If you’ve ever thought that Florida’s legislature looked more like a fraternity than a collection of serious statesmen, there’s a reason for that … and not just the immaturity of the ideas we see hatched.
No, legislative leaders increasingly resemble college students’ ages as well.
In the House anyway. In fact, UCF business professor Mark Soskin recently crunched the numbers and learned that, even though Florida’s current House Speaker Will Weatherford is a super-youthful 33-years-old, he’s actually older than a bunch of committee and subcommittee chairs.
“In fact, the four youngest returnees — ages 29, 30, 31, and 31 — each are a subcommittee or committee chair, including the new chair of the Economic Development and Tourism Subcommittee, 29-year-old Carlos Trujillo,” Soskin said. “Furthermore, the median age among appropriations (“follow the money”) subcommittee chairs is only 37.”
Soskin also determined that, while the average age of Republicans in the house is 47, the majority of standing and select committee chairs are younger.
We’re talking 7 chairs under the age of 47 vs. only 2 over. (One, Richard Corcoran, actually is 47.)
Oh, and only one, Marlene O’Toole, is a woman.
Could this age gap be coincidence? Hardly, said Soskin. The statistician crunched the numbers, and determined the odds of so many young people coincidentally getting so many leadership positions was approximately 1 in 3,000.
“I’m not ascribing the reason to all this,” Soskin said. “I’m just saying it’s not random. It can’t be.”
Still, Soskin has heard some others ascribe reason – saying that one common theory is that younger legislators are easier to control. So lobbyists handpick the guys they want to run the show, shower them with cash and then help them climb the leadership ladder.
In addition to all the youthful leaders of current committees, check out some recent speakers.
Not only is Weatherford 33, but Marco Rubio was speaker when he was 35. By those standards, Dean Cannonlooked like a wisened veteran when serving as Speaker at the age of 42 … though he was elected at age 36.
In fairness, leaders in the Senate are often older … which may help explain why that body often puts the brakes on the House’s more harebrained ideas.
If you want to take a look at Soskin’s raw data about House members, ages and positions, it’s here in excel format: Florida House Ages
