New Utah state senator Ben McAdams is youthful but not naive

New Utah state Sen. Ben McAdams hardly looks old enough to be a lawmaker. But the fresh-faced Salt Lake Democrat is no neophyte when it comes to politics.

"I think I've lived a lot in 35 years," McAdams said during a recent interview at City Hall, where he's worked for two years as Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker's legislative liaison.

"I've got energy and fresh ideas, so I think youth is a good thing," he said. "But I also have enough life experience that I think I've got some good judgment and good perspective to bring."

His District 2 constituents agree. They chose him to replace the state's only openly gay senator, fellow Democrat Scott McCoy. McCoy, an attorney, stepped down late last year to devote more time to his legal career.

Although this is the first office he's held, McAdams was an electrical engineering major at the University of Utah when he felt the pull of politics, thanks to an offhand remark by a political science professor.

The professor had suggested his students watch then-President Bill Clinton's second inauguration the following day. A classmate of McAdams had an even better idea — fly back to Washington, D.C., for the event on his free airline passes.

Being in the nation's capitol for the first time was enough to convince McAdams his future was politics. Instead of engineering, he graduated with a political science degree and went on to Columbia Law School in New York City.

A stint on Wall Street as counsel for a financial firm was mainly to pay off his college loans, McAdams said. He and his wife, Julie, also a Columbia Law School grad, always planned to come back to Utah.

The pair, who met in high school, were married during his senior year of college. McAdams, who was already working several jobs to pay his way through school, recalled selling plasma to earn enough extra cash to take his future bride on dates.

It was the birth of their first children, twins James and Kate, four years ago in New York City that set the timetable for their return to Utah, McAdams said. The couple also have another son, Robert, who is 1 1/2 years old.

McAdams already knew and admired Becker, having gotten to know him during a U. legislative internship when Becker served as a state representative from District 24. So he jumped at the chance to help the new mayor.