# Longest time between two non-consecutive terms **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874 "2017-01-22T21:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/1 "2017-01-22T21:31:32Z")
There is a councilor in my city who has been elected to two terms. The first from 1982-1985, and the second from 2014-2017. What is the longest period ever between two non-consecutive terms for the same elected official holding the same office? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/2 "2017-01-22T21:41:55Z")
Jerry Brown Governor California 1975-1983 Reelected 2011- present day He held other state offices during that gap. He was Mayor of Oakland 1999-2007. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/3 "2017-01-22T22:58:27Z")
Did the Kingdom of Bulgaria make any distinction between the offices of head of state and head of government? If not, and if you’re willing to consider the nature of the office rather than its exact name, then Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha might be the record-holder here. He was king from 1943 to 1946, and then much later, after the monarchy was abolished, elected prime minister from 2001 to 2005. That’s a gap of about 55 years. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/4 "2017-01-22T23:05:30Z")
Was he elected as King? Hereditary positions don’t really count IMO. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/5 "2017-01-23T00:09:12Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Was he elected as King? Hereditary positions don’t really count IMO. No, but the wording in your OP was ambiguous enough that it didn’t really account for this situation. You ask only about an “elected official”, and since Simeon was indeed elected the second time around, I figured that maybe that was sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/6 "2017-01-23T00:19:34Z")
Jeanette Rankin was a member of the House of Representatives from 1916-1918. She was elected again in 1940. She has the distinction of voting against declarations of war for both WWI and WWII. John Quincy Adams served in the House from 1803-1809 and again from 1831-1849. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/7 "2017-01-23T01:10:20Z")
[Cecil Underwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_H._Underwood) became West Virginia’s youngest governor in 1957, and then West Virginia’s oldest governor in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/8 "2017-01-23T03:02:40Z")
In Britain, there’s the odd case of the same person being [First Lord of the Admiralty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_First_Lords_of_the_Admiralty) at the start of WW1 and at the start of WW2. With terms in office of 1911-1915 and 1939-1940, Winston Churchill spent 24 years between his two terms. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/9 "2017-01-23T03:51:37Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > In Britain, there’s the odd case of the same person being [First Lord of the Admiralty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_First_Lords_of_the_Admiralty) at the start of WW1 and at the start of WW2. With terms in office of 1911-1915 and 1939-1940, Winston Churchill spent 24 years between his two terms. First Lord is an appointed position, not an elected one. Churchill’s elected position was a a member of the House of Commons, and there was only a two year gap (1922-24) between his two periods in the House Admittedly, the OP does ask about “two non-consecutive terms for the same elected official holding the same office”, without specifying an elected office. So I guess this does count. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/10 "2017-01-24T04:07:41Z")
Congressman [Rick Nolan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Nolan), a Minnesota Democrat, served three terms in the US Congress from 1975-1981. He served two terms from 2013-2017 and is now beginning his third term. That’s 32 years between stints in the same elected job. I believe this is a record for the US Congress. On re-election, he was called “[Rick Van Winkle](http://www.msnbc.com/jansing-co/congressman-rip-van-winkle)” because he’d been asleep for 32 years and, when he woke up, everything was different, and not in a good way. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-between-two-non-consecutive-terms/777874/11 "2017-01-25T01:47:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Jeanette Rankin was a member of the House of Representatives from 1916-1918. She was elected again in 1940. She has the distinction of voting against declarations of war for both WWI and WWII. She has the distinction of being the _only_ congress person to vote against _both_ declarations of war. Cost Rankin her seat in both following elections.