Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2017 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2020 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2020: | 4 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2020: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Karen Kwan'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.| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | H34 | H34 | H34 | H34 | |
| Party | D | D | D | D | |
| Leadership | None | None | CaucusMgr | CaucusMgr | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Years comparison | | | | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||||
| Introduced by Kwan | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 | |
| Chamber average | 6.7 | 7.1 | 7.3 | 7.3 | |
| Difference | -4.7 | -1.1 | -1.3 | -3.3 | |
| Comparison | | == | == | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Kwan's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||||
| Bills introduced | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 | |
| Bills passed | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | |
| Passage rate | 100.0% | 66.7% | 100.0% | 50.0% | |
| Chamber average | 61.4% | 53.4% | 63.5% | 57.6% | |
| Difference | +38.6 | +13.3 | +36.5 | -7.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | == | |
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| 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 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Chamber average | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.1 | |
| Difference | -2.6 | -3.4 | -2.4 | -3.1 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| 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 | 17 | 35 | 18 | 36 | |
| Total votes held | 727 | 734 | 752 | 698 | |
| Absentee rate | 2.3% | 4.8% | 2.4% | 5.2% | |
| Chamber average | 5.2% | 8.0% | 6.4% | 7.1% | |
| Difference | -2.9 | -3.2 | -4.0 | -1.9 | |
| Comparison | | == | | == | |
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| "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 | 101 | 68 | 64 | 51 | |
| Total votes held | 727 | 734 | 752 | 698 | |
| "Nay" rate | 13.9% | 9.3% | 8.5% | 7.3% | |
| Chamber average | 7.1% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 7.0% | |
| Difference | +6.8 | +2.8 | +2.0 | +0.3 | |
| Comparison | | | | == | |
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Influence or "floor power" (learn more). What percentage of the time is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote? | |||||
| Floor power score | 52.9% | 57.6% | 47.3% | 60.0% | |
| Chamber average | 66.8% | 66.3% | 68.3% | 67.0% | |
| Difference | -13.9 | -8.7 | -21.0 | -7.0 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Ideology score 1 (from interest group ratings). Half a dozen interest groups release ratings of each legislator after each legislative session. I rescale them all from 0 (most liberal) to 100 (most conservative) and average them together, resulting in the numbers reported here. | |||||
| Average rating | na | na | na | na | |
| Chamber average | na | na | na | na | |
| Difference | na | na | na | na | |
| Comparison | na | na | na | na | |
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Ideology score 2 (NOMINATE method) (learn more). Using a widely accepted scaling method, I calculate each legislator's ideology score (called a "NOMINATE" score) after each legislative session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning; they are useful only for comparing two legislators. A legislator with a higher score is more to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme. | |||||
| NOMINATE score | -90.7 | -87.4 | -80.4 | -76.6 | |
| Chamber average | 20.7 | 9.8 | 16.1 | 17.4 | |
| Difference | -111.4 | -97.2 | -96.5 | -94.0 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Kwan 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) | 97.2% | 98.4% | 97.8% | 98.0% | |
| Chamber average | 94.9% | 93.8% | 95.4% | 94.8% | |
| Difference | +2.3 | +4.6 | +2.4 | +3.2 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| 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) | 92.6% | 93.0% | 90.4% | 92.1% | |
| Chamber average | 87.1% | 83.0% | 84.6% | 83.5% | |
| Difference | +5.5 | +10.0 | +5.8 | +8.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
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Only 16 bills sponsored by Rep. Kwan have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Kwan 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 | Kwan | HB0256 | 48 | 26 | 29.7% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2018 | Kwan | HB0206 | 16 | 6 | 45.5% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2018 | Kwan | HB0209S01 | 54 | 16 | 54.3% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2018 | Kwan | HB0263S02 | 59 | 13 | 63.9% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2019 | Kwan | HB0154 | 70 | 2 | 94.4% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2020 | Kwan | HB0414S02 | 71 | 2 | 94.5% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2017 | Kwan | HB0170 | 72 | 1 | 97.3% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2020 | Kwan | HB0256 | 23 | 0 | 100.0% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2020 | Kwan | HB0119 | 27 | 0 | 100.0% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2020 | Kwan | HB0119 | 75 | 0 | 100.0% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
