The urge to serve: you can take the legislator out of the state, but as five unusual cases show, you can't take the desire to serve out of the legislator.

For a woman who had "no interest in politics whatsoever, "Representative Peggy Wilson of Alaska finds herself in the somewhat extraordinary position of having served in not one, but two state legislatures.

It's not uncommon for the average U.S. citizen to move from state to state in an increasingly mobile society. What is unusual, however, is for state legislators who tend to be deeply rooted in their communities to move out of state. Even more rare is when that legislator ends tip serving in his or her newly adopted state's legislature. A recent NCSL survey found that in addition to Wilson, four other representatives have served in two state legislatures each.

Wilson's story began on a farm in Iowa, where she was born. A nurse by training, she followed her husband first to Missouri, then to North Carolina, where he continued his career in special education. Larry "'Woody" Wilson had been a successful grant writer back in Missouri, but the couple was puzzled when his grant requests were consistently turned down in North Carolina. When Larry investigated, he was told that as a Republican, he was in the wrong party.

"Well that infuriated him," says Wilson. "So he said, 'I'm running for office.'"

Larry did run, but lost. He told Peggy that as a woman, she might have a better chance to win. Eventually, she acquiesced, winning a seat in the North Carolina House in 1989.

But she was far from convinced that a political career was for her.

"The night I was elected I cried all the way to the victory dinner," she says. "People thought I was crying because I was happy, but I was scared to death."

Wilson got through the learning curve, and enjoyed serving on the education, agriculture, and families, children and youth committees, areas in which she had plenty of life experience. Even though she was in the minority party, she had a lot of input in education reform.

"I realized that I was not smartest person tip there, but I was smarter than half of them,'" she says. "I think I made a difference."

In 1993, Wilson resigned in the middle of her third term to move to Alaska. Her husband had always wanted to live there, and finally Wilson agreed. She returned to her nursing career. Eventually, she and her husband became angry over the lack of fairness in education funding. Wilson says the big towns were getting an unfair proportion of the money, while smaller districts, like theirs, were left lacking. When the representative who had held her district's seat for 20 years retired, Wilson jumped into the race. She was elected in 2000, and just completed her seventh session in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Two other representatives serving two states started their legislative careers in North Carolina as well.

As a young man, South Carolina Representative Richard E. Chalk Jr. was living in High Point. N.C., where he'd taken a job as minister of music in a local church. Like Wilson, he had no initial interest in running for office, although he eventually began attending local Republican Party meetings. A fellow Republican persuaded him to run for an open House seat in 1984. Chalk won, served two terms and beat the incumbent for a Senate seat in 1988. At the next election in 1990, the previous incumbent ran against Chalk and won his seat back.

In 1999, Chalk moved back to his native South Carolina after his wife took a teaching job in Hilton Head. He became involved with the local Republicans, and when a seat opened up in 2004, he ran and won. He is now serving his second term in the South Carolina House.

The other North Carolina export is Representative David Balmer of Colorado. The only native Tar Heel in the group, he became interested in politics and the military as a teenager. A member of the Army Reserve, he served three two-year terms in the North Carolina House beginning in 1989. He was minority leader during his last term.

In 1994 Balmer was hired by Cherokee, a North Carolina-based brownfield redevelopment company. He enjoyed the private sector.

"I was extremely satisfied with the challenges in the business world. You really have a much greater ability to go create something," he says. "In the political world, whether or not you're able to pass a bill depends on so many factors outside your control. I'm not saying that's wrong, it's just sometimes less satisfying."

Balmer was transferred to Cherokee's Denver office in 1996. Although he was involved in school and nonprofit work, and even served as a district captain for the Republican Party, he didn't give much thought to elective office.

"Actually, I thought I'd be in the business world the rest of my life," he says.

But 9/11 and a deployment to Afghanistan changed everything. He felt a deeper calling.

"Once I opened that door in my heart, it swung pretty wide open," he says. "I sort of re-caught the political bug."

With a passion for homeland security propelling him, Balmer ran for office. He was elected to the Colorado House in 2004, then re-elected in 2006 by going door to door during "a strong anti-Republican tide." He currently serves as Assistant House Minority Leader.

BUCKING POLITICAL TIDES

Representative Richard Morrissette of Oklahoma also bucked political tides, both in Oklahoma and his native state of New Hampshire, where the Democrat was first elected to the House in 1976. Being in the minority party in both states has done nothing to quell his political activism.

Morrissette came of age under the influence of politically active University of New Hampshire students, who, in 1968--when he was 12--were anti-Vietnam War and pro-Eugene McCarthy. Morrissette jumped on the McCarthy bandwagon, stuffing envelopes and delivering fliers. He eventually attended UNH, and ran for office while he was still a student.

"I didn't have any money, but the party gave me a voters list," he recalls. "I went up and down the street knocking on doors. People laughed. They thought I was a Boy Scout, I was so young."

He won, beating the incumbent. After a few years in the legislature, Morrissette set his sights on law school. He had discovered that lawyers had a great advantage understanding revisions and interpreting laws. Plus, he enjoyed debating.

"I've been arguing all my life, so the law was a natural fit," he says.

In 1981, he packed his worldly possessions and $200 into his 1970 Chevelle "brown bomber" and headed to Oklahoma, where he'd been accepted at the University of Tulsa Law School.

Morrissette graduated from law school and eventually moved to Oklahoma City. A law professor helped him get a staff job in the Oklahoma State Senate. When a term-limited incumbent was unable to run for re-election in 2004, Morrissette ran for the House seat and won. He is now serving his second term.

NEW STATE, NEW PARTY

Representative Anthony R. DiFruscia of New Hampshire not only changed states, he switched parties. DiFruscia began his career as a Massachusetts Democrat. He was 26 years old in 1966, fresh from law school, when he decided to run for state representative. Like the other legislators, he rang doorbells to connect with voters and it worked. DiFruscia served three terms.

"I then decided it was time for me to make money, so I started practicing law full time in Massachusetts," he says.

DiFruscia owned a cabin on a lake in New Hampshire, where he moved in 1981 after remarrying. He liked Ronald Reagan's "big tent" approach to government, and switched parties in the mid-'80s. He befriended some members of the New Hampshire General Court, who convinced him to chair the Republican Party in his hometown of Windham. When one of his good friends decided not to run for re-election, DiFruscia ran for his seat in 1988. He is now serving his fifth term.

THE DIFFERENCES

Moving to new states forced the representatives to adjust to new cultural and political realities.

For Wilson, the issues in Alaska are especially challenging in a state where the population is 650,000, 90 percent of the land is owned by the federal government, and a gallon of milk in Nome costs $8. Wilson points out that everybody has some way of contributing to the state for the services it provides in North Carolina. In Alaska, there is no state sales or income tax; government services are largely paid for by oil companies.

Morrissette also points to dramatic differences between New Hampshire and Oklahoma, the states in which he's served.

"What I discovered is that this part of the world and the Northeast are like two different planets," he says. "Each place has its own unique flavor and culture."

Even as a pro-life Democrat and member of the IRA, he says Oklahomans are much more conservative.

"Guns, God and gays are the three atomic bombs of the political world here," he says. "Both Democrats and Republicans are very conservative on those three issues."

Although Morrissette calls Oklahoma a "wonderful place to live for a thousand different reasons," he laments a "lack of in-depth, critical thinking" that he found in the citizens of New Hampshire.

"Ask any presidential candidate who has campaigned there," he says. "In New Hampshire, the average guy on the street is constantly giving it to you."

DiFruscia agrees that New Hampshire voters tend to be less partisan and more focused on issues. "My constituents now are interested in bigger-picture issues, as opposed to "do me a favor" in Massachusetts," he says.

The legislators faced procedural differences, too.

Balmer finds the Colorado House to be less formal, yet more efficient, than North Carolina. North Carolina has no definite adjournment date--making it difficult to hold another job--while Colorado has a constitutional four-month legislative session. In addition, Colorado does most of its debating in committee, and not very much on the floor of the House. In North Carolina, by contrast, much debate occurs on the floor, "so a lot more people get their fingers in the pie," he says.

DiFruscia also enjoys a less formal atmosphere in New Hampshire. The house is fun, friendly, even a tad rowdy, with lobbyists having a hard time controlling it, he says.

"Maybe it's my age," he says of his relaxed attitude, pointing out that at age 26, he represented the poorest city in Massachusetts, while he now represents the wealthiest town in New Hampshire.

Two legislators, Wilson and Chalk, enjoyed moving from the minority party in North Carolina to the majority parties in Alaska and South Carolina, respectively.

"Now I have access to leadership and the ability to influence bills and raise campaign funds," says Chalk.

A BROAD PERSPECTIVE

Serving in a second state legislature has offered them a broader perspective, the legislators say. Serving in the first gave them a solid foundation.

"I got a real head start," says Morrissette. "I understood the rules. I understood that you have to work both sides of the aisle. The first rule is to create relationships with people. The second is that being an advocate for positions doesn't hurt you."

Wilson occasionally points out "better ways" of doing things that she learned in North Carolina.

"They don't want to hear it," she laughs, "but Alaska has been a state for only 50 years."

DiFruscia says he's often invited to speak to opposition party members on issues because of his experience serving in two different parties and two different states.

He's still active in the Massachusetts Legislative Association for current and former members, who acknowledge his unique career path: They call him "Honorable Honorable."

Jane Carroll Andrade is a former editor of State Legislatures magazine. She freelances from her home in Evergreen, Colo.