Senator Steve Glazer Announces He Will Not Run For Reelection In 2024 over Term Limits Issue

State Senator Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) announced on his podcast over the weekend that he will not be running for Senate reelection next year as coming into the race is too close for comfort for the Senator with the current term limit law.

A graduate of San Diego State University, Glazer began is career in the early 1980s as a political consultant and press secretary. This included stints as Press Secretary for then-Assemblyman Gray Davis from 1983 to 1985, Spokesman for California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird from 1985 to 1986, Press Secretary for then state Senator David Roberti from 1987 to 1993, and campaign advisor for Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo during the 1994 Secretary of State race.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Glazer largely switched over to running ballot campaigns, including the 1992 Los Angeles City Charter Amendment F police accountability measure, and the 2002 Proposition 46 measure that set funding for shelters for vulnerable people. In 2004, Glazer went into elected office, serving as a City Councilman of Orinda from 2004 to 2015 and Mayor in three separate one-year stints. After running Governor Jerry Brown’s successful 2010 re-election campaign, Glazer also began looking toward a higher state office.

After a failed Assembly election in 2014, Glazer ran for the Senate in a 2015 special election sparked by then-Senator Mark DeSaulnier’s election to Congress the previous year. Glazer beat out Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla in the election, and followed it up the next year by winning his first full-term in the Senate.

As a Senator, Glazer has had a surprisingly mixed voting record. While he has been behind bills restricting firearms and other usual liberal-leaning issues, he has also voted against single-payer healthcare and was the deciding vote in allowing state prisons to continue to require felons to work. There have also been a share of controversy during his tenure, such as a 2019 State Park and Beach smoking ban bill that was shrouded in backdoor deals and dangerous flaws that he was a main supporter of.

However, more recently, the issue of another term has been brought to the forefront. California state law has a strict Assembly and Senate term limit of no more than 12 years.

According to the California Senate, “The Senate has a membership of 40 Senators elected for 4-year terms, 20 to begin every 2 years. During his or her lifetime a person may serve no more than 12 years in the Senate, Assembly, or both, in any combination of terms.”

As Glazer was elected in 2015, he would be running with nine years in office in 2024 and ending the third term with 13 years in office. This has been called a “gray area” of the law, as it could be interpreted for the term limit law to start after their first statewide election, rather than a special election. Other laws, such as the 22nd Amendment, specifically give a buffer of a few years to allow for the more unusual elections. But with California not being clear on the matter, Senator Glazer announced that he would not be running for a third term in the Senate 9th District.

An issue of term limits

“The news for me, I’ve been in the Senate for a little over 8-years now and I love the job. I have this choice of whether or not I should run again, and I am making the decision I am not going to do that,” said Glazer. “I was elected in a special election to replace then Senator Mark DeSaulnier in 2015 and due to term limit laws its in a “gray area” due to whether or not I would term out mid-term if I ran again and won.”

“The issue has never been adjudicated so I would be the test case. I have decided I do not want to create that dynamic so I am not going to run for re-election.”

Glazer then went on to say that Assemblyman Tim Grayson (D-Concord) would be a good candidate to succeed him and that he himself is currently looking at serving a single 2-year term in the Assembly or moving to a state Treasury office after his current Senate term ends next year.

Experts told the Globe on Monday that the issue around term limits will need to be solved in the future and that Glazer is just delaying the inevitable with his decision.

“This law will need to be challenged at some point so we have a clear understanding what the limits are,” said legal analyst Brooke Meyer to the Globe. “But you can understand his reluctance too. It can lead to a situation where he needs to bow out early, the election is held into question, or all sorts of other issues. But, it is now being dragged out further because of him too.”

More 9th District Senate candidates besides Grayson are expected to announce their candidacy soon.