Utahns lukewarm on legislators

The 2004 Utah Legislature is barely making the grade with Utahns: A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows only 51 percent approve of the job lawmakers are now doing.

But a Dan Jones & Associates survey conducted this past week shows good support for one of the hot topics lawmakers are debating: banning gay marriages.

Jones found that 65 percent strongly or somewhat support an amendment to the Utah Constitution that would clearly say marriage is between a man and a woman — gay marriage not allowed.

In recent years public opinion surveys for the newspaper and TV station have shown relatively good job approval ratings for the Legislature.

The amorphous body of 104 part-time lawmakers (who are not well-known by their constituents, other surveys have shown) never gets the high job approval ratings found for the governor or U.S. senators in this state.

But past Legislatures routinely got approval ratings in the high 50 or low 60 percentiles. Just a year ago, Jones found that 63 percent approved of the job lawmakers were doing.

This session is different.

As Democrats are more vocal in criticizing so-called "moral message" bills and resolutions, and members of the public have complained about some of the issues that seem to be taking lawmakers' time, Jones found Utahns give lawmakers lower marks.

In fact, Jones found that only 8 percent of Utahns strongly approve of the job the 2004 Legislature has done so far. (Lawmakers adjourn at midnight March 3.)

Forty-three percent somewhat approve of the lawmakers' job, while 17 percent somewhat disapprove and 28 percent strongly disapprove the lawmakers' job performance.

Twenty-one percent didn't have an opinion of the Legislature's work to this point.

It's an election year for all 75 House members and 15 of the 29 senators. And before incumbents can face a challenger from the other party, they have to get through their own party's convention — dominated by conservatives on the Republican side, liberals on the Democratic side.

Accordingly, lawmakers are no doubt looking over their shoulders as they cast hundreds of votes over the current 45-day session; playing to their base is a wise move.