Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2020 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2021 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2021: | 2 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2021: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Steve R. Christiansen'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.| 2020 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||
| Chamber | House | House | |
| District | H47 | H47 | |
| Party | R | R | |
| Leadership | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | |
| Years comparison | | |
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| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||
| Introduced by Christiansen | 3 | 6 | |
| Chamber average | 7.3 | 6.6 | |
| Difference | -4.3 | -0.6 | |
| Comparison | | == | |
| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Christiansen's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||
| Bills introduced | 3 | 6 | |
| Bills passed | 0 | 2 | |
| Passage rate | 0.0% | 33% | |
| Chamber average | 58% | 60% | |
| Difference | -57.6 | -26.8 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| 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 | 0 | 1 | |
| Chamber average | 3.1 | 3.1 | |
| Difference | -3.1 | -2.1 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| 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 | 26 | 37 | |
| Total votes held | 698 | 666 | |
| Absentee rate | 3.7% | 5.6% | |
| Chamber average | 7.1% | 6.1% | |
| Difference | -3.4 | -0.5 | |
| Comparison | | == | |
| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| "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 | 72 | 95 | |
| Total votes held | 698 | 666 | |
| "Nay" rate | 10% | 14% | |
| Chamber average | 7.0% | 7.7% | |
| Difference | +3.0 | +6.3 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| 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 | 62% | 67% | |
| Chamber average | 67% | 66% | |
| Difference | -5.3 | +1.3 | |
| Comparison | | == | |
| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| 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. | |||
| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Christiansen 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) | 93% | 88% | |
| Chamber average | 95% | 94% | |
| Difference | -2.0 | -5.4 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2020 | 2021 | ||
| 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% | 90% | |
| Chamber average | 83% | 85% | |
| Difference | +10 | +5.1 | |
| Comparison | | |
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Only 5 bills sponsored by Rep. Christiansen have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Christiansen 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Christiansen | HB0364S05 | 41 | 32 | 12% | House/ circled |
| 2020 | Christiansen | HB0364S05 | 16 | 7 | 39% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2020 | Christiansen | HB0364S05 | 47 | 20 | 40% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0246S03 | 8 | 20 | 43% | Senate/ failed |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0307S02 | 54 | 15 | 57% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0213S01 | 18 | 5 | 57% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0246S03 | 58 | 9 | 73% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0213S01 | 68 | 0 | 100% | House/ concurs with Senate amendment |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0213S01 | 26 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2021 | Christiansen | HB0213S01 | 69 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
