The Interest Group Connection: Money, Access, and Support (original) (raw)

Both proponents and opponents of term limits foresaw this reform altering the relationship between legislators and organized interests, but in very different ways. For proponents, term limits promised to reduce the influence of interest groups by undermining both the opportunities and incentives for the development of mutually supportive and self-serving relationships between legislators and lobbyists. For opponents, term limits were a recipe for enhancing group influence. By forcing out experienced legislators and foreclosing the opportunities for their successors to develop comparable expertise over time, term limits would make legislators more dependent upon lobbyists while simultaneously leaving them less able to assess the credibility of information or its sources.