Capitol leaders near finish?

House Speaker Marty Stephens and Senate President Al Mansell, who open the 2004 Legislature today, will walk away from Utah's state Capitol in the early hours of March 4 when the session ends, carrying with them their gavels and a lot of memories.

A few will be bad memories, perhaps; but many more will good ones, the pair say.

Stephens, R-Farr West, will end his sixth year as leader of the 75-member House. Mansell, R-Sandy, ends his fourth year as Senate president.

While several recent Senate presidents have served in that post longer than Mansell — the record is held by former Senate President Arnold Christensen at 10 years — Stephens now holds the record for longevity as speaker of the House.

"It is the custom to leave the House after you've been speaker," says Stephens. "And I'll be following that." Stephens is running for governor this year and won't be back in the House in any official capacity unless he wins. Then he would come back into the House Chambers next January to deliver his first State of the State address.

Mansell has two more years in his four-year Senate term, which he says he now plans to serve out. If he does come back to the Senate in 2005, he would be the first former president to voluntarily sit back on the Senate floor in more than 30 years.

Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, was picked as interim president by the GOP majority the last half of 2000 when former president Lane Beattie resigned to become former Gov. Mike Leavitt's Olympics officer. Hillyard did not oversee a general session. Mansell defeated Hillyard in the late-2000 election for Senate president.

Both Stephens and Mansell were hesitant to detail their leadership accomplishments to the Deseret Morning News, saying they still have one more 45-day session to go.

"I'll talk about it after the session, not before," Mansell said.

But Stephens did say that one thing he is most proud of is bringing more cohesiveness to the large Republican House caucus, which has numbered more than 50 members during his speakership tenure.

"When I became speaker (in January 1999) we basically had two separate groups," he said, referring to the so-called "Mainstream" moderate group of GOP House members and the smaller, but more vocal "Cowboy Caucus" of rural, conservative House members.