Utah's D.C. delegation somewhat atypical

Utah's congressional delegation is a bit older, more experienced, more educated, less diverse, much more Republican and very much more Mormon than Congress overall, according to a new report.

The Congressional Research Service issued a new report looking at key characteristics of members of the new 111th Congress. Its data show that Utah's delegation is close to typical in such things as age, education and experience in Congress — but atypical when it comes to diversity, party split and religion.

For example, the average age of all members of Congress is 58.2. The average age in the Utah delegation is 59. Specific ages are: Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, 75; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, 74; Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, 57; Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, 48; and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, 41.

All of those Utahns are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But only 14 members of Congress (less than 3 percent of the total) are LDS. (The party split among all LDS members is 10 Republicans and four Democrats.)

Besides the Utahns, the other members of Congress identifying themselves as LDS are: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.; Delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, D-American Samoa; Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; Rep.

Dean Heller, R-Nev.; Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif.; Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.; and Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.

(Of note, Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. — cousin of Sen. Tom Udall and son of former Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz. — was raised LDS but now lists his religion as "Christian.")

While Utah's delegation has four Republicans and one Democrat, Congress overall now is Democratic by a 3-2 margin.

Utah's delegation is all-male and all-white. But Congress now has a record 95 women serving (about 18 percent of Congress). Also, it has 41 African-American members (about 8 percent of the total), 31 Hispanics (about 6 percent), 11 Asians (2 percent), and one American Indian.

All Utah members have college degrees, and two have advanced degrees (Matheson has a Master of Business Administration degree and Hatch has a law degree). That is a bit better than average in Congress, where 95 percent of members have college degrees.

The Utah delegation, as a whole, has an average of 12.4 years' service in Congress. The average in Congress overall is 11 years. In the Utah delegation, Hatch has served 32 years; Bennett, 16; Matheson, 8; Bishop, 6; and Chaffetz is newly elected.

The Utah delegation is more diverse than normal in the type of jobs members had before Congress. Hatch was a lawyer, Bennett was CEO of a time management company, Bishop was a high school teacher, Matheson was an energy consultant, and Chaffetz ran a communications company.

In Congress overall (where members often list more than one profession in questionnaires), about 40 percent describe their occupations as "public service/politics," 38 percent are lawyers, 38 percent have been businessmen, and about 18 percent have been educators, the report said.

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