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One and done in the House?

Garrett Richter’s announcement that he’s running for Florida Senate after just one term in the House of Representatives goes against the conventional wisdom that a legislator should cut his teeth in the lower chamber before seeking the higher office.

Burt Saunders, the outgoing senator who Richter seeks to replace, did four years in the House before being elected to the Senate in 1998. Term limits are forcing him out in 2008. Dudley Goodlette, who Richter replaced in the House and who many believed would seek Saunders’ seat, served eight years before term limits ended his run.

Of 39 state senators currently serving, 34 have served in the state House. All but four of them served more than one term in the House before running for Senate.

Seniority is king in Tallahassee. Key committee assignments and influence are gained by sticking around. In his final years, Goodlette had plenty of it. During House sessions he could be seen constantly working the floor. On the big issues like election reform, education and homeland security, he was at the forefront. House speakers counted him among their most reliable and capable lieutenants.

Mike Davis, who represents Golden Gate, is well on his way to achieving that sort of status. Last year, Davis was selected to lead House efforts to address the state’s affordable housing crunch. He currently chairs the House Committee on Infrastructure.

By leaving the House after just one term, Richter will never achieve that sort of clout on behalf of coastal Collier County. Not that he earned rave reviews in his freshman performance. Of six bills he sponsored, four died in committee. None won ultimate approval of both houses, according to the Legislature’s Web site.

In fairness to Richter, few freshmen enjoy resounding success at getting favored projects passed.

But whoever takes his place will have to start out at the bottom of the seniority ladder. Freshmen legislators don’t set agendas, they follow them. They don’t call the tune, they dance to it.

There’s no guarantee that Richter would have been elected to a second term in the House, but as an incumbent who enjoyed generous funding and no serious opposition when he ran in 2006, you had to like his chances.

All that is guaranteed now that he has announced his intention to leave the House and run for a Senate seat, is that Naples will be represented by two freshmen after 2008, one in the Florida House and one in the Florida Senate. Good luck getting local priorities heard then.

Whereas Richter might have anticipated little opposition in seeking re-election to the House, a run for Saunders’ seat, which encompasses a good chunk of Lee County, can be expected to attract a field of viable candidates.

That puts a legislator in the uncomfortable position of having to aggressively raise money while holding office. Florida law prohibits fundraising during the legislative session, but the session only lasts a couple of months. The law stops the unseemly practice of checks changing hands in the halls of the Capitol, but it doesn’t stop the perception of influence peddling via campaign contributions.

Richter would have better served his constituents by gaining seniority and perfecting the legislative craft in the House. After all, conventional wisdom is wisdom just the same.

E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com