Top legislative leaders looking to retain positions

It appears Utah House Speaker Mel Brown and Senate President Lane Beattie will be re-elected to their top leadership posts following the Nov. 3 general election without opposition this year.

For Beattie, that's not big news.But many expected current House Budget Chairman Marty Stephens to challenge Brown. In fact, Stephens reportedly had already drafted his speakership announcement letter to House GOP colleagues.

Stephens said this week that he's now leaning toward not running against Brown. Brown defeated Stephens for the speakership post four years ago, and a rematch has been anticipated.

Stephens, R-Farr West, said he believes the GOP House caucus is fairly evenly split on a Brown/Stephens contest. (Brown may disagree with that assessment; he's in Alaska on a legislative trip.)

And whether he won or lost the speaker's race, it would likely be by a handful of votes, says Stephens.

"I think either way (win or lose) it would be divisive and not helpful to the (House GOP) caucus," he says.

So unless there is some kind of change, i.e. Brown somehow stumbles, Stephens says there won't be a challenge.

And there likely won't be a serious challenge to Rep. Kevin Garn's attempt to become the second-in-com-mand in the House.

Garn, now the House whip, is running for House majority leader, the post being vacated by the retirement of House Majority Leader Chris Fox-Finlinson, R-Lehi.

Rep. Susan Koehn, R-Woods Cross, is a leader in the so-called "mainstream" GOP caucus in the House. Koehn says her group of about 25 Republican moderates has decided to take a stand in the House races of whip and assistant whip.

Since Brown and Garn won't be challenged in the races of speaker and majority leader, respectively, "there's no need for the (main-stream) caucus to vote as a bloc in those races. But we plan to (do so) in the whip and assistant whip" races.

That's a pretty big hammer the moderates hold, if they really do stick together and vote as a bloc.

Currently there are 55 Republicans in the House. If after the Nov. 3 elections there are still 55 House Republicans, the mainstream caucus's 25 or so members nearly hold the key. At 55 Republicans, 28 is a majority to win a GOP House leadership race.

"We certainly expect to have a (mainstream caucus member) in one House leadership post, hopefully two" - the whip and assistant whip - said Koehn.