From red to blue: Groups rate conservative, liberal lean of lawmakers

Rep. Mike Morley of Spanish Fork is the reddest of the "red" Republicans in the Utah Legislature. Rep. David Litvack of Salt Lake City is the bluest of all "blue" Democrats.

That's according to a Deseret Morning News analysis of voting scorecards from six interest groups across the political spectrum, where the color red has come to indicate conservatism and blue a more liberal bent.

"My dad would be very proud," Litvack said about being the bluest of blue. Still, "I believe I'm not seen by my colleagues to the right — which apparently are all of them — that I am way out there, some kind of wacko, someone who can't work with them."

Morley's reaction was more subdued. "I don't care where I rank on these things," he said, as long as he is true to his own conscience and beliefs. "Am I concerned that they think I am the most conservative? No. Do I take any pride in it? No."

Besides showing how blue or red members are, the analysis also reveals a wide ideological divide between Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature, with all Republicans clumped together well onto the conservative side of scores, and all Democrats bunched together on the liberal side with no renegades from either camp.

Also, it shows that conservatives have increasingly big numbers and influence in the Legislature compared to moderates — or the vastly outnumbered liberals.

The index

The Morning News devised an index of how "red" or "blue" legislators are by combining and averaging scores of six interest groups, as collected and reported online by Project Vote Smart. Such groups rate individual legislators according to how often each group feels they vote "correctly" — according to those interest groups — on key issues.

Three groups give the lion's share of their better scores to Republicans: the National Federation of Independent Business (an advocacy group for small businesses), the Utah Taxpayers Association (which opposes most tax increases) and GrassRoots (a conservative group).

Three other groups overwhelmingly give their best scores to Democrats: the Utah Education Association (the largest teacher labor union in Utah), the Sierra Club (an environmental group) and Equality Utah (an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people).

The Morning News standardized and averaged the groups' ratings, so that the higher the scores on a scale from 0 to 100 would show who is deeper red Republican, and the lower the scores would show who is bluer Democrat.

Morley was the reddest, with a score of 88.2. Litvack was the bluest, with a score of 18.7.

An accompanying chart ranks of 103 of 104 members in the last Legislature; newly appointed Rep. Jennifer Seelig, D-Salt Lake, was not ranked by groups.