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We are professors of political science sharing academic research relevant to Utah. Posts are not peer reviewed and may discuss work in progress that is subject to future revision. Learn more. Each post reflects only its author’s views.
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Monthly Archives: March 2017
What Rep. Watkins teaches us about party and ideology
Rank-and-file legislators know which side their bread is buttered on. Political scientists have made a parlor game of calculating ideology scores for elected officials based on their voting records. The gold standard for the US Congress is the DW-NOMINATE algorithm; you … Continue reading
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Tagged ideology, legislature, partisanship, roll call votes
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Who voted “nay” the most in the 2017 Legislature?
The House had its lowest failure rate in half a decade. As I posted earlier, the Utah Legislature is almost a bipartisan lovefest. Legislators just don’t like voting “nay.” In general, if something gets to the floor, it’s going to … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged consensus, legislature, roll call votes
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Who missed the most votes in the 2017 Legislature?
Absenteeism declined in 2017. My previous two posts had some good news about the 2017 Legislature: Vetting time improved a little, giving the public more time to see most bills, and bipartisanship remained the order of the day. But now … Continue reading
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Tagged absenteeism, legislative life, legislature, roll call votes
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Utah lawmakers loved to agree in the 2017 Legislature
Most bills that make it to a vote pass comfortably with bipartisan support. The partisan rancor that pervades national politics seldom reaches the Utah Legislature. Simply put, Republicans control such an overwhelming supermajority of seats that they have no need to fear … Continue reading
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Tagged consensus, legislature, partisanship, roll call votes
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The 2017 Utah Legislature passed a record number of bills but slightly improved vetting time
We’re not back to the good old days of 2007-2008, but legislators definitely did better this year at getting their bills out earlier Back in January, I heard a lot of chatter that this would be one of the busiest sessions ever. … Continue reading
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Tagged legislative life, legislature, vetting
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