State Street

Grab a cold soda and circle Jan. 18 on your calendar because the Utah legislature — AND State Street — are back!

Being a legislator is kind of like dining at a restaurant. You have a big menu of all of the dishes — or bills — you can choose from. You pick one you like and debate with others whether you should order it or move to the next option. But who gets to choose what goes on the menu in the first place? That’s where the Rules Committee comes in. We take a look at what’s going on in the kitchen — and why it matters.

You don’t have to run for office and you don’t have to become a political journalist to have a place in Utah politics. There’s room for ALL KINDS of involvement, but it can be hard to know what’s effective and what’s just noise. So, Sonja and Emily will walk us through how to go from informed to engaged in Utah politics.

Becoming a politician in Utah takes more than just waking up one day and deciding you want to run for office. Surprising? Probably not. But for those bold few who DO wake up with a bee in their bonnet, the path is a lot easier if you a) have a lot of free time and b) have a lot of money. That leaves out a pretty big chunk of the population.

45 days. That’s not a lot of time to write, debate and pass hundreds of bills. And just like one notorious maiden at the ball, once the clock strikes midnight the party is over. So, how does the magic happen?

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Republican supermajority in the Utah Legislature! Wait … what does that really mean?

You hear it over and over again from politicians here — “that’s the Utah way.” What they mean is that politics in this state are nice and civil, and everyone has a seat at the table. But … is that really true?

It’s hard to understand where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. So, we asked longtime journalist Doug Fabrizio to guide us through the past 30 years of Utah politics.

This is politics, the Utah way.

Every legislative session a few bills pop up that generate a lot of buzz, but never quite make it to the finish line. For the last few years, that has been the case with proposed legislation to toughen the state's penalties for hate crimes. So what invisible forces propel some bills while squashing others? Some critics say it's the Mormon Church, whose membership includes almost 90 percent of the Utah Legislature. Others say their influence is overstated. And then there's Steve Urquhart, a former Republican state senator from St. George, who observed this phenomenon firsthand.