'A limitation on terms is a reasonable discussion and one that ought to get aired quite vigorously among the membership, because what happens without some kind of limitation at the top is you don't get turnover within the committee leadership as rigorously as you could.'

- Rep. Dan Blue of Raleigh, a former speaker for two terms

'We ought to put the two-term limit into law. Some of [the candidates] are talking about putting it in the rules; I told them the rules could change too easily.'

- Rep. Jim Crawford of Oxford

'I'm sort of ambivalent about it.'

- Rep. Mickey Michaux of Durham

'I have no objection with term limits, but it has to be done in conjunction with Senate term limits ... so that we don't have an imbalance of power between the two houses."

- House Majority Leader Joe Hackney of Orange County

'Because of [Black's] grip on the speakership, he discouraged other people from getting involved with fundraising, discouraged other people from getting involved in strongly advancing other legislative ideas. When you've got a speaker that's coming back term after term after term, it's not that committee chairmanships are controlled by one member for one term, but for multiple terms."

- Rep. Bill Faison of Orange County

'It's needed, because as you've been in there too long, you do tend to take shortcuts, and the power grows, and there's more and more people beholden to you."

- Rep. Hugh Holliman of Lexington

'I would be pretty much in favor of maybe limiting it to two terms for speaker, and at this point I would even back some legislation for that if it became necessary. Because when you start having a speaker serving in one of the bodies longer than the president of the United States, that just seems like a long time."

- Rep. Drew Saunders of Mecklenburg County