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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 Posts are not peer reviewed and may discuss work in progress that is subject to future revision.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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Author Archives: Adam Brown
Which way did Utah Co and Weber Co swing?
Trump’s 2020 gains are trivial. He continues to fare worse in these areas than any Republican nominee in a generation. The New York Times notes in passing today that two Utah metro areas (Provo-Orem and Ogden-Clearfield) moved toward Trump in … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged counties, democracy, independent, measurement, parties, partisanship, presidential election, utah county, voting, weber county
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Which way did Utah Co and Weber Co swing?
New data show how little time the Legislature spends per bill
The median bill enacted in 2018 received a total of only seven minutes of House and Senate floor debate before passage. Today the Utah Legislature concludes the fifth week of its seven-week General Session. The pace is about to pick … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged capacity, floor time, legislative life, legislature, vetting
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New data show how little time the Legislature spends per bill
Cage match: LaVar Christensen vs Dan McCay
Rep. LaVar Christensen and Rep. Dan McCay are squaring off to fill a vacant seat in the Utah Senate. These two have served a long time together in the Utah House–long enough to cast a lot of opposing votes. So … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged cage match, legislature
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Cage match: LaVar Christensen vs Dan McCay
Analysis of voting patterns in the 2018 Utah Legislature
The Utah Legislature concluded its 45-day General Session last Thursday at midnight. Once again, I’ve scraped the voting records to produce this statistical summary. Update (3/14/2018): The Utah Legislature’s website initially showed HB457 as having passed. Their records were corrected … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged absenteeism, consensus, legislative life, legislature, nominate, partisanship, rankings, sponsorship
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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
Posted in Everything
Tagged ideology, legislature, partisanship, roll call votes
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What Rep. Watkins teaches us about party and ideology
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 voted “nay” the most in the 2017 Legislature?
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
Posted in Everything
Tagged absenteeism, legislative life, legislature, roll call votes
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Who missed the most votes in the 2017 Legislature?
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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Utah lawmakers loved to agree in the 2017 Legislature
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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The 2017 Utah Legislature passed a record number of bills but slightly improved vetting time
How corrupt is Utah?
On the whole, Utah has lower-than-average levels of political corruption. At length, former Utah Attorney General John Swallow is finally scheduled to face a jury this week. No matter how Swallow’s story ends, however, it marks an aberration. Federal statistics show … Continue reading
Posted in Everything
Tagged attorney general, corruption, john swallow, measurement, rankings
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How corrupt is Utah?