But like a few other GOP candidates, Stephens marked 2004 as his run for the top state job, whether Leavitt ran again or not. In the end, Leavitt jointed the Bush administration, and Stephens' stock among insiders rose even higher.

"It was the right thing for me to do — run this year," Stephens said in an interview Tuesday. "It was time for me to leave (the Legislature) in any case."

Some high and low points over his 16 years in office:

• A high point for the state was 1997, when Stephens, along with Leavitt and other leaders, put together the Centennial Highway Fund. At $3 billion, the fund paid for the rebuilding of I-15 in Salt Lake County and other road projects. "It was the first time in the state's history that we took on such infrastructure challenges," Stephens recalls.

• A high point for him personally was the passage of the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) in 1991. "I worked very hard on it for two years," he recalls. He overcame stiff opposition in the Senate to fund and pass the law, which "gives everyday citizens access to almost all state and local government information."

• A low point was his 1994 defeat in his first race for speaker. "I was then the majority leader, and most people thought I would win" the speakership. "I thought I would win" because a majority of GOP House members had promised Stephens they'd vote for him. But former speaker Mel Brown beat him out by a couple of votes, and a deflated Stephens considered quitting the Legislature.

"But in the end, it was really a good thing for me. I set new priorities" personally and professionally. Stephens became the appointed budget chairman and learned a great deal about the state budget. And he came back to claim the speakership in 1998, being re-elected to the top post in 2000 and 2002.

"I'm proud that I was one of the people who pushed through a significant change in how we conduct legislative business the final days of each session. As a freshman, I was shocked the final night of the session when we voted on a bill every 30 seconds. Half the time that last night I didn't know what we were voting on" because of last-minute amendments and lack of informative debate.

The budget, too, was pushed through the final night with many legislators not really knowing what was in the inch-thick spending bills, he said.

"It was wrong; not a good process. And we changed it." Now bonding bills pass the Friday before the following Wednesday adjournment. The main budget bills pass on Monday. And a few times lawmakers have even adjourned a few hours early the last night as their major work is finished.

Stephens says: "I've made some lifelong friends up here. When you face together the pressures of this job, you see firsthand to tremendous quality of the people you serve with. I never tried to game the system, not jam it up. I opened the Rules Committee to the public. I started a weekly radio call-in show. I tried to open communications with citizens."

And he had a great time doing it, he says.

---

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com