Utah Politics

On this week's episode, we're joined by former presidential candidate Evan McMullin to discuss the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the backlash from Sen. Mitt Romney's vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial and the future of the Republican Party.

Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, and Assistant House Majority Whip Val Peterson, R-Orem discuss SB195, which overhauls Utah's emergency powers law. The bill gives the legislature more of a policymaking role during a long-term emergency like a pandemic.

Plus, we discuss some of the top political news from the last week with longtime Utah political reporter Bob Bernick.

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Two high-profile freshmen in the Utah House join the program to discuss how they’re adapting to their jobs after taking office just last month.

We first chat with Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, who is sponsoring several controversial bills dealing with free speech on campus, limiting when voters can switch parties and curbing the use of paid signature gatherers to put an issue on the ballot.

Then Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, talks about a public lands bill he’s sponsoring with Republican Phil Lyman. Owens, a two-time candidate for Congress, details how serving in the Utah Legislature is different from the partisan gridlock in Washington.

Sen. Mitt Romney called his two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden on Monday evening “quite impressive,” but he says the two sides are still very far apart on the size and scope of another COVID-19 relief package from the federal government. 

In an exclusive interview on the “Utah Politics” podcast, Romney said he hopes that Republicans in Congress can find common ground with the new Biden administration, but he knows that any agreement will be hard to come by.

“At one point he (President Biden) was asked about bipartisanship. He said, you know, the key to bipartisanship isn’t having two parties come together and agree on everything. We are, after all, Democrats and Republicans and we have different points of view,” Romney recounted from his meeting.

“Right now, the Democrats don’t need us (Republicans) because they have the House, the Senate and the White House. They can push through whatever the heck they want without a single Republican vote. So this is a difficult time to see if we can reach a compromise,” he added. 

Democrats are proposing a $1.9 trillion relief package, while Republicans are proposing a slimmed-down $618 billion bill. Romney says he disagrees with the plan to provide billions in aid to state and local governments that have suffered financial harm from the pandemic, instead favoring a more targeted approach. Romney also says he’d rather provide money to continue the Paycheck Protection Program instead of the Democratic plan to provide loans to businesses. He also disagrees with the president’s plan to provide additional funding for schools since the federal government has already provided more than $100 billion in that area.

Democrats in the House and Senate are signaling they’re prepared to use budget reconciliation to bypass a likely Republican filibuster in the Senate, meaning they would only need 50 votes instead of 60 to win approval. That’s the same process Republicans used to pass the Trump tax cuts in 2017. 

“There’s no question that if you begin doing things which break precedent or break tradition, the other side is going to do that when they’re in charge,” says Romney. “When we’ve put a tax program on that basis that did not require any Democrat votes through reconciliation, we have a difficult time explaining why we’re not happy with what they would be doing at this stage.”

Romney added it’s disingenuous for Republicans to raise concerns about the deficit considering their track record from the last four years. 

“When we had a Republican president and House and Senate, we kept on spending massively and adding almost a trillion dollars a year to the national debt. Now we say this is outrageous adding so much to the debt? They say we did the same thing when we were in charge. It does show that you have to be consistent in your arguments,” said Romney.

Romney does say it would be better if Democrats did work with Republicans on a relief bill for the simple reason that reconciliation is a lengthy process that could take until March of this year. 

“If we worked on a bipartisan basis, we could get a program out this week,” said Romney.

Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Salt Lake City, caused a stir this week when he said he would file a resolution for the impeachment or censure of Attorney General Sean Reyes.

Stoddard says he really wants to investigate Reyes' involvement with Republican Donald Trump's post-election efforts to undo his loss to Joe Biden, and impeachment is the only tool available to him. 

Stoddard joins the podcast to discuss the politics surrounding impeachment and what he hopes to accomplish with the seemingly extreme maneuver.

We also speak with Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, about her bill to have Utah finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and whether the legislature is doing enough to support public education.

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A bill on Utah's Capitol Hill would use ranked-choice voting in primary elections with more than two candidates.

Rep. Mike Winder, R-West Valley City, is sponsoring the legislation this year. He says it solves the problem of a candidate winning a party's nomination with less than 50% of the vote, which is exactly what happened in 2020 when Gov. Spencer Cox won the GOP primary with just over 36%.

Winder is also the author of several books on U.S. Presidents. He discusses President Joe Biden's inaugural address and whether the calls for "unity" will take hold in our political discourse. 

The 64th Utah Legislature begins next week.

Host Bryan Schott is joined on the podcast by Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-Salt Lake City.

We discuss the top priorities for lawmakers this year as they anticipate having nearly a billion dollars in extra revenue to spend. What will they do with that cash? Education should see a significant funding boost, as will some long-neglected infrastructure needs. But lawmakers are also eyeing a tax cut, something they’ve been wanting to do since 2019. 

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The 2021 Utah Legislature is just around the corner. On this week’s “Utah Politics” podcast, we preview the session with the top Republican and Democrat in the Utah House.

House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Layton, and House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, discuss the priorities for the upcoming session, what we can expect to see in the budget, how they’ll respond to the pandemic and their relationship with new Governor Spencer Cox. 

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Rep. Rob Bishop is retiring from Congress after 9 terms in Washington, capping a career in the political arena spanning parts of six decades. 

He joins host Bryan Schott to discuss whether the legislative process in Washington can be fixed, what he's learned from his time in politics and what he hopes for Utah and America once he leaves public service.

Rep.-elect Blake Moore discusses his plans once he's sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives in January. He also talks about why it's time for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

We're also joined by Tribune reporter Taylor Stevens to discuss the  recent report breaking down spending in Operation Rio Grande. 

Democrat Ben McAdams joins the podcast to discuss his agonizingly close loss in November to Republican Burgess Owens. 

We also speak with Lt. Gov.-elect Deidre Henderson about what the incoming Cox administration wants to accomplish when they take office in January and her ongoing struggles with the long-term effects of coronavirus.