Twenty-year legislative veteran Lyle Hillyard was selected Wednesday afternoon to be the new state Senate president.
But Hillyard's tenure could be one of the shortest in history — five months.
After November's final election, Republicans who will serve in the 2001 Senate will vote for leaders again.
And the man who finished second to Hillyard in Wednesday's voting — Sen. Steve Poulton, R-Holladay — hopes to gain enough votes among the GOP newcomers to win the presidency outright. (This assumes Republicans will again be the majority party in the Senate after the November election.)
Hillyard, R-Logan, an attorney, is considered a moderate-to-conservative. During the 1990s, Hillyard was consistently listed by the Deseret News as one of the most effective and admired state senators in the newspaper's "Legislative Report Card."
Hillyard carries a large number of bills each session and has become — along with Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem — an expert on the state budget and taxes.
Hillyard, 59, was first elected to the House in 1980. He won his Senate seat in 1984.
Like former Senate President Lane Beattie, who decided not to seek re-election this year and then resigned from the Senate earlier this month to accept a top position in Gov. Mike Leavitt's administration, Hillyard is not seen as an opponent to many of Leavitt's programs.
And Leavitt and Hillyard also have another connection: The governor appointed one of Hillyard's Logan law firm partners to the state bench.
Speaking to the press after the hour-long, closed GOP Senate caucus where he was elected president, Hillyard said that there will naturally be disagreements between the Senate, the governor and the House (also controlled by Republicans). "But I feel there is a feeling of unity (in the Senate GOP caucus) after the vote today."
Poulton has not been among Leavitt's strongest supporters in the Senate.
It's generally believed that the Senate will move to the political right in 2001 as several conservative House members are expected to win their Senate campaigns this fall, joined by a few more conservatives who are running in open seats.
Four Republican senators ran for president Wednesday. Sen. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, was, sources said, the first candidate to be dumped in the voting. Then Sen. Al Mansell, R-Sandy, fell. In the final round of secret balloting Poulton fell short and Hillyard was elected.
After the vote Blackham said he would not run for president in November. Mansell said he had not decided if he would run or not. Poulton said he's definitely running. And Hillyard said he'd seek a full, two-year term as president as well.
Hillyard has already announced that if he wins a full presidential term he would only serve one term. Historically speaking, Senate presidents generally serve a single, two-year term and then step back into the body as a regular member. That tradition was broken in the early 1980s by former Senate presidents Cap Ferry and Arnold Christensen, who served multiple presidential terms. Beattie, as well, served six years as president.
To keep the proper number of Senate leaders on two key joint interim committees — Legislative Management and Executive Appropriations — after Beattie's resignation, the four elected leadership posts were reshuffled Wednesday.
Hillyard was majority leader, and he goes to president. Blackham was majority whip, and he goes to leader. Mansell was assistant majority whip, and he goes to whip. Poulton was Rules Committee chairman, and he goes to assistant majority whip.
All 18 Republicans in the Senate participated Wednesday in the leadership votes. The group included Dan Eastman, Beattie's successor in the Bountiful district, who was appointed by Leavitt on Wednesday morning and sworn in just so he could make the noon caucus vote.
House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, said of Hillyard: "I consider Lyle a close friend. He'll make a great president, and I look forward to working with him."
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com