House version of legislative term limits bill filed

A Senate bill that could cap House and Senate tenures at eight years in each now has a House companion.

HB 637, filed Friday by Rep. Michael Owen, would create a constitutional amendment allowing voters to limit House members to four two-year terms and Senate members to two four-year terms.

It caps total legislative service at 16 years except in the case of a state Senator whose term was “shortened by appointment.” In that case, they can exceed the term limit cap for one additional term.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s SJR 536 is a similar bill to Owen’s product.

The legislative desire to clarify this question comes as the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Debbie Mayfield was constitutionally eligible to run in the Special Election for Senate District 19.

Mayfield served in the Senate from 2016 to 2024, and could not seek another term in November due to term limits. She instead ran for and won a seat in the House last cycle representing House District 32.

But when Sen. Randy Fine, her successor in the Senate, resigned to run for Congress, Mayfield announced she would seek her old Senate seat in a Special Election. She had already submitted an irrevocable resignation from the House when the state disqualified her.

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the Division of Elections had disqualified Mayfield from the ballot, citing term limits barring her from seeking the office again. Byrd and his office argued in favor of disqualifying her from the ballot, repeating their claim that running would violate the term limits provisions in the Florida Constitution since she’d served “eight consecutive years” through last November.

But the high court was not convinced, unanimously ruling that Mayfield’s filing “has met the statutory requirements” and that she “has a clear legal right to appear on the primary ballot,” since there was time between the end of her previous time in the Senate and when her next stint could begin later this year.

Now that she’s back on the ballot, Mayfield will face in the Special Election Primary former Melbourne City Council member Tim Thomas; Marcie Adkins, who challenged Fine for his House seat in 2020; and Mark Lightner III, a University of North Florida business graduate and Brevard County native.

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Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.