Political scientists have developed advanced algorithms that can calculate each legislator's ideology score based on his or her legislative voting record, called a NOMINATE score (it's an acronym, hence the caps). Usually these scores are used to study Congress. They are difficult and time-consuming to calculate, so they are not available for most states. As part of my research, I calculated scores for Utah legislators. Important caveats:
You can find a thorough discussion of these ideology scores at the Utah data points blog.
The scores below are for 2018 in the Utah Senate. Select a different year here:
House: - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018
Senate: - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018
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 29 legislators in the Utah Senate.
-100 to -90 | DD -90.1 to -80 | DDD -80.1 to -70 | -70.1 to -60 | -60.1 to -50 | R -50.1 to -40 | -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 | RR 20.1 to 30 | RRR 30.1 to 40 | RRRR 40.1 to 50 | R 50.1 to 60 | R 60.1 to 70 | R 70.1 to 80 | R 80.1 to 90 | RRRRRRR 90.1 to 100 | R
If you use this data in published work, please credit me appropriately.
Legislator | Party | Chamber | Year | Ideology score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Davis, Gene | D | Senate | 2018 | -98.6 |
Dabakis, Jim | D | Senate | 2018 | -94.7 |
Iwamoto, Jani | D | Senate | 2018 | -86.8 |
Mayne, Karen | D | Senate | 2018 | -85.3 |
Escamilla, Luz Robles | D | Senate | 2018 | -84.4 |
Zehnder, Brian | R | Senate | 2018 | -54.8 |
Weiler, Todd | R | Senate | 2018 | 2.3 |
Hillyard, Lyle W. | R | Senate | 2018 | 5.0 |
Buxton, D. Gregg | R | Senate | 2018 | 14.5 |
Okerlund, Ralph | R | Senate | 2018 | 17.4 |
Niederhauser, Wayne L. | R | Senate | 2018 | 21.4 |
Thatcher, Daniel W. | R | Senate | 2018 | 25.2 |
Millner, Ann | R | Senate | 2018 | 27.8 |
Knudson, Peter C. | R | Senate | 2018 | 31.1 |
Stevenson, Jerry W. | R | Senate | 2018 | 35.1 |
Van Tassell, Kevin T. | R | Senate | 2018 | 36.3 |
Bramble, Curtis S. | R | Senate | 2018 | 38.4 |
Adams, J. Stuart | R | Senate | 2018 | 47.3 |
Hemmert, Daniel | R | Senate | 2018 | 53.8 |
Ipson, Don L. | R | Senate | 2018 | 68.4 |
Fillmore, Lincoln | R | Senate | 2018 | 74.9 |
Harper, Wayne A. | R | Senate | 2018 | 81.2 |
Vickers, Evan J. | R | Senate | 2018 | 82.0 |
Anderegg, Jacob L. | R | Senate | 2018 | 82.1 |
Stephenson, Howard A. | R | Senate | 2018 | 83.8 |
Henderson, Deidre M. | R | Senate | 2018 | 87.8 |
Christensen, Allen M. | R | Senate | 2018 | 87.9 |
Hinkins, David P. | R | Senate | 2018 | 89.5 |
Dayton, Margaret | R | Senate | 2018 | 97.6 |