Florida Senator Michael Bennett (R-Bradenton) and Florida Representative Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) have introduced proposed constitutional amendments to extend the terms of Florida State Senators from 4 years, to 6 years. The bills would also change the term of State Representatives from 2 years to 4 years. They are SJR 300 and HJR 113. Even if either of these bills passed, they would not go into effect unless the voters approved them. They would need a popular vote of 60% in order to pass.

State Senators in each of the 50 states currently all have either 4-year terms, or 2-year terms.

Truthout has this interesting article, using polling data and other social science research to delve into the ideological beliefs of Americans. Apparently, “conservative” means many different things.

The Washington Post has this story, featuring an Arizona law that says elected public officials are deemed to have resigned if “the person holding the office ceases to discharge the duties of office for the period of three consecutive months.” The writer of the article assumes this law could perhaps be used to force Congressmember Gabrielle Giffords from office in April 2011.

The Arizona law is in Title 38, “Public Officers and Employees”, and also says that elected officials are deemed to have resigned if they move out of their districts. The Arizona law, 38-291, clearly was meant by its authors to apply to Congress. However, it is likely that it is unconstitutional, as applied to members of Congress. In U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot have laws on who can qualify to run for, or sit, in Congress. Last year’s decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court, holding that state laws on recall cannot apply to members of Congress, was influenced by the U.S. Term Limits decision.