Demos pick new leaders

Legislative leadership races can get ugly, even for the minority Democrats who have limited power in the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature.

Tuesday night, House Minority Leader Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley, was dumped by his caucus after just one two-year term.

And Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Caucus Manager Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake, was booted by her newly enlarged caucus.

As with all leadership races, there are the official, public reasons for such changes. And then there's what happened behind the scenes.

Hale's political stumble Wednesday comes on the heels of a bigger defeat — she was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson Jr.'s lieutenant governor running mate. The Matheson/Hale ticket lost to the Jon Huntsman/Gary Herbert GOP slate Nov. 2.

So Hale went in a week from possibly being a heartbeat away from the state's second-in-command to being out of Senate minority leadership.

Hale may well have been pushed out of leadership for even considering challenging longtime Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price — as several senators said she would late last week.

She ended up being allowed to keep her spot on the powerful Executive Appropriations Committee, but had to give up her title of Minority Caucus Manager to Sen. Paula Julander, D-Salt Lake.

"We needed unity," Dmitrich said of the leadership slate approved Wednesday by the eight-member caucus that returned everyone but Hale. "It's not unusual for Democrats to have little internal battles."

Hale, who never publicly announced her intentions, said remaining in leadership "just wasn't in the cards."

Goodfellow was beaten by Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, the man whom Goodfellow himself replaced in the 2002 leadership elections.

Newly-elected Democratic leaders in both houses said, for the record, that their minority caucuses are united and looking forward to working closely with their Republican colleagues where they can, opposing them in 2005 and 2006 when the needs arise.

In the mid-1980s, Dmitrich and Goodfellow were the one-two leaders of the House Democrats — before a group of newly-elected Democrats took them out in leadership elections. The new House Democratic leaders took the GOP majority head-on — leading at times to filibusters, shouting matches and general bad feelings.

Dmitrich moved on to the Senate, where minority leaders likewise had difficult relationships with the then Republican political bosses.

Four years ago, Dmitrich won the minority leadership post — and promised a more get-along, come-along attitude.

Senate Democrats, who had a miserable record of seeing their bills passed into law, claimed a turnaround under the Dmitrich leadership.