Utah lawmakers loved to agree in the 2017 Legislature

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 Democrats. And since they don’t fear them, they are more open to their ideas than a newcomer to Utah politics might expect.

Many metrics reveal this pattern. We can start with each party’s batting average. Once again, Democrats passed over half their bills. They’ve done worse under more some speakers than others (take a look at the pre-Lockhart and pre-Hughes era). But their 53% bill passage rate for 2017 is downright respectable for a party that holds less than 1 in 5 seats in each chamber.

Let’s look at floor votes. Party line votes–that is, votes where the majority of legislative Republicans votes against the majority of legislative Democrats–are almost unheard of in the Utah Legislature. The next figure shows that only 13% of House votes and 6% of Senate votes were decided along partisan lines.

Instead, most bills that make it to a vote pass comfortably with bipartisan support. In 2017, 93% of legislators voted together on the average House vote; it rose to 97% in the Utah Senate. That 97% figure actually marks a record in my 11-year data series. Still, it’s not far from the typical range, as you can see:

There were some doozies, of course. Here are the 12 votes decided by 8 Representatives or fewer (i.e. by 10% or less of the 75-member body) in the Utah House:

And here are the 6 votes decided by 3 Senators or fewer (i.e. by 10% or less of the 29-member body) in the Utah Senate:

Here is a longer list of close votes from each chamber, and here are more tables and charts with floor voting patterns in the Utah Legislature.

Up next: Who missed the most votes?

Possibly related posts:

• Unanimity remained the rule in the 2016 Utah Legislature
• Recap: The 2014 Utah Legislature
• The closest votes in the 2014 Utah Legislature

Possibly related posts (automatically generated)

• Who voted “no” in the 2012 Utah legislature? (March 14, 2012)
• Unanimity remained the rule in the 2016 Utah Legislature (March 16, 2016)
• The closest votes in the 2014 Utah Legislature (March 19, 2014)