Brown quits; Stephens succeeds him

Rep. Marty Stephens is the new speaker of the Utah House, picked in a Friday night House GOP caucus election.

He succeeds Speaker Mel Brown who announced Friday afternoon that he wouldn't be a candidate for an unprecedented third two-year speaker's term.Brown's political world fell apart a week ago when newspaper stories broke about problems in his personal life compounded by a conversation with a lobbyist about a possible lobbying job after politics.

Brown, R-Midvale, adamantly professes his innocence and said Friday night after House GOP leadership votes that should the House Ethics Committee be called into formal session on the lobbyist conversation, it could use sub-peona powers to track down the source of allegations against him.

But while Brown steps back from leadership, Stephens, R-Farr West, steps into a job he nearly had four years ago before Brown nipped him in a close speaker's race then.

"I want to look at all of the processes of the House," said Stephens, 44, who is the current House budget chairman and previously served as majority leader.

Stressing that he hasn't met with his new leadership team yet (all races besides Stephens' were contested and so Stephens didn't know who would serve with him), Stephens said that how House members interact with the public, with themselves and Senate colleagues, and with lobbyists should be examined.

Besides Stephens, the 54-member House Republican caucus elected Rep. Kevin Garn, R-Layton, majority leader; Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, majority whip; and Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, assistant whip.

Since Brown's actions concerning a private meeting with well-known lobbyist Rob Jolley was part of the problems that led Brown to step away from the speaker's race, will Brown's troubles lead Stephens to push for tougher lobbyist rules or laws?

"I can't say now what should be done. I'm not making any announcements tonight. I want to meet with my leadership team and look at all of the processes, all of our interactions" with the public and lobbyists, Stephens said.

Ure is a member of the so-called rural, conservative caucus. While he won, two other conservative caucus members lost their leadership races Friday.

Sometimes Ure's an outspoken member of the conservative caucus. He's crossed swords with the executive branch of government, including Gov. Mike Leavitt, and recently has complained about how the state's judiciary is appointed and deals with its own internal problems. While he won't talk about it publicly, Ure reportedly has been looking at ways to toughen up judicial conduct proceedings, even with an eye towards impeachment actions against Third District Judge Leslie Lewis, who has had run-ins with the media and public.