Deciding How to Vote: Sources Legislators Rely On

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Legislators cannot be experts on everything, so they rely on each other or on sources outside the chamber for information and guidance about legislation (Porter, 1974; Kingdon, 1989). Knowing when to do this and who to rely on is a crucial part of a legislator’s job. With term limits, there are so many new colleagues that it may be more difficult to know which of them to turn for advice or to ask questions. With less time and fewer opportunities to establish one’s reputation for candor and honesty, colleagues, especially those seeking different viewpoints, may not know whom to trust. Hence, we speculated that term limits would affect the sources of information that representatives rely on to learn about issues. Specifically we expected that after term limits, newly elected representatives would consult fewer colleagues within the legislative chamber. We further speculated that term limits would affect the level of consulting and the range of sources consulted outside the chamber. Here we assumed that newly elected representatives would turn to familiar local sources whose opinions they trusted, but those sources might also be less likely to represent the broad range of interests affected by a bill. Newly elected representatives may have a difficult time learning when and how to rely on information from lobbyists and representatives of organized groups.