Category Archives: Everything

The Utah Priorities Survey: Top issues in 2010 and 2012

The list of top ten issues Utah voters are most concerned with was mostly filled with themes we’ve seen throughout the last few elections This is a guest post by Morgan Lyon Cotti, Senior Research Analyst at the Utah Foundation. … Continue reading

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The Utah legislature passes far more bills than Congress

We should expect fewer laws out of the Utah legislature than out of Congress, yet we see the opposite. As I prepped some lecture data for my Congress course today, I was surprised at something I hadn’t noticed before: Congress … Continue reading

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The Tea Party’s declining favorability

“Unfavorable” views of the Tea Party movement have jumped from 22% in February 2010 to 51% in March 2012, mostly at the expense of “don’t know” respondents. The Tribune ran an article over the weekend about the Tea Party’s (waning) … Continue reading

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Cage match: Casey Anderson vs Evan Vickers

Rep. Vickers and Sen. Anderson disagree relatively often for members of the same party. Sen. Casey Anderson (R-Cedar City) was appointed last year to serve out the remainder of Sen. Dennis Stowell’s term after his death from cancer. Rep. Vickers … Continue reading

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Cage match: Patrick Painter vs Ralph Okerlund

Rep. Painter and Sen. Okerlund don’t disagree very often. Correction (April 3, 2012): A database error caused my query to omit roughly half of the votes held each year. The omitted votes were roughly random, so the general patterns aren’t … Continue reading

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Cage match: Craig Frank vs John Valentine

Rep. Frank and Sen. Valentine disagree on 7-10% of the bills that pass. Correction (April 3, 2012): A database error caused my query to omit roughly half of the votes held each year. The omitted votes were roughly random, so … Continue reading

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Evaluating the Senate’s second reading calendar

Absenteeism is, indeed, higher on the second reading. I posted earlier about absentee rates in the 2012 Utah legislature. There’s been some discussion in the comments about the second versus third reading calendars in the Senate. Here’s some data. Background: … Continue reading

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Approval Ratings for Gov. Herbert and the State Legislature

This high approval among “strong” Republicans should provide the governor with some reassurance as Republicans hold caucuses and choose delegates Governor Gary Herbert’s approval among Utah voters is at a healthy 68%, according to a new Utah Voter Poll. His … Continue reading

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Recap: What have we learned about the 2012 Utah legislature?

In case the whirlwind of posts analyzing the 2012 legislative session has been overwhelming, here’s a quick recap. I’ll be slowing down from here out. Who sponsored the most bills in 2012? Quick answer: Sen. Curt Bramble, any way you … Continue reading

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Party support scores for the 2012 Utah legislature

Which legislators are most partisan in their legislative voting? A legislator’s “party support” score measures the percentage of the time that he votes the same as as the majority of his party. If a House Democrat votes “aye,” and so … Continue reading

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