Adam R Brown

Senator Michael G. Waddoups
Utah legislator profile

Years served in the Utah legislature

How to read the statistical profile

I present a variety of statistics about Sen. Michael G. Waddoups'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.

• / 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.
• == You will see an equals sign if the legislator is roughly average.

Sen. Waddoups's statistical profile

		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007.
	Legislative chamber	Senate	Senate	Senate	Senate	Senate	Senate
	District	S6	S6	S6	S6	S6	S6
	Party	R	R	R	R	R	R
	Leadership	None	None	SenPres	SenPres	SenPres	SenPres
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber.
	Introduced by Waddoups	10	8	5	1	1	2
	Chamber average	9.6	9.8	12.3	8.9	10.6	9.8
	Difference	+0.4	-1.8	-7.3	-7.9	-9.6	-7.8
	Comparison	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Sen. Waddoups's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.)
	Bills introduced	10	8	5	1	1	2
	Bills passed	5	5	3	1	1	2
	Passage rate	50.0%	62.5%	60.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
	Chamber average	62.5%	68.0%	63.0%	68.6%	70.2%	71.7%
	Difference	-12.5	-5.5	-3.0	+31.4	+29.8	+28.3
	Comparison		==	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
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	12	12	2	4	2	1
	Chamber average	11.6	11.5	11.1	11.0	11.4	11.8
	Difference	+0.4	+0.5	-9.1	-7.0	-9.4	-10.8
	Comparison	==	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
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	40	32	43	36	58	74
	Total votes held	821	807	963	786	940	890
	Absentee rate	4.9%	4.0%	4.5%	4.6%	6.2%	8.3%
	Chamber average	8.8%	9.6%	11.0%	11.9%	14.4%	9.9%
	Difference	-3.9	-5.6	-6.5	-7.3	-8.2	-1.6
	Comparison						==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
"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	30	33	35	30	22	33
	Total votes held	821	807	963	786	940	890
	"Nay" rate	3.7%	4.1%	3.6%	3.8%	2.3%	3.7%
	Chamber average	4.1%	4.1%	4.0%	4.6%	3.4%	4.8%
	Difference	-0.4	-0.0	-0.4	-0.8	-1.1	-1.1
	Comparison	==	==	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Influence or "floor power" (learn more). What percentage of the time is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote?
	Floor power score	70.5%	74.6%	73.6%	79.2%	81.7%	76.5%
	Chamber average	69.8%	69.1%	70.2%	70.2%	71.7%	70.5%
	Difference	+0.7	+5.5	+3.4	+9.0	+10.0	+6.0
	Comparison	==	==	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Interest group rating. Half a dozen interest groups release ratings of each legislator after each legislative session. I rescale them all from 0 (most liberal) to 100 (most conservative) and average them together, resulting in the numbers reported here.
	NOMINATE score	66.8	59.7	81.0	85.3	79.7	na
	Chamber average	57.7	50.0	60.5	69.3	73.5	na
	Difference	+9.1	+9.7	+20.5	+16.0	+6.2	na
	Comparison					==	na
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Ideology score (learn more). Using a widely accepted scaling method, I calculate each legislator's ideology score (called a "NOMINATE" score) after each legislative session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning; they are useful only for comparing two legislators. A legislator with a higher score is more to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme.
	NOMINATE score	62.6	50.2	83.3	80.3	84.0	na
	Chamber average	0.4	5.5	36.6	28.0	44.0	na
	Difference	+62.2	+44.7	+46.7	+52.3	+40.0	na
	Comparison						na
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Sen. Waddoups 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%.
	Party support score (overall)	96.7%	96.2%	97.2%	97.6%	97.8%	96.6%
	Chamber average	96.7%	97.1%	97.2%	97.1%	97.8%	96.5%
	Difference	-0.0	-0.9	0.0	+0.5	+0.0	+0.1
	Comparison	==		==		==	==
		2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
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.
	Party support score (party-line only)	93.2%	86.0%	98.3%	94.7%	91.7%	90.2%
	Chamber average	83.4%	84.8%	89.5%	88.5%	91.2%	88.0%
	Difference	+9.8	+1.2	+8.8	+6.2	+0.5	+2.2
	Comparison		==			==	==

Votes on Sen. Waddoups's bills

Many votes have been held on bills sponsored by Sen. Waddoups. In the interest of space, I display only the most and least divisive votes held on Sen. Waddoups's bills.

Sen. Waddoups's most divisive bills

Listed below are the 10 votes on bills sponsored by Sen. Waddoups that had the closest vote margin (as a percent of the total votes cast).

Sen. Waddoups's least divisive bills

Listed below are the 10 votes on bills sponsored by Sen. Waddoups that had the widest vote margin (as a percent of the total votes cast).

Hi. My name is Adam Brown. How to contact me. I work at BYU, where I teach political science courses and do research. I got my PhD at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). All content and code ©2005-2013 Adam R Brown unless noted. Do not republish any material from this site anywhere else without permission. Featuring glorious hand-coded PHP and valid XHTML/CSS. This page last updated March 14th, 2012.. Want more scripture power?