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Ideology scores for the Utah House of Representatives, 2017

Political scientists have developed advanced algorithms that can calculate each legislator's ideology score based on his or her legislative voting record. Here I use the W-NOMINATE method (it's an acronym, hence the caps). Important caveats:

  1. Ideology scores have no scale. There is not a number that means "liberal" or "conservative." Scores have only relative meaning, so that a lower score indicates a more liberal voting record than a higher score.
  2. Scores are only comparable within a single chamber, within a single year. You cannot compare House scores to Senate scores, and you cannot compare 2018 scores to 2019 scores. (That's because of caveat #1: Scores have no scale.)
  3. Scores reflect what comes to the floor. In a supermajority Republican Legislature, most fights are between moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans, not between Republicans and Democrats. Thus, scores calculated from votes in the Utah Legislature will reveal more daylight among Republicans than among Democrats.
  4. Zero does not mean "moderate," it just means "the middle of this group of legislators." See the preceding point. Also, "moderate" Utah Republican legislators are usually pretty conservative on a national scale.
  5. Scores close to 100 are not "most loyal Republicans." Even calling these "most conservative" would be very misleading, since it implies these legislators come closest to some conservative standard. Utah is a very conservative state, and a legislator near the middle of this particular Republican pack is likewise very conservative. Scores near 100 indicate Republicans at the extreme end of the scale, who are to the right of even most Republicans, and perhaps well to the right of the Republican party platform.

You can find a thorough discussion of these ideology scores at the Utah data points blog.

The scores below are for 2017 in the Utah House of Representatives. Select a different year here:
House: - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019
Senate: - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019

Distribution of scores

The plot below summarizes how many legislators fall into each score range. There is one "D" for each Democrat in the given range, and one "R" for each Republican. There are 75 legislators in the Utah House of Representatives.

 -100 to -90 | DDDDDDD
-90.1 to -80 | DD
-80.1 to -70 | DDD
-70.1 to -60 | 
-60.1 to -50 | 
-50.1 to -40 | D
-40.1 to -30 | 
-30.1 to -20 | 
-20.1 to -10 | 
  -10.1 to 0 | 
   0.1 to 10 | RR
  10.1 to 20 | RRRR
  20.1 to 30 | RRRRRRRRR
  30.1 to 40 | RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
  40.1 to 50 | RRRRRRRRRRR
  50.1 to 60 | RRRRRRRRRR
  60.1 to 70 | RRRRR
  70.1 to 80 | RRR
  80.1 to 90 | RRR
 90.1 to 100 |

Detailed ideology data

If you use this data in published work, please credit me appropriately.

Legislator Party Chamber Year Ideology score
Romero, Angela D House 2017 -98.7
Chavez-Houck, Rebecca D House 2017 -96.2
Briscoe, Joel K. D House 2017 -96.0
Hollins, Sandra D House 2017 -95.2
Arent, Patrice M. D House 2017 -92.0
Kwan, Karen D House 2017 -90.7
Weight, Elizabeth D House 2017 -90.1
Moss, Carol Spackman D House 2017 -82.2
Poulson, Marie H. D House 2017 -80.9
Hemingway, Lynn N. D House 2017 -79.1
Wheatley, Mark A. D House 2017 -76.5
King, Brian S. D House 2017 -73.6
Duckworth, Susan D House 2017 -45.6
Edwards, Rebecca P. R House 2017 7.5
Ward, Raymond P. R House 2017 8.4
Redd, Edward H. R House 2017 15.3
Spendlove, Robert M. R House 2017 15.9
Winder, Mike R House 2017 16.2
Hall, Craig R House 2017 16.6
Potter, Val K. R House 2017 21.5
Handy, Stephen G. R House 2017 22.0
Miles, Kelly B. R House 2017 23.2
Pitcher, Dixon M. R House 2017 23.6
Hutchings, Eric K. R House 2017 25.5
Eliason, Steve R House 2017 27.3
Watkins, Christine F. R House 2017 27.3
Christensen, LaVar R House 2017 28.1
Perry, Lee B. R House 2017 29.0
Chew, Scott H. R House 2017 31.3
Webb, R. Curt R House 2017 32.4
Cutler, Bruce R. R House 2017 33.2
Gardiner, Adam R House 2017 33.4
Snow, V. Lowry R House 2017 33.5
Sagers, Douglas R House 2017 34.4
Ray, Paul R House 2017 34.5
Last, Bradley G. R House 2017 35.0
Wilson, Brad R. R House 2017 35.3
Dunnigan, James A. R House 2017 35.4
Albrecht, Carl R. R House 2017 36.2
Nelson, Merrill F. R House 2017 36.3
Peterson, Jeremy A. R House 2017 36.6
Hughes, Gregory H. R House 2017 37.5
Hawkes, Timothy D. R House 2017 38.2
Westwood, John R. R House 2017 40.1
Froerer, Gage R House 2017 40.2
Noel, Michael E. R House 2017 41.7
Owens, Derrin R House 2017 43.3
Sanpei, Dean R House 2017 43.6
Barlow, Stewart R House 2017 44.6
Sandall, Scott D. R House 2017 45.5
Pulsipher, Susan R House 2017 45.7
Brooks, Walt R House 2017 46.5
Grover, Keith R House 2017 47.5
Schultz, Mike R House 2017 49.6
Daw, Bradley M. R House 2017 50.9
Kennedy, Michael S. R House 2017 52.5
Moss, Jefferson R House 2017 52.5
Christofferson, Kay J. R House 2017 53.2
McKell, Mike K. R House 2017 54.9
Maloy, A. Cory R House 2017 56.0
Stratton, Keven J. R House 2017 58.1
Peterson, Val L. R House 2017 58.7
Stanard, Jon E. R House 2017 59.1
Wilde, Logan R House 2017 59.4
Quinn, Tim R House 2017 61.3
Fawson, Justin L. R House 2017 62.0
Gibson, Francis D. R House 2017 62.1
Coleman, Kim R House 2017 63.6
Thurston, Norman K. R House 2017 64.3
Knotwell, John R House 2017 75.1
Lisonbee, Karianne R House 2017 76.0
Ivory, Ken R House 2017 78.7
Greene, Brian M. R House 2017 85.8
Roberts, Marc K. R House 2017 88.3
McCay, Daniel R House 2017 88.5