The role of incumbency

The huge incumbency advantage has led some political commentators, like Lawrence Lessig, to compare Congress to the communist Politburo in terms of length of tenure. Similarly, congressmen are criticised for being so fixated on re-election that they have become overly concerned with developing relations with key donors and pork barrel politics. This has led to calls, from groups such as the Heritage Foundation, for congressional term limits, similar to the presidency . However, recent attempts by House Republicans to secure a constitutional amendment which would introduce congressional term limits, led by Arizona representative Matt Salmon, has so far gained very little support in Congress. 2016 incumbency was 95% in the House 90% in the Senate.