Pos 220 Take Home Essay 1

In Arizona, the state legislature is a citizen legislature. What that means is instead of having career politicians running the legislature, Arizona’s legislature is run by the citizens. A legislator in Arizona must be at least 25 years of age, an Arizona resident for three years, a county resident (of the county they wish to represent) for one year, a registered voter, and English proficient. These qualifications are weak when you consider the qualifications for President but, Arizona sought to be-rid career politician for fear that they would become corrupt. Arizona’s citizens also wanted someone they could relate to so most legislators are small business owners or work in real estate, banking, or insurance. The term limits for legislators contradict the want to be-rid career politicians. A legislator only has to sit out of the election for a two year term then they can run for office again. Because of this contradiction I feel they should not have a raise. Not only were the legislators intended to be part-time, they were intended to be regular citizens. A raise would make it easier to have full-time, career politicians. Although $24,000 is a mere amount for a full time job, being an Arizona state legislator is not a full time job. However, one could argue that the time spent in meetings as a legislator when the rules were made is in fact different and more time consuming now. When Arizona first became a state the legislature was only in session for roughly 100 days. In 2010, the legislature was in session for 217 days. That means the legislators only had 148 days for the other job they were committed to. Even though they seem to not have time for the other job, they should have taken into consideration that the governor can call special meetings that the legislator has to be present for. These meetings could last a couple days to a couple months. That hardly seems like a schedule most people would be willing to keep up with. But, I feel that the original