Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 1999 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2008 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2008: | 4 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2008: | 4 |
I present a variety of statistics about Sen. Fred J. Fife'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 | 2008 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||
| Chamber | Senate | Senate | |
| District | S1 | S1 | |
| Party | D | D | |
| Leadership | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 3 | 4 | |
| Years comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||
| Introduced by Fife | 3 | 3 | |
| Chamber average | 9.6 | 9.8 | |
| Difference | -6.6 | -6.8 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Sen. Fife's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||
| Bills introduced | 3 | 3 | |
| Bills passed | 0 | 3 | |
| Passage rate | 0.0% | 100% | |
| Chamber average | 63% | 68% | |
| Difference | -62.5 | +32 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| 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 | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 12 | 11 | |
| Difference | -9.6 | -9.5 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| 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 | 6 | 27 | |
| Total votes held | 820 | 806 | |
| Absentee rate | 0.7% | 3.3% | |
| Chamber average | 8.9% | 9.6% | |
| Difference | -8.2 | -6.3 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| "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 | 45 | 47 | |
| Total votes held | 820 | 806 | |
| "Nay" rate | 5.5% | 5.8% | |
| Chamber average | 4.1% | 4.1% | |
| Difference | +1.4 | +1.7 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| 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 | 51% | 44% | |
| Chamber average | 70% | 69% | |
| Difference | -19.0 | -25.6 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| 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 | 2008 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Sen. Fife 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) | 98% | 98% | |
| Chamber average | 97% | 97% | |
| Difference | +1.7 | +0.8 | |
| Comparison | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | ||
| 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) | 82% | 80% | |
| Chamber average | 83% | 85% | |
| Difference | -1.2 | -4.8 | |
| Comparison | == | |
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Only 4 bills sponsored by Sen. Fife have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Sen. Fife 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Fife | SB0200 | 44 | 24 | 29% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0200 | 23 | 2 | 84% | Senate/ pass 2nd |
| 2008 | Fife | SR0001S01 | 25 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 1st, 2nd, & 3rd (Suspension) |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0247 | 29 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ concurs with House amendments |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0247 | 65 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0247 | 29 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 3rd |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0247 | 27 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 2nd |
| 2008 | Fife | SB0200 | 25 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 3rd |
| 2007 | Fife | SB0231 | 23 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension) |
