The clock strikes 12 in Colorado.

• Author: Dire, Angela
• Position: Law limiting office tenure of legislators - Includes related article on term limits

The term-limits law has just about wiped out the top legislative leadership in the Centennial State.

At 31, Representative Todd Saliman of Boulder looks as if he belongs in a high school honors course rather than on the Joint Budget Committee of the Colorado General Assembly. But the legislature's most powerful committee is exactly where he belongs - put there last May by House Democrats to replace one of the many veteran lawmakers leaving office because of term limits.

To prepare for the job, Saliman has observed nearly every budget committee meeting for the past year and a half and has studied under the tutelage of his predecessor, Representative Gil Romero - an eight-year committee veteran.

"I think I'll be able to hit the ground running," says Saliman. Then with a laugh, he adds, "The more you learn, the more you know that you don't know anything."

But ready or not, pupil must become master. Under Colorado term limits, the clock never stops ticking, and it still amazes Saliman how late the hour is. "I know that when I was a new member, I relied heavily on the senior members for advice and perspective," he says. "Now, the new members are going to be relying on me. And I've only been here four years."

More than one-fourth of the entire General Assembly - 27 members - are leaving. But that's nothing new. Fact is, Colorado voters have never really had to "throw the bums out." Most move on themselves - either to higher office or back to private life. A part-time job that pays less than most school teachers make, legislating simply doesn't pay the bills. Every couple of years, anywhere between 20 and 40 seats open up in the two chambers.

So what is remarkable about the first great exodus under term limits is the roster itself - not how many are on it. It's a veritable Who's Who of the Legislature: the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate, majority leaders in both chambers as well as the House minority leader, four of the six budget committee members and more than half the 26 committee chairmen and chairwomen. They have been around as little as eight years and as long as 28. They're the keepers of the "institutional memory" that opponents of term limits worry will be lost in the shuffle - to higher office, back to private life or to the back chambers to join the lobbying corps. Obviously, they have had a hand in every major policy issue - from school finance to workers' compensation reform - either as sponsor or broker. No other departing group of lawmakers will ever again take with them as large a store of experience and credentials Together, their years of experience total 346.

Under the law, no group will have the time to gain that experience. The constitutional amendment - passed by 71 percent of voters in the 1990 election, limits the terms of legislators and members of the executive branch to no more than eight consecutive years.

It's impossible to say what the lasting effects will be. It's not as if the Colorado law is so severe that it sends legislators away forever after a few years in office - as do laws in seven of the 20 states with term limits. Elected officials may run again after sitting out one term - which is not an unlikely scenario if their successors are in the opposite party or in the opposite wing of the same party. The law also permits lawmakers who've reached their limit in one house to run for the other. They can go back and forth as many times as they want.

This year, seven House members are running for the Senate. And one senator who began his career in the House 12 years ago will try to go back there. So there is likely to be more than a few new senators who remember life B.T.L. - before term limits - and who will be around to tell about it well into the next century.

If such migration becomes a trend, it could perpetuate exactly what proponents of term limits wanted to prevent: powerful career politicians. And it could make for a stronger, more experienced Senate and more tension between the chambers.

"I think you will begin to see an imbalance as people leave the House and move into the Senate," says Majority Leader Jeff Wells who must leave the Senate this year, and is running for attorney general. "You're going to see individual senators of exceptionally strong will and influence. They'll have the institutional memory and the procedural knowledge - none of which their counterparts in the House will. You run the risk of these...