Rotation: one chance for the brass ring.

• Author: Moss, Bill
• Position: Tenure of Florida legislators

Power hasn't eluded leaders in Florida where tradition limits them to one two-year term. Speakers and Senate presidents are picked several years in advance, groomed for leadership and sent home after the last sine die.

It sounds a little like an episode of the "Twilight Zone." The devil in a charcoal suit offers the ambitious politician a choice: You can have power or you can have time. Sorry, you can't have both.

By custom and 150 years of tradition, Florida legislators have allowed their leaders to serve only one two-year term. In this century there has been only one departure from the one-term limit in the House, when Don Tucker succeeded himself and served two terms as speaker. No Senate president has served more than one term this century.

Former House Speaker Jon Mills says there is a good reason Florida speakers serve just one two-year term.

It's the power. The speaker hires and fires legislative staff members, appoints chairmen and assigns legislators to committees, offices, seats in the chamber, even parking spaces in the garage. He or she also has life or death say over each member's bills; the leader approves their travel and their excused absences.

"If someone was doing this for 12 years, they'd be more powerful than the governor," says Mills, who served as speaker in 1986-88 and now heads a political science institute at the University of Florida.

"There is a definite tradeoff," says House Rules Chairman Peter Wallace, who is scheduled to become speaker in November. "I think if we had a speaker who could succeed himself or herself we would have a greater concentration of power, but also greater continuity. What we get with a rotating speakership is an opportunity for members to rise up through the process and assume leadership positions faster. It leads to a natural refreshing of leadership ranks."

Florida's tradition of rotating leaders has weathered dramatic changes in the state's demographic makeup, party registration and political boundary lines. The speaker and president have remained powerful, and they have willingly relinquished the gavel when their time is up.

The Florida House has had a steady line of speakers who won their post years in advance with few interruptions because of a coup or an election loss.

The Florida Senate has been marked in recent years by a more unpredictable path of succession. The party balance is so close in the Senate that it becomes impossible to say with certainty on Election Day which senator will be sworn in to lead the chamber. In 1986, a bipartisan coalition emerged on election night to defeat the designated president. In 1990, Democrats held a 23-17 edge, later reduced to 22-18 with a party switch. In 1992, Democrats and Republicans had to craft a way to share the two-year term when the chamber emerged deadlocked 20-20.

Churning Leaders and Fresh Ideas

Recent history demonstrates the stability in Florida's way of picking speakers several years in advance, grooming them for leadership and sending them home after the last sine die.

"I think it works great. It keeps the members fresh," says House Appropriations Chairman John Long, who was in line to become speaker in 1996.

But Long's decision in mid-May to retire this year rather than serve his leadership term highlighted the increasing volatility of Florida's legislative politics.

Minutes after they got over their shock at Long's announcement, four veteran Democrats were jockeying to replace him. The race included House Health Care Committee Chairman Ben Graber, Majority Leader Anne Mackenzie and two Appropriations Subcommittee chairmen, Buzz Ritchie and Willie Logan.

Logan, who is from Dade County, hoped to win the commitments and become the first black speaker since Reconstruction; Mackenzie would be the first woman speaker. Ritchie claimed the support of the conservative Democratic caucus.

The speaker's race gave the first glimpse of life after term limits. Logan and Mackenzie were elected in 1982, but Graber and Ritchie, elected in 1988, decided the outcome a week after Long announced his retirement.

Graber released his pledges to Ritchie, who had locked up a majority of the Democratic caucus by Tuesday. Ritchie will take over as speaker in 1996, provided he wins re-election twice more and Democrats hold a majority. He will have achieved that during his fifth term, compared with current speaker Johnson in his eighth term and Wallace in his seventh term.

And the large freshman class of 25 Democrats had its say. They weren't willing to be steam rolled into a quick decision.

"With a change every two years, members have to continue to prove themselves," Long said. "They can't just, based on old friendships, not do anything" and expect to win key posts. "Even though you're in the turmoil of electing new leaders, it seems to work out. In the eight or nine years I've been here, there's never really been a bitter divisive race that had people angry with each other, that brought the House to a halt."

Long acknowledges that as speaker-in-waiting he thought twice before acting or voting, factoring in the interests of his supporters from around the state. But he didn't cite that as a factor in his retirement; he wanted to spend more time with his family and run for school superintendent in his home county.

Indeed, in a large and diverse state like Florida, legislative leaders have to take a broad view. Running for the leadership post, keeping allies happy for four years while...