Here is a summary of the responses I received on my earlier questions.
Many gracious thanks to those who offered advice.
Here is the report for the 110th Congress.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RS22555_20080520.pdf
About halfway down the first page are numbers for the 109th congress.
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS22007.pdf
[Bonnie's note: the footnotes in these reports led me to Average Years
of Service for Members of the Senate and House of Representatives,
First-110th Congresses (CRS RL32648), but I have not been able to find
it online.]
You might try calling Congressional Quarterly or Roll Call; also I think
the House and Senate each have their own libraries.
Call Garrison Nelson at the University of Vermont - he collects this
type of data
I don't have a good source for you, but I would caution you to examine
closely any samples taken from less than the full Congress. For example,
in some states, such as California, the state legislature has drawn up
the districts so that very few are really in contest. Most incumbents
routinely win. In other states, particularly small ones which have a
split in party preference, incumbents will face a harder go, and there
will be more turnovers just because their elections are always closer.
So, samples from just a few states may be skewed.
________________________________
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
Behalf Of Bonnie W. Jordan
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 9:18 AM
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: [LAW-LIB:57130] average number of terms served by members of
Congress
Good morning Law-Libbers,
I have an Election Eve question.
I am looking for the average number of terms served by members of the
U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ideally, the attorney wants to have average figures from 1960 to the
present. If that is not possible to find, then the averages for the
recent past or present day will suffice. (Ultimately, my atty is
looking for data to support the argument for term limits.)
I did a few Google searches this morning but admit I have not been
exhaustive. Before I exhaust myself on this research, I thought I would
check in with this list.
Many thanks,
Bonnie
Lindquist & Vennum PLLP
4200 IDS Center, 80 South Eighth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Office: 612-371-5762
www.lindquist.com<http://www.digitechbranding.com/lindquist/usercard.php
?filename=lindquist-bjordan-lindquist-com-1190122445.png>
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