD Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award, the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award, served as co-editor of the journal State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and has worked as a staff assistant in the California, New Mexico, and United States Senates.

Linda Claire McDaniel (Co President, League of Women Voters of St. Louis)
Ms. McDaniel is retired from demographic research working at the University of Missouri – St. Louis and United Way of Greater St. Louis. She has volunteered with the League of Women Voters for more than 40 years. She has served 6 years on the Board of League of Women Voters of the United States, two years as First Vice President in charge of national lobbying efforts. She was in leadership position on a variety of efforts and organizations in Missouri working on campaign finance reform and was appointed to the Fair Elections Commission to conduct hearings across the state on campaign finance reform and served as chair.  She was appointed to the  Missouri Automated Voting Equipment Qualification Committee by the Secretary of State.

Dr. Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson (Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University)
Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson is the primary author of The Political and Institutional Effects of Term Limits (Palgrave, 2004). She is the principal investigator of a 13-year research project studying the effects of term limits on the Michigan legislature. This project has produced articles in publications such as State Politics and Policy Quarterly and Legislative Studies Quarterly, as well as numerous conference papers. She regularly speaks to government and civic groups and has been interviewed on radio and television on the subject. Her other work includes a chapter in Morality Politics in American Cities (Sharpe) and a benefit-cost analysis of the effect of childhood lead exposure.

Speaker Steven Tilley
Elected to the House in 2004 from the 106th District, Speaker Tilley was subsequently elected the Majority Floor Leader for the 94th Legislative Session and Speaker of the House for the 96th Legislative Session. He has been the recipient of numerous legislative awards from diverse organizations such as: the Legislative Award from St. Louis Business Journal, the Presidential Citation Award from the University of Missouri, the Excellence in Health Care Legislation from the Missouri Nurses Association, the Lewis and Clark Statesman Award from the St. Louis RCGA among many others. Speaker Tilley is an optometrist and an alumnus of the UMSL School of Optometry. A graduate of Perryville High School in Perryville, MO Speaker Tilley currently lives in Perryville with his daughters Kourtney and Korrin. 

Greg Upchurch (founder and director of research for LegalMetric)
A practicing intellectual property litigator for over 30 years, Greg Upchurch served as the chairman of Missourians for Limited Terms, the primary organization behind the passage of term limits in 1992. He is also past chair of the Legal Education Committee and the Editorial Board of the Missouri Bar as well as having been appointed by Governor Blunt to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education where he currently serves as vice-chair. Upchurch is an adjunct Professor at Washington University Law School and the author of a three-volume work on intellectual property litigation as well as the founder of LegalMetric, a source of legal tools and expertise for intellectual property litigators.

Dr. David Valentine (Research Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia)
Dr. Valentine is the retiring Associate Director for Public Service at the Truman School of Public Affairs. He has been a Research Associate Professor at the School since 2002, where he directs the Legislative Academy, supervises the applied research conducted by the Institute of Public Policy, provides training for non-profit organizations and government officials, and conducts applied research. He has had contracts with several state agencies, including the Secretary of State, the State Courts Administrator, and the Department of Public Safety. Dr. Valentine worked for almost 25 years in the Missouri Senate Division of Research, including 16 years as the Director. He also served on the Governor's Commission on Management and Productivity, a mid 90's public-private initiative to improve operations and management practices in state government.
 
Senator Robin Wright-Jones
Elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002 from the 5th District Senator Jones has served over the years as the chair of the Democratic Caucus, chair of the St. Louis Regional Caucus, chair of the St. Louis City Caucus, and chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus. Elected to the Senate in 2008 and currently running for re-election Senator Wright-Jones has been the recipient of a number of legislative awards from the Regional Chamber and Growth Association, the St. Louis Business Journal, the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and others. Outside of her legislative duties the Senator is a small business owner, having established Arjen LLC, a real estate brokerage company, in 2006.  

Registration and Admission

Friday evening’s presentation will be free and open to the public. Register Online or contact Alicia Bills (314) 516-6400. You can also visit the Center for Ethics in Public Life website.

Hotel Options

Presented in cooperation with the University of Missouri-St. Louis Public Policy Administration Program and the Department of Political Science

Sponsors

tlc-sponsors