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| First session in legislature: | 2013 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2018 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2018: | 0 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2018: | 6 |
I present a variety of statistics about Sen. Jim Dabakis'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.| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||||||
| Chamber | Senate | Senate | Senate | Senate | Senate | Senate | |
| District | S2 | S2 | S2 | S2 | S2 | S2 | |
| Party | D | D | D | D | D | D | |
| Leadership | None | None | CaucusMgr | CaucusMgr | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Years comparison | | | | | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||||||
| Introduced by Dabakis | 1 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | |
| Chamber average | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 9.6 | |
| Difference | -9.8 | -5.6 | -5.4 | -1.1 | -5.6 | -3.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | == | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Sen. Dabakis's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||||||
| Bills introduced | 1 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | |
| Bills passed | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Passage rate | 0.0% | 40% | 33% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 17% | |
| Chamber average | 65% | 70% | 68% | 68% | 74% | 83% | |
| Difference | -65.4 | -29.7 | -35.2 | -67.6 | -73.7 | -66.3 | |
| Comparison | | | | | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| 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 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | |
| Difference | -11.1 | -10.5 | -9.3 | -9.8 | -13.4 | -12.2 | |
| Comparison | | | | | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| 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 | 75 | 83 | 168 | 76 | 55 | 116 | |
| Total votes held | 940 | 840 | 951 | 860 | 913 | 926 | |
| Absentee rate | 8.0% | 9.9% | 18% | 8.8% | 6.0% | 13% | |
| Chamber average | 11% | 12% | 12% | 14% | 10% | 13% | |
| Difference | -3.1 | -1.6 | +6.3 | -5.2 | -4.4 | -0.1 | |
| Comparison | | == | | | | == | |
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| "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 | 76 | 57 | 64 | 72 | 85 | 63 | |
| Total votes held | 940 | 840 | 951 | 860 | 913 | 926 | |
| "Nay" rate | 8.1% | 6.8% | 6.7% | 8.4% | 9.3% | 6.8% | |
| Chamber average | 3.7% | 3.6% | 4.8% | 3.7% | 2.8% | 3.2% | |
| Difference | +4.4 | +3.2 | +1.9 | +4.7 | +6.5 | +3.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| 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 | 56% | 57% | 58% | 40% | 38% | 57% | |
| Chamber average | 69% | 67% | 68% | 67% | 68% | 68% | |
| Difference | -12.9 | -9.9 | -10.2 | -26.5 | -30.1 | -10.8 | |
| Comparison | | | | | | |
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| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| 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. | |||||||
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Sen. Dabakis 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) | 96% | 96% | 98% | 98% | 96% | 97% | |
| Chamber average | 97% | 97% | 96% | 97% | 98% | 97% | |
| Difference | -1.2 | -0.6 | +2.3 | +0.6 | -2.2 | -0.5 | |
| Comparison | | == | | == | | == | |
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
| 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) | 92% | 85% | 91% | 98% | 93% | 91% | |
| Chamber average | 85% | 84% | 83% | 87% | 86% | 85% | |
| Difference | +7.2 | +0.5 | +8.1 | +11 | +6.2 | +5.9 | |
| Comparison | | == | | | | |
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Only 8 bills sponsored by Sen. Dabakis have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Sen. Dabakis 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Dabakis | SB0194S01 | 44 | 30 | 19% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2016 | Dabakis | SB0170 | 10 | 15 | 20% | Senate/ failed |
| 2015 | Dabakis | SB0105 | 17 | 10 | 26% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2015 | Dabakis | SB0105 | 20 | 8 | 43% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2018 | Dabakis | SJR016S01 | 18 | 54 | 50% | House/ failed |
| 2018 | Dabakis | SJR016S01 | 22 | 6 | 57% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2018 | Dabakis | SCR003 | 55 | 14 | 59% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2015 | Dabakis | SR0003 | 21 | 5 | 62% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2014 | Dabakis | SJR019 | 61 | 11 | 69% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2014 | Dabakis | SB0058 | 21 | 3 | 75% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
