After 16 years in the Utah House, six as speaker, Marty Stephens cleaned out his office Tuesday. One of the most powerful politicians in Utah leaves state government next week as his term ends and members of the 2005 Legislature take office.
"The great thing about this government is that people come and serve and then they leave," said Stephens, 50. He saw his political career end last spring when, running for governor, he failed to make it out of the state GOP convention.
Stephens, R-Farr West, said he is not bitter or disappointed. An optimist, he's looking forward to his new job at Merit Medical, where he was recently promoted by fellow GOP gubernatorial losing candidate Fred Lampropoulos, who runs Merit, to vice president of sales. Down the road will be missions with his wife for the LDS Church, said Stephens.
"I see serving somewhere again, but not necessarily in politics," said Stephens.
He won't be back on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist, he promises.
"Every (former) speaker since 1990, except Nolan Karras (also a GOP gubernatorial candidate this year), has been a lobbyist. I won't be, not even for Merit," said Stephens.
The always well-groomed Stephens — a former Democratic colleague, upon leaving the House himself, once mussed up Stephens' hair just to see if it could be done — was out of his normal suit and tie Tuesday, wearing a sweater and slacks as he packed away personal and political effects in his office.
The memorabilia include six sets of gavels and various awards given to him over the years. They reflect some of the high points of his career: majority leader; elected speaker three times (a record); president of the National Conference of State Legislatures; Roy B. Gibson Freedom of Information Award; twice listed as Taxpayer Advocate of the Year by the Utah Taxpayers Association; and on and on.
While Stephens, who entered the House in 1989 at age 34, has a number of accomplishments, like many part-time legislators he didn't get the golden ring many yearn for: the governorship.
Stephens was seen as a leading candidate two years ago when he started an aggressive fund-raising operation aimed at the 2004 governor's race. A number of GOP conservatives were tired of then-GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt's "govern from the middle" politics, and Stephens was considered a frontrunner.
Stephens even explored running against Leavitt in 2000, conducting a poll of GOP state delegates to measure support for him against Leavitt. But in the end he didn't challenge Leavitt, who went on to win a third four-year term.
But like a few other GOP candidates, Stephens marked 2004 as his run for the top state job, whether Leavitt ran again or not. In the end, Leavitt jointed the Bush administration, and Stephens' stock among insiders rose even higher.
"It was the right thing for me to do — run this year," Stephens said in an interview Tuesday. "It was time for me to leave (the Legislature) in any case."
Some high and low points over his 16 years in office:
A high point for the state was 1997, when Stephens, along with Leavitt and other leaders, put together the Centennial Highway Fund. At $3 billion, the fund paid for the rebuilding of I-15 in Salt Lake County and other road projects. "It was the first time in the state's history that we took on such infrastructure challenges," Stephens recalls.
A high point for him personally was the passage of the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) in 1991. "I worked very hard on it for two years," he recalls. He overcame stiff opposition in the Senate to fund and pass the law, which "gives everyday citizens access to almost all state and local government information."
A low point was his 1994 defeat in his first race for speaker. "I was then the majority leader, and most people thought I would win" the speakership. "I thought I would win" because a majority of GOP House members had promised Stephens they'd vote for him. But former speaker Mel Brown beat him out by a couple of votes, and a deflated Stephens considered quitting the Legislature.
"But in the end, it was really a good thing for me. I set new priorities" personally and professionally. Stephens became the appointed budget chairman and learned a great deal about the state budget. And he came back to claim the speakership in 1998, being re-elected to the top post in 2000 and 2002.
"I'm proud that I was one of the people who pushed through a significant change in how we conduct legislative business the final days of each session. As a freshman, I was shocked the final night of the session when we voted on a bill every 30 seconds. Half the time that last night I didn't know what we were voting on" because of last-minute amendments and lack of informative debate.
The budget, too, was pushed through the final night with many legislators not really knowing what was in the inch-thick spending bills, he said.
"It was wrong; not a good process. And we changed it." Now bonding bills pass the Friday before the following Wednesday adjournment. The main budget bills pass on Monday. And a few times lawmakers have even adjourned a few hours early the last night as their major work is finished.
Stephens says: "I've made some lifelong friends up here. When you face together the pressures of this job, you see firsthand to tremendous quality of the people you serve with. I never tried to game the system, not jam it up. I opened the Rules Committee to the public. I started a weekly radio call-in show. I tried to open communications with citizens."
And he had a great time doing it, he says.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com