Utahns hail '05 session, Huntsman

Utahns may have a few issues with the GOP-controlled Utah Legislature, but a new poll shows overall they approve of the work the 104 lawmakers did in the 2005 session that adjourned 10 days ago.

And they absolutely love the job freshman Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. did in dealing with legislative issues, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey by Dan Jones & Associates found.

On individual issues, it's true Utahns wanted action in a few areas that lawmakers refused to take. Both a House and Senate committee killed a hate crimes bill, for example, even though previous polls by the newspaper and TV station show good general support for the measure.

But in a survey taken this past week, Jones found that 61 percent strongly or somewhat approve of the overall job lawmakers did over their 45-day annual session.

Only 31 percent disapprove of the Legislature's action.

Getting two out of every three votes of approval is good for an amorphous, usually faceless body like the Legislature. Previous surveys by Jones over the years have shown legislative approval either below or just above 50 percent.

Huntsman's 80 percent approval rating, just three months after taking office, puts him in the stratosphere of politicians' approval ratings, near former Gov. Olene Walker (who left office in December with a record-setting 87 percent approval rating), and in the approval ranks of former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who was very popular in his early years in office.

Huntsman still has a week or so to sign or veto bills, so his 2005 legislative record is not yet complete.

But he has already signed one of the more controversial bills — one hated by much of Utah's Hispanic community — that will no longer provide state drivers' licenses to undocumented workers. They can still get a special driver's permit, one that is a different color but which can't be used as "official" identification, like boarding a commercial airplane.

In his new survey, Jones found that 58 percent of Utahns specifically approved of how Republican legislators handled their work this past session.

Fifty-nine percent approved of the work of the minority Democrats in the Legislature. (Rep. Pat Jones, D-Cottonwood Heights, a member of House minority leadership, is Dan Jones' wife and a partner in Dan Jones & Associates.)

Huntsman is enjoying quite a honeymoon among Utahns, the survey found.

Only 3 percent of Republicans disapprove of the job he did with the Legislature.

Only 15 percent of Democrats disapprove of the governor's job performance.