The role of Speaker of the House, whether in the U.S. Capitol or in your state Capitol conjures up the image of power and longevity.  Heck, once you get the job, why would you let go?

Serving as the leader of the people’s chamber, and second in line of presidential and governor succession, is the prime role that so many members aspire to.  While some former Speakers have racked up the terms served in public office, holding the title of Mr. Speaker is surprisingly a short-term gig for most.  While there have been a whopping 53 members that have served in Congress for over 40-years of their life – such as former Michigan Congressmen John Dingell (59 years) and John Conyers (nearly 53 years), in our nation’s history only two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have served as Speaker of the House for more than 10 years.  A fact that totally surprised me.

The office of Speaker of the House in D.C. was established in 1789 and since that time, 54 people have held the Speaker title.  A head scratching 22 of them served less than one year in the role… Wow, can it really be that stressful or did they leave for other reasons?

Considering only 6 of the 54 people have served over six years, it just might be that being a cat herder isn’t as fun as just being one of the herd.  The following are the top six longest serving U.S. Speakers:  Champ Clark (nearly seven years); Dennis Hastert (nearly eight years); John William McCormack (nearly nine years); Tip O’Neill (just shy of 10 years); Henry Clay (about 11 years); and Sam Rayburn (just over 17 years).

While Democrat Sam Rayburn was the longest serving, dating between 1940 to 1961 – he served for 17 non-consecutive years in the role over that 21-year period.  Republicans interrupted his Speaker tenure twice, but during those periods, he served as House Democratic Leader.  The longest continuous Speaker was the 10 consecutive years (1977-1987) that Rep. Tip O’Neill served.  Current Speaker Paul Ryan has served about 2 ½ years so far and has just announced his retirement from Congress at the end of 2018.

While the story at the national level is intriguing, in my next blog post I’ll provide a perspective on term-limit’s impact on leadership in Michigan and contrast it with the State of Illinois, home to the nation’s longest serving state House Speaker, Democrat Mike Madigan. Speaker Madigan is now in his 34^th year in the role and the longest serving legislative leader in U.S. history.  Talk about power.

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