...or rather, one of many such problems, is this: representatives stay there far longer than they are useful or connected to the needs of their own districts. Consider the numbers. The average length of employment in the United States, per a 1998 study, is 6.6 years. Of the 106 Democratic members of the New York State Assembly, 51 were elected in this decade. 31 came to their seats in the nineties; 16 in the eighties; and eight members have been in office since the seventies, including, of course, Speaker Silver himself. The 106 Democratic members of the Assembly have, cumulatively, spent 1,335 years in Albany. That is, on average, twelve years and seven months, or roughly twice as long as the average U.S. employee remains in a given job. That average is skewed by new arrivals in the present decade of the Oughts. Of the 106 members of the Assembly's Democratic majority, as noted, 51 were elected in this decade. For the larger remainder, the average term in office is slightly below two decades, at nineteen years and four months, more than three times the United States average duration of employment. In short, the majority of the majority has been in office, on average, since Ronald Reagan left office. One, Joe Lentol of Brooklyn, has served in Albany since 1972 - the year Richard Nixon was re-elected. Incidentally, before Lentol was elected, his father held that seat; and before him, his father's father. If we want to fix the broken system in Albany - and it is broken - a good place to start might be to, like, make the actual terms in office of our legislators a little shorter. There are several ways to come by such a desirable result. One is, obviously, the primary process. That process is as broken as the rest of the Albany system - New York legislators lose their jobs due to death or indictment more frequently than for any reason having to do with the electoral process. The other is legislative remedies - term limits. God help the Albany legislature if the question of term limits is ever put to the voters of this state.