The South Prevails
As I predicted would happen last week, veteran State Rep. Becky Lockhart has been removed from her position as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, leaving Utah County without a key leadership position in the House for the first time in several years.
It appears the power has shifted in the House to Washington County, since the new House Rules Committee Chairman is Steve Urquhart, R-St. George. Fellow St. George Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, was elected House Majority Leader last month.
Last year, Lockhart, from Provo, was head of Rules and Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, was majority leader. But Alexander will no longer be in the House and Lockhart has been shifted to vice-chair of the Executive Appropriations Committee.
Utah County representation is still strong among the leadership in the Senate, with Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, the president and Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, the majority leader.
Salt Lake County has no leadership position in the Senate. But the House Speaker is Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and the Appropriations Chairman is Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City.
Curtis finalized his decisions on committee assignments today and alerted House members to the new assignments this afternoon.
An irony is that Curtis only won re-election by 20 votes this year. Had he lost, it is possible Salt Lake County, Utah's most populous county by far, would have had no leadership or key committee chairmanships in the Legislature.
Cheers,
Paul Rolly
It appears the power has shifted in the House to Washington County, since the new House Rules Committee Chairman is Steve Urquhart, R-St. George. Fellow St. George Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, was elected House Majority Leader last month.
Last year, Lockhart, from Provo, was head of Rules and Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, was majority leader. But Alexander will no longer be in the House and Lockhart has been shifted to vice-chair of the Executive Appropriations Committee.
Utah County representation is still strong among the leadership in the Senate, with Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, the president and Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, the majority leader.
Salt Lake County has no leadership position in the Senate. But the House Speaker is Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and the Appropriations Chairman is Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City.
Curtis finalized his decisions on committee assignments today and alerted House members to the new assignments this afternoon.
An irony is that Curtis only won re-election by 20 votes this year. Had he lost, it is possible Salt Lake County, Utah's most populous county by far, would have had no leadership or key committee chairmanships in the Legislature.
Cheers,
Paul Rolly
3:51 PM
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5 Comments:
Paul,
You whine about Salt Lake County not having enough representation in the Senate, but you ought to mention that Salt Lake County has had a lock on the governor's mansion for several decades. When was the last time a governor came from Utah County? Was it Clyde back in the 1960s?
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
You also fail to address that most of the minority party’s leadership is from SLCo, and when you consider the amount of democrats representing SLCo, having the Speakership is a pretty good feat.
Hey Paul - the vice Chair of Executive Appropriations IS a member of the seven member leadership/negotiating team. I would characterize that as a key leadership position.
It would have been worth that to have Greg Curtis gone>
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