Mansell not planning to leave public office — yet

Rumors that Utah Senate President Al Mansell, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, will soon leave office are premature, Mansell said Wednesday.

But the president, 59, said he routinely weighs the demands of being a legislative leader with his commitment to become president of the National Association of Realtors next year.

One legislator told the Deseret Morning News that Mansell's resignation was imminent. Mansell wouldn't go that far, saying only that he would leave the Legislature if he could no longer fulfill his commitments as president and senator representing District 10.

"And when, or if, I can't do this (public office) job anymore, I'm gone" from the Legislature, said Mansell, R-Sandy.

If he resigns his seat, Mansell would be the third Senate president in the last decade to step down early.

Former Senate President Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful, resigned in 2000 to become Gov. Mike Leavitt's Winter Olympic officer. And former Senate President Arnold Christensen, R-Sandy, resigned in 1994 to become a mission president for the LDS Church. Mansell, who had not held public office before, was appointed to the Senate to fill Christensen's seat, winning the office himself several times since.

Mansell was elected president of the 29-member body by fellow GOP senators in the fall of 2000, then re-elected to a second two-year term as president last year. He's currently in the first year of a four-year term from District 10, the east side of Sandy, that he won in the 2002 election.

Mansell becomes the only Utahn to be president of the NAR in November 2004, serving through November of 2005. But already he's had many assignments as president-elect of the 912,000-member association, which represents the interests of Realtors not only across the United States but internationally, he said.

"There are 46 affiliate associations in other countries" and being a NAR leader means international travel, too, he said.

One GOP leader said Mansell has told him he will be "living on an airplane" once he becomes NAR president, making it nearly impossible to attend to the dozens of legislative committee assignments that come with being Senate president.

"In upcoming months I'm going to Washington, D.C., to a (NAR) conference and visiting half a dozen other states" who hold state Realtor conventions that top NAR officials are expected to attend, Mansell said.