GOP had 9-1 edge in bills passed
15 legislators had 100% passage rate of measures
Republicans sponsored nine of every 10 bills that passed the 2008 Legislature. This comes even while House Democrats passed twice as many bills as they did last year — which, unfortunately for them, isn't saying too much. After all, Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans overall in the Legislature 78-28.
So it's not surprising that Republicans dominate the list of those legislators who are most effective in passing the bills they introduce into law during the 45-day general session that ended March 5. For example, 15 legislators passed all the bills they introduced, and 12 were Republicans.
It's also not surprising that the least effective were mostly Democrats. Five legislators failed to pass any bills, and four were Democrats.
"One measure of effectiveness can be the ability of a legislator to pass tough legislation," said Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who passed all 15 bills he introduced — the most of anyone with a 100 percent success rate. Still, he is not a fan of such "legislative report cards," which the Deseret Morning News has conducted for nearly two decades.
The Morning News provides statistics of bills introduced and passed by each legislator annually because passing laws and adopting a budget are among their major duties. All 75 House members face re-election this year, as do 15 of the 29 senators. (A member-by-member list of all bills sponsored and passed is available at deseretnews.com).
And smart legislators know how to work the process to get their bills passed.
Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, also passed 100 percent of his bills — six for six. Kiser scored a rare double-double in 2008: He also managed to attend all the votes in his legislative committees, the only lawmaker to pass all of his bills and have a perfect committee voting record.
Kiser said he worked hard during the legislative interim last year to prepare bills that were vetted not only by many legislators but also by all other concerned parties.
"I had one bill that had both the insurance industry and the trial lawyer association in favor of it," said Kiser, an insurance agency by profession. "How often does that happen?"
But it also takes some luck and proper timing to get all of one's bills passed into law.
"I worked on one bill for the last four years — tweaking it every year," he said. "And this year it finally passed."
Batting averages
The Morning News review found that any bill introduced this year had an amazingly high probability of passing — especially if introduced by a Republican.
Republicans had an overall legislative batting average of .619, meaning they passed nearly 62 percent of all bills they introduced. (Statistics exclude the 95 "title-only" bills that were filed by members of both parties with no text. Such "boxcar" bills are often introduced just as place-holders if needed for late-arising legislative concerns).
In major league baseball, a batting average of .300 or above can make a player an All-Star. Legislative Republicans more than doubled that.
Of course, because Republicans hold three of every four seats in the Legislature, they control which issues come up to bat. And since they also hold big majorities on all committees and in both houses, they essentially also control what kind of opposing pitches they throw at their own members' bills.
Life is not so good for the far outnumbered Democrats. Their overall "legislative batting average" was a much lower .415, even with only a sixth as many bills filed as their GOP counterparts. Democrats carried only 118 bills (passing 49) compared to the 624 filed by Republicans (who passed 386 of them).
Senate Republicans passed 69 percent of their bills; House Republicans passed 58 percent; Senate Democrats passed 52 percent; and House Democrats passed 35 percent (which, while very low, was still almost double the 19 percent success rate they had in 2007).
House Minority Leader Brad King, D-Price, says both the partisanship and the process in the Utah Legislature work against Democrats getting their bills passed.
"Sometimes our members introduce important legislation that they know won't pass. But they do it just in hopes of getting a public hearing, some debate, on the measures." Two examples, he said, were bills that would have allowed for Election Day voter registration and another to set up a statewide ethics commission. Republicans killed both those measures without hearings this year — so the "debate-only" effort failed there.
The Legislature overall passed 435 of 742 bills introduced — which is a lot for the 45-day general session. It may raise a question of whether bills receive enough scrutiny in that short time.
"All I can say is that I hope that every legislator is reading the bills they are voting on. I read the bills," Bramble said. But many lawmakers likely do not read all the bills, especially some with a more technical nature, like tax or insurance measures — and some that may be very lengthy.
On average for all legislators, a typical member would have introduced seven bills this year and passed four — and had a legislative batting average of .586.
Heroes and zeros
Fifteen members of the Legislature passed 100 percent of the bills they introduced — including 12 Republicans and three Democrats. But not all such "legislative heroes" are created equal: Some introduced 15 times as many bills as others.
Bramble introduced 15 bills and passed all of them. Not far behind, introducing and passing nine bills each, were Senate Majority Whip Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, and Senate Assistant Majority Whip Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse.
But among the 100 percent group, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, introduced and passed just one bill, as did Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield. Introducing and passing just two bills each were Reps. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville; Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley; Rep. Phil Riesen, D-East Millcreek; and Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.
The members who passed the most bills overall — but maybe had slightly lower legislative batting average ratios — were Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who passed 18 bills (of 19 introduced). Bramble was next with 15. Sen. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, had 12. And Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, passed 11.
Hillyard, who has served 25 years, first in the House, then in the Senate, is one of the body's great workhorses, introducing and passing a high number of bills each session.
The list of "legislative zeros" is much smaller this year. Last year, 16 members failed to pass any bills. This year, only five did. All were House members, and four of the five were Democrats. Only two of them bothered to introduce any bills (not counting the "boxcar" bills with no text).
Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake, introduced four bills and passed none. Rep. Bud Bowman, R-Cedar City, introduced one bill that failed to pass. However, Bowman had heart surgery before the session started and had a cancerous kidney removed near the end of the session — so he may have had an excuse not to do more.
Another of the "zeros" also had health problems: Rep. Carl Duckworth, R-Magna, who is battling multiple myeloma cancer. However, in the past four years, he had only introduced one "boxcar" bill, and he introduced none this year. The title of the one bill without text that he did introduce last year was "Special License Plate for Deaf and Hard of Hearing."
Despite his health problems, Bowman seeks re-election. Duckworth filed but just recently withdrew his name. His wife, however, also filed for his seat.
The other two members who neither introduced nor passed any legislation this year were Reps. Janice Fisher, D-West Valley, and King, D-Price, the House Minority Leader.
King said he chose not to introduce any bills this year because it was his first year as minority leader, and he was unsure how much time that post would demand.
Among other members with low success rates were: Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, who passed only one of 13 bills introduced, or 8 percent; and Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, who passed one of five for 20 percent.
Four members passed 25 percent of their bills: Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, and Reps. Tim Cosgrove, D-Murray; Ken Sumsion, R-Lehi; and Brad Winn, R-Ephraim.
But whether ranked high or low in the newspaper's "Report Card," most incumbents historically win re-election. Indeed, the only significant turnover in the Utah Legislature comes through death or retirement. In 2006, 94 percent of the House members who sought re-election won. Because several GOP senators lost their seats through intraparty challenges, the Senate's re-election rate two years ago was 82 percent, low for that body.
E-mail: lee@desnews.com, bbjr@desnews.com
Recent comments
Sen. Mark Madsen IS NOT FROM LEHI!!! HE'S FROM EAGLE MOUNTAIN...
Chuck | April 1, 2008 at 7:48 a.m.
Here's the truth. We need more Democrats.
Anonymous | March 31, 2008 at 11:27 p.m.
Democrats and Mormon bashing. Have you heard democrats being up Reid...
Really? | March 31, 2008 at 10:11 p.m.
