Demos pick new leaders

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Nov 11, 2004 | by Bob Bernick Jr.

Legislative leadership races can get ugly, even for the minority Democrats who have limited power in the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature.

Tuesday night, House Minority Leader Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley, was dumped by his caucus after just one two-year term.

And Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Caucus Manager Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake, was booted by her newly enlarged caucus.

As with all leadership races, there are the official, public reasons for such changes. And then there's what happened behind the scenes.

Hale's political stumble Wednesday comes on the heels of a bigger defeat -- she was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson Jr.'s lieutenant governor running mate. The Matheson/Hale ticket lost to the Jon Huntsman/Gary Herbert GOP slate Nov. 2.

So Hale went in a week from possibly being a heartbeat away from the state's second-in-command to being out of Senate minority leadership.

Hale may well have been pushed out of leadership for even considering challenging longtime Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price -- as several senators said she would late last week.

She ended up being allowed to keep her spot on the powerful Executive Appropriations Committee, but had to give up her title of Minority Caucus Manager to Sen. Paula Julander, D-Salt Lake.

"We needed unity," Dmitrich said of the leadership slate approved Wednesday by the eight-member caucus that returned everyone but Hale. "It's not unusual for Democrats to have little internal battles."

Hale, who never publicly announced her intentions, said remaining in leadership "just wasn't in the cards."

Goodfellow was beaten by Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, the man whom Goodfellow himself replaced in the 2002 leadership elections.

Newly-elected Democratic leaders in both houses said, for the record, that their minority caucuses are united and looking forward to working closely with their Republican colleagues where they can, opposing them in 2005 and 2006 when the needs arise.

In the mid-1980s, Dmitrich and Goodfellow were the one-two leaders of the House Democrats -- before a group of newly-elected Democrats took them out in leadership elections. The new House Democratic leaders took the GOP majority head-on -- leading at times to filibusters, shouting matches and general bad feelings.

Dmitrich moved on to the Senate, where minority leaders likewise had difficult relationships with the then Republican political bosses.

Four years ago, Dmitrich won the minority leadership post -- and promised a more get-along, come-along attitude.

Senate Democrats, who had a miserable record of seeing their bills passed into law, claimed a turnaround under the Dmitrich leadership.

Dmitrich told the minority caucus Wednesday that he has good working relationships with the newly elected GOP leadership. "I don't see a problem with any of them," he said.

In 2002, House Democrats opted for Goodfellow's more congenial leadership in the House.

But Goodfellow was at times criticized for not openly opposing the majority Republicans. In 2003 he admitted to the Deseret Morning News that he couldn't remember a single time over the previous general session where he'd risen to speak against a GOP-sponsored bill or budget item.

Becker said Wednesday that while Democrats and Republicans alike admire Goodfellow, "there was a missing component" to his leadership.

"No one doubted Brent's ability to make deals" with Republicans behind the scenes and keep good relations with them, said Becker. "But we still have to represent the (Democratic) caucus and make our views known" to the public.

Did House Democrats have more success with their own bills under a Goodfellow leadership? "I actually looked at the (success ratio) numbers," said Becker. "And there was no real difference" between 2002 and 2004.

House Democrats retained Minority Whip Brad King, D-Price, minority whip and elected Rep. Pat Jones, D-Cottonwood Heights, who was serving as minority caucus manager, to be the assistant minority whip. Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, was chosen as the new minority caucus manager.

In the Senate, the minority caucus kept not only Dmitrich, but also Minority Whip Ron Allen, D-Tooele, and Assistant Minority Whip Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake.