Adam Brown
5.9K posts
Adam Brown
@poliARB
Political scientist (BYU). Banjos, flannel shirts, quiet trails. Author: Dead Hand's Grip (state constitutions @OUPAcademic), Utah Politics (@UnivNebPress).
Utah Katılım Kasım 2010
1.9K Takip Edilen3.1K Takipçiler
KSL asked Rep @Leah__Hansen about this. She said, "I wouldn't vote for a bill I hadn't read... For all the reading I did, I still didn't get to all the bills."
Imagine if all legislators had this rule. Utah legislators passed 344 bills last week alone--164 of them on Friday!
Adam Brown@poliARB
Legislators continue to struggle to find the "no" button, preferring to kill bills by slowrolling than by actually opposing. Only 3.3% of House votes failed, 2.3% in the Senate. Yet freshman Rep. @Leah__Hansen voted no on 54% (!) of votes, beating 23% by @NateForUtah. (3/11)
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@danmccay A lone no vote definitely isn't effective, as you know well from the McNay days. And even a majority "no" often gets reconsidered. Still, it bewilders me how often legislators vote yes after stating opposition, or look for alternatives like circling HB88 rather than a vote.
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@poliARB With more than 25 ways for a bill to die, voting no is the most aggressive and, likely, least effective.
What is most effective (pure guess)?
1. Time
2. Other chamber
3. Budget
4. Committees
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Reply with your theory about why Utah legislators rarely vote no. I mean, they circled HB88 after speaking strongly against it rather than go on record voting "no," and they routinely vote "yes" (or "aye on 2") on other things after reservations. Why such fear of casting a "no"?
Adam Brown@poliARB
Legislators continue to struggle to find the "no" button, preferring to kill bills by slowrolling than by actually opposing. Only 3.3% of House votes failed, 2.3% in the Senate. Yet freshman Rep. @Leah__Hansen voted no on 54% (!) of votes, beating 23% by @NateForUtah. (3/11)
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@danmccay @DowningUt The two charts here. 83 hours in the House, 78 in the Senate. adambrown.info/p/research/uta…
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Going through data on the Utah Legislature's recent session, and we've got an outlier.
Guess which legislator voted with his/her party only 47% of the time? (Everyone else was above 90%).
This legislator also voted "nay" 54% of the time. (Next highest was only 23%.)
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@danmccay @DowningUt I can't measure clapping, but I can say that the two chambers (combined) spent 214 minutes on prayer and pledge, 614 on privileges/citations, 700 minutes on reports, and 333 on communications from the other chamber.
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@poliARB @DowningUt Ahhh. I was wondering if we could find other idiosyncratic time events like how long the pledge takes (we recite the pledge slowly IMO) or how long we spend clapping (some days my hands hurt 🤣).
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@danmccay @DowningUt I scan all the bookmarks from the floor videos. The underlying html has a timestamp.
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In committee, legislators say "I'm voting to advance despite my concerns since my colleagues deserve to hear it on the floor," as if committees don't exist to screen. Or "I'm voting to advance, trusting you'll bring an amendment to the floor." Explain yourselves, legislators.
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@RobertGehrke Full thread is now up if you have time to kill. x.com/poliARB/status…
Adam Brown@poliARB
A thread with more than you want to know about the Utah Legislature's 7-week General Session that just wrapped. First: There were an absurd number of bill introductions (1,016), but only 540 bills passed--which would have been absurd 15 years ago but is now average. (1/11)
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Nerds will find lots more stats and figures at the link in my bio, then click "research" and "Utah Legislature."
If you like this stats overload, tag your favorite legislator, activist, or political reporter. Or your least favorite, I'm not your boss.
That's all. (11/11)
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It turns out our first third-party legislator in who knows how long was genuinely moderate. When I calculate ideology scores, Sen. Buss lands right in the middle @FWDUtah (10/11)
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A thread with more than you want to know about the Utah Legislature's 7-week General Session that just wrapped.
First: There were an absurd number of bill introductions (1,016), but only 540 bills passed--which would have been absurd 15 years ago but is now average. (1/11)
English