Tag Archives: nominate

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

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What kind of Republican is Spencer Cox?

Spencer Cox is about as run-of-the-mill of a Republican as Utah can produce. Governor Gary Herbert has nominated Spencer Cox to replace Greg Bell as Utah’s new Lieutenant Governor. Few outside the Legislature had heard Cox’s name before the governor’s … Continue reading

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New ideology ratings for the Utah Legislature

Two years ago I released ideology scores for each Utah legislator who served between 2007 and 2011. Today I’m releasing an update that extends the scores through 2013. (Thanks to my research assistant, Justin Chang, for invaluable help.) I’ve written … Continue reading

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What kind of Republican is Mia Love?

What kind of Republican is Mia Love? She’s not too far off from Chaffetz, Stewart, and Bishop. Last week, I used Congressional voting data to assess whether Jim Matheson is a moderate or liberal Democrat. The unsurprising conclusion: He’s to … Continue reading

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Is Jim Matheson a liberal or a moderate?

Matheson’s Congressional votes often go against partisan expectations. Jim Matheson presents himself to voters as a moderate willing to work with both parties. Critics from the right contend that he’s really a liberal at heart who will promptly ally with … Continue reading

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Why are Liljenquist’s former colleagues split on his candidacy?

Liljenquist’s former colleagues are evenly split on his candidacy, but it’s hard to explain the split using ideology. Today, Dan Liljenquist announced that 13 of the 22 Republicans in the state senate have endorsed his challenge against Orrin Hatch. I … Continue reading

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Are legislators faithful to their constituents?

The correlation between district partisanship and legislator ideology is not perfect, but it is nevertheless strongly positive. This analysis was performed by Robert Richards, a student research fellow at BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, in collaboration … Continue reading

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How different are Romney and Perry ideologically?

Rick Perry is slightly to the right of Mitt Romney, but only slightly. Political scientists have worked for years to find ways of measuring politicians’ ideology. By far, the best method we presently have is known as NOMINATE (and its … Continue reading

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Who could run for Speaker or Senate President?

What makes a legislator a good candidate for leadership? Last fall, Becky Lockhart narrowly won the support of her fellow House Republicans and became the new Speaker, ousting David Clark. Meanwhile, Michael Waddoups fought off a challenge from Dan Liljenquist, … Continue reading

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Who is REALLY the most conservative Utah legislator?

Interest group ratings are certainly useful, but it turns out there’s a much, much better way to figure out which legislators are most conservative and most liberal. Credit where it’s due: Robert Richards, my undergraduate research assistant extraordinaire, contributed heavily … Continue reading

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