Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 1993 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2010 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2010: | 18 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2010: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. James R. Gowans'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.| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||||
| Chamber | House | House | House | House | |
| District | H21 | H21 | H21 | H21 | |
| Party | D | D | D | D | |
| Leadership | None | None | Whip | Whip | |
| Years in chamber | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Years comparison | | | | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||||
| Introduced by Gowans | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | |
| Chamber average | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.9 | 6.1 | |
| Difference | -2.1 | -2.1 | -3.9 | -3.1 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Gowans's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||||
| Bills introduced | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | |
| Bills passed | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Passage rate | 25% | 50% | 100% | 67% | |
| Chamber average | 51% | 53% | 60% | 61% | |
| Difference | -25.6 | -2.8 | +40 | +6.1 | |
| Comparison | | == | | == | |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 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 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Chamber average | 3.1 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 2.8 | |
| Difference | +0.9 | +0.8 | -2.8 | -2.8 | |
| Comparison | == | == | | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 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 | 74 | 85 | 61 | 132 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | 616 | 600 | 614 | |
| Absentee rate | 12% | 14% | 10% | 21% | |
| Chamber average | 8.3% | 8.3% | 6.0% | 6.8% | |
| Difference | +3.7 | +5.7 | +4.0 | +14 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| "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 | 73 | 57 | 53 | 34 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | 616 | 600 | 614 | |
| "Nay" rate | 12% | 9.3% | 8.8% | 5.5% | |
| Chamber average | 7.2% | 6.0% | 8.1% | 7.4% | |
| Difference | +4.8 | +3.3 | +0.7 | -1.9 | |
| Comparison | | | == | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 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 | 46% | 58% | 63% | 73% | |
| Chamber average | 67% | 69% | 66% | 69% | |
| Difference | -20.2 | -11.0 | -3.9 | +3.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | == | |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 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. | |||||
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Gowans 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) | 88% | 92% | 94% | 93% | |
| Chamber average | 95% | 95% | 94% | 95% | |
| Difference | -6.1 | -3.3 | -0.8 | -1.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| 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) | 59% | 61% | 65% | 56% | |
| Chamber average | 79% | 82% | 81% | 84% | |
| Difference | -20.5 | -20.6 | -16.1 | -28.4 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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Only 11 bills sponsored by Rep. Gowans have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Gowans 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Gowans | HB0084S03 | 23 | 4 | 70% | Senate/ pass 2nd |
| 2007 | Gowans | HB0084S03 | 63 | 8 | 77% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2008 | Gowans | HB0409 | 63 | 6 | 83% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2007 | Gowans | HB0446 | 65 | 2 | 94% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2010 | Gowans | HB0406S01 | 62 | 1 | 97% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2010 | Gowans | HB0406S01 | 71 | 0 | 100% | House/ concurs with Senate amendment |
| 2010 | Gowans | HB0406S01 | 28 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2010 | Gowans | HB0069 | 25 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2010 | Gowans | HB0069 | 74 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2009 | Gowans | HB0383 | 28 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ pass 3rd |
