Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 1997 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2007 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2007: | 11 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2007: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Ralph Becker's service in the Utah legislature. I highlight differences from chamber averages using little green and red arrows. The number of arrows is statistically determined. More arrows indicate a larger difference compared to the chamber average, in relation to how much diversity there is among legislators on this metric. If all legislators introduce exactly 5 bills, then a legislator who introduces 10 is very different; if legislators vary wildly in how many bills they introduce (but the average is still 5), then a legislator who introduces 10 bills may be less different from average. The standard deviation measures this diversity.
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Three arrows mean that the legislator is significantly different from average (i.e. at least two standard deviations from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 2% or so)./ Two arrows mean that the legislator is somewhat different from average (i.e. at least one standard deviation from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 16% or so)./ One arrow indicates that the legislator is only slightly different from average (i.e. one-third standard deviation from the mean). A single arrow indicates a very small difference; don't make too much of it.| 2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | ||
| Chamber | House | |
| District | H24 | |
| Party | D | |
| Leadership | MinLdr | |
| Years in chamber | 11 | |
| Years comparison | |
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| 2007 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | ||
| Introduced by Becker | 5 | |
| Chamber average | 6.1 | |
| Difference | -1.1 | |
| Comparison | == | |
| 2007 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Becker's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | ||
| Bills introduced | 5 | |
| Bills passed | 1 | |
| Passage rate | 20% | |
| Chamber average | 51% | |
| Difference | -30.6 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2007 | ||
| Bills floor sponsored. A "floor sponsor" is like a secondary sponsor of a bill. After a bill passes the sponsor's chamber, its sponsor needs to find a "floor sponsor" in the other chamber to usher it through the other chamber. | ||
| Total floor sponsored | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 3.1 | |
| Difference | -1.1 | |
| Comparison | == | |
| 2007 | ||
| Missed votes (learn more). Usually missed votes occur because of competing obligations within the legislature, not because the legislator has left the capitol. | ||
| Missed votes | 54 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | |
| Absentee rate | 9.0% | |
| Chamber average | 8.3% | |
| Difference | +0.7 | |
| Comparison | == | |
| 2007 | ||
| "Nay" votes (learn more). Most floor votes pass by overwhelming majorities, since unpopular bills get weeded out long before they reach the floor. As a result, "nay" votes are rare. | ||
| "Nay" votes | 75 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | |
| "Nay" rate | 12% | |
| Chamber average | 7.2% | |
| Difference | +4.8 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2007 | ||
| Winning side rate (learn more). What percentage of the time (excluding near-unanimous votes) is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote? | ||
| Winning side rate | 41% | |
| Chamber average | 67% | |
| Difference | -25.9 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2007 | ||
| Ideology score (NOMINATE method) (learn more). Using W-NOMINATE algorithm developed by Congressional scholars, I calculate each legislator's relative ideology after each General Session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning. They are only relative: A legislator with a higher score is to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. Scores may be compared only within a single chamber and a single year. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme. | ||
| Contact me for scores. They get misinterpreted often enough that I now provide them only to political scientists. | ||
| 2007 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Becker support his/her party? That is, what percentage of the time does the legislator vote with the majority of the other members of his/her party? Scores are usually easily above 90%. | ||
| Score (overall) | 95% | |
| Chamber average | 95% | |
| Difference | +0.9 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2007 | ||
| Party support score (party-line only) (learn more). This is the same as the "raw" party support score, but we look only at party-line votes when calculating this. A "party-line" vote occurs when the majority of Democrats votes against the majority of Republicans. Although party-line votes are rare, looking at the legislator's party support score in this setting can be revealing. | ||
| Score (party-line only) | 94% | |
| Chamber average | 79% | |
| Difference | +15 | |
| Comparison | |
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Only 3 bills sponsored by Rep. Becker have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Becker sponsored. The votes are sorted by vote margin, with the most divisive votes listed first.
| Year | Sponsor | Bill | Ayes | Nays | Margin (as % of total votes) |
Type of vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Becker | HB0020 | 21 | 4 | 68% | Senate/ pass 3rd |
| 2007 | Becker | HB0020 | 26 | 1 | 93% | Senate/ pass 2nd |
| 2007 | Becker | HJR002 | 70 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2007 | Becker | HB0178S01 | 73 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2007 | Becker | HB0020 | 68 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
