GOP had 9-1 edge in bills passed

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.