GOP leaders in the Utah House and Senate have named their key committee chairmen, and while there is no wholesale shake-up, there is a possible shift to the right in the 2001 session due to retirements, the recent elections and new Republican Senate leaders.
Each two-year Legislature is unique, and committee chairmanships and memberships don't always predict how the Republican-dominated Legislature will act.
But the new assignments seem to indicate that the so-called moderate GOP caucus in the 75-member House has less power, at least in key committee chairmanships, than in the past.
And in the 29-member Senate, well-known conservatives will play important roles come Jan. 15 when the 45-day 2001 session begins, including leadership in the Senate's budget and rules committees.
In the 1999 and 2000 Legislatures, House GOP moderates chaired seven of the 13 standing committees, which hear bills, and six of 10 budget committees, which set the state's $6.9 billion spending plan.
In the new Legislature, the moderates chair only four of the 13 standing committees and five of the 10 budget committees.
House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, said any difference in philosophical makeup of House committee chairmanships is solely the result of turnover and seniority. Moderate chairmen leaving the House for whatever reason were replaced by the next-most senior members, who happened to be conservatives.
Former Rep. Susan Koehn, R-Woods Cross, a leader in the mainstream caucus and Rules Committee chairwoman, retired.
Also gone are moderate committee chairs: Reps. Keele Johnson, R-Blanding, and Lowell Nelson, R-Highland; who lost their re-elections; Rep. Lloyd Frandsen, R-South Jordan; who lost his bid for the Senate; and Rep. Jordan Tanner, R-Provo, who retired.
Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, was a leader in the moderate caucus, but after he was elected to leadership he stepped aside in the conservative/moderate debates.
Moderates less vocal
Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, a leader in the House moderate caucus, said that despite a shift in the number of moderates in new committee chairmanships, she doesn't see that as a reduction of her caucus' influence.
"Actually, both the conservative and moderate caucuses have decided to try to be more cohesive" in the 2001 session, Allen said. But she added that if rhetoric or ideological scheming isn't toned down, her group may become more active. "Even a committee chair has to have the votes in his committee to do what he wants."
"The new chairmanship assignments had nothing to do with conservative or moderate at all," Stephens said.
But recognizing the number of new conservative chairmen in the House, Stephens said he tried to "balance out" their number with appointments of moderates solely left to him and not seniority. In addition to Allen, moderate Reps. Richard Siddoway, R-Bountiful, and Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, also have important leadership assignments, Stephens said.
The pending change in the House is a bit ironic since some influential conservative House members have retired, were defeated in re-election or elected to the Senate. Gone from the House are Reps. Mel Brown, Evan Olsen, Dennis Iverson, Bill Hickman and Bill Wright. They were the backbone of the conservative Cowboy Caucus in the House.
But their departures didn't change the conservative makeup of key committee assignments in the new House restructuring.
For example, the new House budget chairman for the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee is Rep. Jack Seitz, R-Vernal. He's joined on the committee by well-known conservative Reps. Rebecca Lockhart, R-Provo; Carl Saunders, R-Weber; and Matt Throckmorton, R-Springville. One House GOP moderate responded to that committee's makeup by saying, "Wow, that speaks for itself, doesn't it." Human service advocates have complained for years about a lack of funding for a number of programs and the state has seen waiting lists increase for some groups of needy Utahns.
The Public Education Standing Committee, which will hear bills dealing with education, is chaired by Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem. Vice chairwoman will be Rep. Loraine Pace, R-Logan. Other conservatives on that committee are Reps. Jeff Alexander, R-Orem, Brad Johnson, R-Aurora, and Throckmorton.
As teachers strike Tuesday over what they say is systematic underfunding of education by the Legislature, the new House chairman of the public education budget committee is Rep. Marda Dillree, R-Farmington, a moderate, who will be joined by another moderate, Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.
But also on the public education budget committee are conservative Reps. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch; John Swallow, R-Sandy; and Glenn Way, R-Spanish Fork.
Hatch, a leader in the conservative Cowboy Caucus, is also the new chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, which decides which bills will get a public hearing and which die quietly.
Stephens increased the size of the Rules Committee to better accommodate the Democrats' gain of three seats in the 75-member body. The 2001 Rules Committee will have 13 members instead of just 11, as was the case in 2000, and will have four Democrats, nine Republicans compared to three Democrats and eight Republicans in the past session.
Stephens and his whole leadership team — Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton; Whip Dave Ure, R-Kamas; and Assistant Whip Curtis — were re-elected to new two-year terms by their new GOP caucus.
Senate more conservative
While the House's leadership remained stable, Senate Republicans, with eight new members, shook up their leadership. All Republican leaders are new to their posts.
Senate President-elect Al Mansell, R-Sandy, is joined by Majority Leader Steve Poulton, R-Sandy; Whip John Valentine, R-Orem; and Assistant Whip Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City.
While Mansell and Poulton are considered more conservative than their predecessors in the 2000 Legislature — Lane Beattie and Lyle Hillyard — the real shift in political spectrum comes in the makeup of the 2001 Senate and the committee chairmanships that conservatives will hold.
Republicans picked up two Senate seats from Democrats in the election. In addition, two moderate GOP senators retired and were replaced by more conservative newcomers, leaders say. Gone are Sens. Robert Montgomery, R-North Ogden, and Mont Evans, R-Riverton.
"We will be more fiscally conservative than the old Senate," Poulton said. "I don't know how much more conservative the new Senate may be on some other issues."
Two of the most important Senate committees will be headed by well-known conservative Sens. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, who will be budget chairman, and Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, who is the new Rules Committee chairman.
Two moderate GOP senators get two top budget committees. But they are overshadowed by conservatives in other posts. Hillyard, R-Logan, who lost his bid to remain Senate president, will chair the higher-education budget committee, while Sen. Dave Steele, R-West Point, will become the health and human services budget chairman. Steele had been the Senate budget chairman.
Hickman said he doubts if a Cowboy Caucus will be set up in the Senate. "We are such a small group (of GOP senators) there's just not the need. We see each other all the time anyway," he said.
Hickman is chairman of the Senate Human Resources Standing Committee and Wright is chairman of the Senate Education Standing Committee.
Only majority party members are committee chairs. And the 29-member Senate (with 20 Republicans in 2001) is so small that all GOP senators, even freshmen with no legislative experience, will chair at least one committee. Some GOP senators head two committees. So it is not feasible to compare the number of conservative Senate committee chairs with the number of moderate committee chairs.
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com