Utah Politics with Bryan Schott

Utah's once-a-decade redistricting process is barreling to a close with both the legislative and independent redistricting committees are finishing up public meetings around the state. The independent group already has several map proposals online. They will present their final proposals to lawmakers on November 1. Chairman Rex Facer says they have to take a number of things into consideration as they draw their maps. “Part of what was going on in our mind was trying to think about the logistics of being a representative. One of the challenges we have is the rural parts of the state are sparsely populated, so those districts have to be really big, and the logistics of managing that size is really, really difficult,” Facer says. 

Given the strength of former President Donald Trump's hold on the GOP, it's reasonable to believe the party's future is leaning harder into the MAGA agenda. But Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan thinks that's the wrong path.Duncan says Trump gave his supporters and other Republicans a “short-term sugar high” with his bombastic and combative style. But, that rush also turned off a lot of voters and caused him to lose an election that should have been an easy layup.“We forgot to remind America of the policies conservatives are really good at. We need to own the economy and the best vision for people's next job and their career advancement. We forgot to do it,” Duncan says. “We need to own the policy lanes to get back to the kitchen tables and boardrooms across America to start winning elections again.”Duncan lays out his vision for the future of the GOP in his new book “GOP 2.0. How the 2020 Election Can Lead to a Better Way Forward for America's Conservative Party.”Duncan also talks about his experience in the aftermath of the 2020 election as Trump and his allies furiously worked to overturn his loss to Joe Biden. Duncan's refusal to go along with Trump's falsehoods about election fraud led to threats of violence against him and his family.“I was down in my office at the Capitol looking out my window. There were guys with AR-15s and body armor protecting me from potentially other Republicans, not terrorists,” Duncan said. “We had state troopers outside watching us while I was playing catch with my kids.”Geoff Duncan on Twitter: @GeoffDuncanGA

Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, has a unique perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only is she a Utah Legislator, but she also works in a busy operating room as an anesthesiologist.“As someone who's been working in our hospitals during this fourth wave, this is a huge problem,” Harrison says. “Our staff is exhausted and we're having a hard time finding beds for the people that need care.”She thinks her Republican colleagues in the Legislature have needlessly politicized the public response to the pandemic, which has harmed the state's effort to respond.“In some ways, legislative leaders are talking out of both sides of their mouth. On one side they're saying getting the vaccine is important, but on the other side, they give credibility to anti-vaccine groups by giving them time to present at a legislative hearing. It undermines the work our doctors and nurses are doing to save lives,” Harrison says.Listen to the full conversation below.Rep. Suzanne Harrison on Twitter: @VoteSuz

On this week's show, we chat with Grant Burningham. He's the new Statewatch Editor for The Tribune and will lead our government and politics reporting team. He discusses the importance of holding public officials accountable, and providing context to political news.Author Ben Mezrich also joins the podcast this week. His book, “The Accidental Billionaires” about the founding of Facebook was turned into the Academy Award-winning film “The Social Network.”His new book, “The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to its Knees” tells the crazy story about how a group of Reddit users were able to beat Wall Street. He also discusses what happens when sentiment drives trading rather than the intrinsic value of a thing. Grant Burningham on Twitter: @GrantebBen Mezrich on Twitter: @Benmezrich

Author Tom Nichols says democracy across the globe is under threat, but not for the reason you may think.Nichols, who is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, argues technologically advanced societies have increased their standard of living so rapidly, citizens are becoming bored, and care less about their fellow citizens.“People just got used to the idea that if things didn't go the way they wanted or things didn't happen in ways they approved of, it wasn't the fault of some government policy, it was the fault of democracy, and they wanted to overhaul the whole system and replace it with something more rigid,” Nichols said.He says in his new book Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assult from within on Modern Democracy that this is happening across the globe as once democratic nations are abandoning protections for free speech and religion and other important institutions.Nichols says nowhere is it more evident that Americans don't care about their fellow citizens than in our elections.“Our politics has become all about hurting other people, instead of trying to create something positive. We used to go to the polls and say, here's what I'm voting for. Now we go to the polls to vote against something and we hope it makes others really mad. The idea that we could all work together toward something has become alien to millions of people,” Nichols said.Listen to the full conversation with Nichols below.Tom Nichols on Twitter: @RadioFreeTom

In 2017, then-Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson was the subject of a criminal investigation. After several months, prosecutors declined to file charges against Gibson because they said there was not enough evidence to charge him with the crime of misusing public money. The report on the investigation, and what prosecutors found, remained out of the public eye. Longtime local journalist Cathy McKitrick filed an open records request to make those findings public, but Gibson fought hard to keep it under wraps. “Gibson kept claiming the release of the documents would embarrass his family and tarnish his reputation. But, as a public official, he is subject to a higher level of scrutiny,” McKitrick says. After a three-year court battle, the Utah Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Utah's open records laws do apply, and McKitrick won access to the documents. She joins the podcast to discuss her fight to get the report, and why it's important to hold public officials accountable. 

After a pandemic-related delay, the Census Bureau finally released the data Utah lawmakers will use to redraw the state's political boundaries in the once-a-decade redistricting process. On this episode, we bring you an on-the-record conversation between The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board and Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield and Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, the chairs of the Legislature's Redistricting Committee. Ray says he's eager to get down to business, but he understands no matter what the final maps look like, not everybody will be happy.“Our job is to look at the data, put it together, and do what we feel is the best move for Utah. There's always going to be a contingent of people that claim something is gerrymandered. There's nothing we can do about that,” Ray says. They discuss their approach to drawing the state's new political maps, how the public can get involved, and whether Utah's districts are drawn to favor Republicans over Democrats. 

Sen. Mitt Romney was warned ahead of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that he might be the target of violence from supporters of former President Donald Trump. That warning came from fellow Sen. Angus King of Maine, who himself was alerted to possible violence by America's top military leaders. That's just one of the dozens of startling revelations contained in the new book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year” by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.Rucker says Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was alarmed by threats of violence on social media, so he gave Sen. King a heads up. “King then thought Mitt Romney is definitely a target. He's persona non grata for Trump world and MAGA supporters. King gave Romney a call who was at home with his wife,” Rucker says.Rucker and Leonnig spoke at length with Romney for their book. Romney told the pair he informed his wife, Ann, about the threats of violence as he prepared to return to Washington to certify Democrat Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election over Trump. Ann Romney pleaded with Mitt not to return to D.C., because it was too dangerous and his life could be at stake.“Mitt said he had to go back because it's his job and his duty. ‘Nothing is going to keep me from going, and by the way, I'll be safe in the U.S. Capitol. There's nothing that's going to happen to me there,' he told her,” Rucker said. Rucker says Romney was warned by his staffers on January 6 he had to get to safety as rioters broke into the Capitol. That led to the dramatic video of Romney running into Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman who told him to return to the Senate chamber because the rioters were just seconds away.“It's a chilling reminder of how close he came to real violence and potentially losing his life. He's the first person, maybe the second person behind Mike Pence, but one of the first people those rioters would have wanted to destroy,” Rucker says. Philip Rucker on Twitter: @PhilipRucker

Rep. Blake Moore violated federal law by failing to report up to $1.1 million in stock trades. But, for that he was fined just $200 by the House Ethics Committee.Dave Levinthal, Deputy Washington Editor for Insider.com, who broke the Moore story, says these laws are in place for a reason.“It was put in place to defend against potential conflicts of interest or just give the public the ability to see what members of Congress are doing in terms of their personal stock trades at a time when they're being lobbied by the very companies they themselves may invest in,” Leventhal said. “These companies many times will have tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars at stake with the decisions being made by the government, including contracts the government hands out to them. There's a tangled web of financial interests here, and this was put in place to shine sunlight and provide transparency,” Levinthal added. He also says the small fine Moore was required to pay shows how poorly Congress does when it comes to regulating themselves. “It's like having two football teams take the field and there's no referee. The two teams just sort of decide how they're going to play the game. Oftentimes you'll have situations where the penalties are quite low because nobody really wants to put themselves into a situation that could be precarious,” Leventhal said.Dave Levinthal on Twitter: @DaveLevinthal

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is holding its annual meeting in Salt Lake City next week. Lawmakers, mostly Republicans, from around the country will converge on Utah. There, they'll meet with representatives from the private sector to discuss public policy proposals that may be implemented in statehouses around the country. Those proposals take the form of “model legislation” that serves as a template legislators can use to craft their own legislation.Critics of ALEC say the group promotes “pro business” bills that are simply “copy and paste” proposals. A recent investigation found at least 10,000 bills copied from ALEC's model legislation were introduced nationwide over an eight-year period, with more than 2,100 being signed into law. Today we present an unedited, on-the-record conversation with The Salt Lake Tribune's Editorial Board and representatives of ALEC. George Pyle and Tim Fitzpatrick from The Tribune engage in conversation with Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who is the national chairman of ALEC this year, Lisa Nelson, ALEC's CEO, Bill Meierling, ALEC's Chief Marketing Officer and Johnathan Williams, ALEC's Chief Economist.

New Utah GOP Chairman Carson Jorgensen says he thinks the current debate over the teaching of race and racism in Utah's schools is an important one to have, but he doesn't want the rhetoric to lead to bad policy. “We have to be very specific when we're talking about critical race theory because it's become a kind of a byword at this point. A lot of people are labeling things that aren't CRT as CRT at this point. It's such a hot-button issue,” Jorgensen said.Critical race theory is not taught in Utah's public schools. In June the Utah Board of Education passed rules on how race and equity are addressed in the state. Last month the Utah Republican Party passed a resolution against adding the topic to the curriculum in Utah's schools. Asked about the proposal from Rep. Steve Christiansen, R-West Jordan, who has suggested banning “divisive topics” in Utah's classrooms as a roundabout way of blocking topics parents might object to, Jorgensen said he disagreed with that approach.“We need to be careful. Banning anything that's divisive could lead to math being considered divisive. When you ban something, there has to be a reason behind it,” Jorgensen said. 

America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was driven as much by politics as it was by science as policymakers tried to balance public health with economic health. Andy Slavitt, who headed up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Obama administration says 15 months on, many of the choices made by our leaders don't look so great in hindsight.“It was a huge public health challenge, and that meant tough decisions and trade-offs. But a lot of what happened came back to politics, which caused us to take a very different approach. And it was to our detriment,” Slavitt said. Slavitt is the author of the new book Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response. He's also the host of the “In the Bubble” podcast which examines the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, Utah lawmakers passed the so-called “pandemic endgame” bill, which ended Utah's mask mandate on April 10 of this year. They also moved to rein in the power of public health officials.Despite those maneuvers, the number of cases in Utah is rising again as the delta variant of the virus takes hold. “I wish nothing more than a virus would respond to legislation. That would be really nice. We can fool ourselves for some amount of time, but that's not real political leadership,” Slavitt said. Slavitt also details why the Trump administration made the cynical decision to leave the response to the pandemic up to the states, and the real story behind “Operation Warp Speed.”You can listen and subscribe to the podcast for free. Leave a rating and review for the show on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. 

Last year, Sen. Mike Lee caused a bit of a firestorm on social media when he published a tweetstorm attacking democracy. “Democracy isn't the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want the human condition to flourish,” Lee tweeted. Lee's statement was surprising, but it really shouldn't be according to Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor under President Barack Obama. “There's always been a definition of America that says anyone can be American. You can come from anywhere, look like anything, believe anything and be equally American. But for certain people, America is rooted in a very exclusive either ethnic framework or Judeo-Christian belief structure,” Rhodes said. Rhodes was a guest on the “Utah Politics” podcast this week. He says broad demographic shifts in the country are causing a debate over what it means to be American.“A democracy in a majority non-white country kind of changes our whole conception of power. We're really debating our national identity here. And democracy means that people who look different might increasingly be in charge, and that causes some concern,” Rhodes said. Rhodes also discusses the rise of authoritarian movements across the globe, which he examines in his new book “After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made.” He also talks about the pullout of American troops from Afghanistan and how working on the 1997 re-election campaign of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani shifted his whole worldview. Subscribe to the podcast for free here. 

A proposed bill to bar transgendered athletes from participating in girl's sports in Utah will come back for the second time in the 2022 Utah Legislature. Drew Armstrong is the co-founder of “Dragon Dads,” a support group for fathers of transgender and non-binary children, is a Utah Republican delegate. Armstrong says the proposal is a solution in search of a problem. “I'm frustrated with this because if we ran a bill that said we shouldn't allow livestock in high school hallways, it would probably affect a larger portion of our student population,” said Armstrong. Armstrong, who is the father of a transgendered child, is only half-joking.“I've heard stories about people bringing a cow into the school or something like that. I've heard no stories about their being a problem with transgender students playing in sports in high schools or junior high or on the college level in Utah,” says Armstrong. Armstrong is our guest on the podcast to discuss the raft of anti-transgender bills that have popped up around the country in recent years. He also talks about the growing visibility of transgender and non-binary people in popular culture, and how he squares being a Utah Republican delegate with the GOP-led efforts to restrict transgender rights. You can subscribe to the podcast for free here. 

On this week's episode, we go inside The Salt Lake Tribune and listen in to a conversation between Rep. Blake Moore and the Tribune's Editorial Board.Moore spoke with the board earlier this week to discuss a myriad of issues from Hill Air Force Base to public lands and the future of the Republican Party. Moore also discussed whether he's getting any push back from within the House Republican Caucus because he voted in favor of establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “I haven't been treated differently. I haven't been forced into anything. I haven't received a single call,” said Moore. “I remember talking to (House Minority Leader) Kevin McCarthy and asked if this would affect me being on the Armed Services Committee, which is super important for me and the district. He said absolutely not. That has nothing to do with it,” added Moore. 

The sight of Sen. Mitt Romney, who was the GOP nominee for president just nine years ago, getting booed by Utah Republicans was “just terrible,” says longtime political pundit Chris Matthews.“I don't understand it. He didn't do anything wrong,” Matthews told the Tribune on this week's Utah Politics podcast. “He's been a Republican all his life. He's tough on taxes. He's tough on big government. He's the classic conservative.”Romney was showered with catcalls by Republican delegates at the state convention last month after he voted twice to remove former President Donald Trump from office in a pair of Senate impeachment trials.Matthews, the former host of Hardball on MSNBC and author of the new book This Country: My Life in Politics and History, says the GOP has changed so drastically since Romney lost the 2012 election that they've come unmoored from what they used to stand for.“What do they (Republicans) believe in as policy? Are they a party of free trade? No more. Are they a party of fiscal responsibility? No more,” he said.Mathews blames Trump for leading the GOP astray.“Trump says those aren't his concerns. Sometimes I wonder what Trump really cares about. I don't know what Trump really thinks about anything,” Matthews said.He began his career in Washington working for the Capitol Police, which gives him a unique perspective on the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters in January.“Trump refused to say he lost. That's the chivalrous, patriotic thing to do, and Trump refused to do it,” Matthews said. “In politics, if you lose, you admit it. It's a hard night, and you have to do it. That's a big part of American politics. It's not in the Constitution, but it's what you do,” he says.Matthews also discusses his time working for Utah Sen. Frank Moss, the last Democrat in the U.S. Senate from the Beehive State and his departure from his television show.

The controversy over critical race theory is not confined to Utah. Several other Republican-controlled states are moving to restrict how race and racism are addressed in their K-12 classrooms.Axios race and justice reporter Russell Contreras joins us this week to discuss how the controversy is playing out in other states.He says fears that teachers are introducing the concept in their classrooms are mostly unfounded.“In public schools, very seldom is someone bringing up critical race theory. That’s not the setting,” Contreras said. “They usually keep lessons very simple about diversity. I have never heard of a fifth-grade teacher saying they’re going to talk about critical race theory in a lesson about the American revolution. I’ve never heard of it.”Contreras says many of the bills to ban critical race theory allow teachers to talk about issues like slavery, but they can’t discuss who was responsible, which affects our understanding of America.“How can you talk about why Utah was founded without talking about the discrimination of LDS people in the American Midwest and Ohio? They faced violence based on their religious beliefs and had to flee west. Who is responsible for that?” he asks.

Critical race theory is not currently taught in Utah’s schools, and there are no plans to introduce the curriculum anytime soon. So why are so many people worried about it?The concept looks at American history by examining how racism and racial issues have shaped events and led us to where we are today.“A lot of people grew up with a pretty narrow view of American history,” says Darlene McDonald of the Utah Black Roundtable. “We learned about Martin Luther King Jr. Maybe we learned a little bit about Malcolm X. But they don’t know about Bloody Sunday or Marcus Garvey or Nat Turner.”“A lot of people grew up believing the civil rights movement began and ended with the Reverend Dr. King,” she added.McDonald says there are a lot of things in American history that make people very uncomfortable, and that’s one of the reasons we shy away from confronting them.“We want to have this idealistic idea of what slavery was,” she says. “People didn’t just show up to work one day. They did not work eight hours, then went home to the family, ate a good meal, went to bed and went back to work the next day. But, that’s what people want to have in their minds of what it was and who the slave owners were.”

Utah is preparing for the once-per-decade process of redrawing political maps. This week we take a deep dive into redistricting with Rex Facer, the chairman of Utah’s independent redistricting commission. He discusses the rules and considerations he and the other members of the commission have to consider when they get down to drawing new map proposals later this year. “We don’t want to agree beforehand to draw maps that are going to force competitiveness where competitiveness wouldn’t naturally occur,” says Facer. “Competitive elections are a good thing because it forces us to have more thoughtful conversations on ideas. But we have to realize that not every place is going to end up with competitive elections,” he adds. He also discusses how the delay in census data makes their job more difficult.Rex Facer on Twitter: @RexFacerSubscribe to the podcast for free here. 

This week on the “Utah Politics” podcast, we discuss the future of the Republican Party and whether the GOP needs to break up with former President Donald Trump. First, we speak with Evan McMullin. The former independent presidential candidate joined with 150 other Republicans to release a “Call for American Renewal,” urging the GOP to focus on issues like democracy, constitutional order and ethical government. “It’s time to have a new conversation in America, and it shouldn’t be driven by personalities,” says McMulllin. “It should be driven by principles and ideas. I think Americans wat to get back to ideas and talk less about the personalities.”Then we’re joined by Rep. Candace Pierucci, R-Riverton, who is one of the youngest members of the Utah Legislature. She says the party needs to find a way to end the divisiveness because there’s room for a wide range of conservative voices in the GOP. Evan McMullin on Twitter: @EvanMcMullinRep. Candace Pierucci on FacebookSubscribe to the podcast for free here. 

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was loudly booed by Utah Republicans at their state convention last week. It was an astonishing development given he was the party’s presidential nominee less than a decade ago. We’re joined this week by political strategist Mike Madrid, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project and the former political director of the California GOP. He says the Republican base is radicalizing, mostly because of former President Donald Trump. That change will have profound impacts on our politics, and will likely lead the party to political ruin. Madrid also says the Democratic Party is not immune to radical elements, which is leading both parties away from the political center. Mike Madrid on Twitter: @Madrid_MikeSubscribe to the podcast for free here.

Utah Republican Party Chairman Derek Brown decided to step down from helming Utah’s dominant political organization after one term.He joins the podcast this week to discuss what he accomplished during his two years in charge, the challenges his successor will face, and what’s next for him. He also talks about some long-term issues that could impact Utah’s political environment, and how former President Donald Trump has altered the Republican Party. Subscribe to the podcast for free here. 

Utah lawmakers are planning to study whether the state can ignore or refuse to enforce new federal laws to restrict firearms. Several other states are considering similar legislation.Adam Skaggs from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence joins is our guest this week. He discusses the push to expand gun rights in Republican-led states, Utah’s move to end the requirement for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public, and the intersection of gun violence and mental health. 

Republican Rep. Blake Moore says he’s interested in working with Democrats on a package to fund needed infrastructure especially if it will benefit parts of his district.“Ogden has a rapid transit system coming in that’s going to be really great for students. Park City may get the Olympics again, so there may be some ways we can support that and tourism,” he says. “There’s lots of that stuff that can get put into highway bills, so I’ll absolutely work with the Democrats.”But Moore says he is not fond of President Joe Biden’s proposed corporate tax hikes to help pay the bill.“I don’t want to put companies through another change in their tax system,” he says. “We have to make sure that any tax increase could impact middle-class jobs.”Also this week on the podcast, we talk with newly-elected Salt Lake County GOP Chairman Chris Null.Subscribe to the podcast for free.

Former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz joins the podcast this week to discuss his brand new book.In They Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: The Truth About Disaster Liberalism, Chaffetz argues Democrats, and sometimes Republicans, use the pretense of an emergency situation to push through unrelated policy proposals. “They take these crises and try to leverage those to do something they wouldn’t ever, ever be able to do otherwise,” says Chaffetz.Chaffetz also talks about the massive infrastructure spending package proposed by President Joe Biden, and what it means to be a political conservative after four years of Donald Trump. Additionally, Chaffetz talks about his new podcast “Jason in the House,” whether he’s planning on running against Sen. Mitt Romney in 2024, and former House Speaker John Boehner.Subscribe to the podcast for free. 

Sen. Mike Lee recently traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to observe the growing humanitarian crisis there. He discusses what he saw and whether Congress can find any common ground to address immigration issues. Lee also discusses vaccine passports, government spending and his sometimes inelegant use of hyperbolic language. An explosive story from The Salt Lake Tribune rocked the Salt Lake County GOP with several women making allegations of harassment and a toxic atmosphere that was ignored by party leaders. Party chair Scott Miller resigned shortly after the story was published. Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton was one of those women. She discusses her experience and some of the hurdles women face when entering Utah politics. You can subscribe to the podcast for free here.

A pair of bills passed by lawmakers during the 2021 Utah Legislature raised significant questions about the role of government in policing free speech.The first, SB228 from Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, aimed to put regulations on how social media companies moderate online content. Critics warned the bill was likely unconstitutional or would be pre-empted by existing federal law. Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed it earlier this week.The second, HB72, dubbed the “porn filter” bill, requires all new cell phones and tablets sold in Utah to have adult content filters turned on by default.We’re joined by First Amendment lawyer Ari Cohn who discusses why these bills violate free speech protections in the Constitution. He also says lawmakers, and the public, need to gain a better understanding of how the First Amendment works.Ari Cohn on Twitter.You can subscribe to the podcast for free here.

This week, we're joined by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. He discusses his first legislative session as the state's chief executive, which bills he may consider vetoing, and how he negotiated with lawmakers to set April 10 as the day for ending Utah's statewide mask mandate. He also talks about the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill passed by Congress and we get his thoughts on raising the minimum wage. Subscribe to the podcast for free.

The 2021 Utah Legislature is winding down. During the last 45 days, lawmakers set the state's $22 billion budget, which included more than $400 million in new education funding and more than $1 billion for transportation projects. This week, we sit down for separate conversations with House Speaker Brad Wilson and Senate President Stuart Adams to wrap up the 2020 session. We discuss what they were able to accomplish during a pandemic, this year's unexpected budget bonanza and navigating a relationship with a new governor. Don't forget to leave a rating and review for the show. You can subscribe to the podcast here.

This week legislative leaders introduced what they say is the largest transportation funding proposal in the history of Utah. HB433 contains $2.26 billion in spending on transit and infrastructure projects. Part of that spending package is $1.4 billion in bonding. House Majority Whip Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, joins the podcast to discuss why he thinks it's a good time for the state to borrow billions of dollars even though there's a record amount of extra money to spend this year. Also joining the program is Sen. Dan McCay to speak on HB205. That bill gives political parties the power to decide how their candidates reach the primary ballot. Critics say the bill undoes the SB54 compromise which established the signature path to the primary ballot.Don't forget to leave a rating and review for the show. You can subscribe to the podcast here.

On this week's episode, we're joined by former presidential candidate Evan McMullin to discuss the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the backlash from Sen. Mitt Romney's vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial and the future of the Republican Party. Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, and Assistant House Majority Whip Val Peterson, R-Orem discuss SB195, which overhauls Utah's emergency powers law. The bill gives the legislature more of a policymaking role during a long-term emergency like a pandemic.Plus, we discuss some of the top political news from the last week with longtime Utah political reporter Bob Bernick. Don't forget to leave a rating and review, and you can subscribe to the podcast here.

Two high-profile freshmen in the Utah House join the program to discuss how they’re adapting to their jobs after taking office just last month.We first chat with Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, who is sponsoring several controversial bills dealing with free speech on campus, limiting when voters can switch parties and curbing the use of paid signature gatherers to put an issue on the ballot.Then Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, talks about a public lands bill he’s sponsoring with Republican Phil Lyman. Owens, a two-time candidate for Congress, details how serving in the Utah Legislature is different from the partisan gridlock in Washington.

Sen. Mitt Romney called his two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden on Monday evening “quite impressive,” but he says the two sides are still very far apart on the size and scope of another COVID-19 relief package from the federal government. In an exclusive interview on the “Utah Politics” podcast, Romney said he hopes that Republicans in Congress can find common ground with the new Biden administration, but he knows that any agreement will be hard to come by.“At one point he (President Biden) was asked about bipartisanship. He said, you know, the key to bipartisanship isn’t having two parties come together and agree on everything. We are, after all, Democrats and Republicans and we have different points of view,” Romney recounted from his meeting.“Right now, the Democrats don’t need us (Republicans) because they have the House, the Senate and the White House. They can push through whatever the heck they want without a single Republican vote. So this is a difficult time to see if we can reach a compromise,” he added. Democrats are proposing a $1.9 trillion relief package, while Republicans are proposing a slimmed-down $618 billion bill. Romney says he disagrees with the plan to provide billions in aid to state and local governments that have suffered financial harm from the pandemic, instead favoring a more targeted approach. Romney also says he’d rather provide money to continue the Paycheck Protection Program instead of the Democratic plan to provide loans to businesses. He also disagrees with the president’s plan to provide additional funding for schools since the federal government has already provided more than $100 billion in that area.Democrats in the House and Senate are signaling they’re prepared to use budget reconciliation to bypass a likely Republican filibuster in the Senate, meaning they would only need 50 votes instead of 60 to win approval. That’s the same process Republicans used to pass the Trump tax cuts in 2017. “There’s no question that if you begin doing things which break precedent or break tradition, the other side is going to do that when they’re in charge,” says Romney. “When we’ve put a tax program on that basis that did not require any Democrat votes through reconciliation, we have a difficult time explaining why we’re not happy with what they would be doing at this stage.”Romney added it’s disingenuous for Republicans to raise concerns about the deficit considering their track record from the last four years. “When we had a Republican president and House and Senate, we kept on spending massively and adding almost a trillion dollars a year to the national debt. Now we say this is outrageous adding so much to the debt? They say we did the same thing when we were in charge. It does show that you have to be consistent in your arguments,” said Romney.Romney does say it would be better if Democrats did work with Republicans on a relief bill for the simple reason that reconciliation is a lengthy process that could take until March of this year. “If we worked on a bipartisan basis, we could get a program out this week,” said Romney.

Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Salt Lake City, caused a stir this week when he said he would file a resolution for the impeachment or censure of Attorney General Sean Reyes. Stoddard says he really wants to investigate Reyes' involvement with Republican Donald Trump's post-election efforts to undo his loss to Joe Biden, and impeachment is the only tool available to him. Stoddard joins the podcast to discuss the politics surrounding impeachment and what he hopes to accomplish with the seemingly extreme maneuver.We also speak with Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, about her bill to have Utah finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and whether the legislature is doing enough to support public education. Subscribe to the podcast for free.

A bill on Utah's Capitol Hill would use ranked-choice voting in primary elections with more than two candidates. Rep. Mike Winder, R-West Valley City, is sponsoring the legislation this year. He says it solves the problem of a candidate winning a party's nomination with less than 50% of the vote, which is exactly what happened in 2020 when Gov. Spencer Cox won the GOP primary with just over 36%.Winder is also the author of several books on U.S. Presidents. He discusses President Joe Biden's inaugural address and whether the calls for "unity" will take hold in our political discourse.

The 64th Utah Legislature begins next week.Host Bryan Schott is joined on the podcast by Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-Salt Lake City.We discuss the top priorities for lawmakers this year as they anticipate having nearly a billion dollars in extra revenue to spend. What will they do with that cash? Education should see a significant funding boost, as will some long-neglected infrastructure needs. But lawmakers are also eyeing a tax cut, something they’ve been wanting to do since 2019. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The 2021 Utah Legislature is just around the corner. On this week’s “Utah Politics” podcast, we preview the session with the top Republican and Democrat in the Utah House.House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Layton, and House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, discuss the priorities for the upcoming session, what we can expect to see in the budget, how they’ll respond to the pandemic and their relationship with new Governor Spencer Cox. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Rep. Rob Bishop is retiring from Congress after 9 terms in Washington, capping a career in the political arena spanning parts of six decades. He joins host Bryan Schott to discuss whether the legislative process in Washington can be fixed, what he's learned from his time in politics and what he hopes for Utah and America once he leaves public service.

Rep.-elect Blake Moore discusses his plans once he's sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives in January. He also talks about why it's time for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.We're also joined by Tribune reporter Taylor Stevens to discuss the recent report breaking down spending in Operation Rio Grande.

Democrat Ben McAdams joins the podcast to discuss his agonizingly close loss in November to Republican Burgess Owens. We also speak with Lt. Gov.-elect Deidre Henderson about what the incoming Cox administration wants to accomplish when they take office in January and her ongoing struggles with the long-term effects of coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic will likely end sometime in the next year with news that a vaccine is on the way. In the meantime, Utah lawmakers still must deal with the societal and economic effects.On this week’s podcast, we speak with Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, who is a medical doctor. She discusses whether the state’s response to the pandemic has been effective. And, once a vaccine arrives, how do Utah officials convince people to get inoculated?Then we’re joined by Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, who was a participant in the Moderna vaccine trial. Researchers say their vaccine will be 94% effective. Eliason talks about his experience getting the vaccination, and the side effects.Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Utah Democrats were feeling good about where they were on election night, but when all the votes were counted, they had lost some key seats, and only increased their numbers by one in the Utah Legislature.On this week’s “Utah Politics” podcast, we speak with Tribune political reporter Leia Larsen about the Salt Lake County election results. Republicans were able to capture a veto-proof majority on the County Council, which will change the way Jenny Wilson governs as county mayor.We also hear from Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Merchant who breaks down what happened on election night for Utah’s minority party and what he expects to happen when the Republican-controlled Legislature goes through the redistricting process next year.Leia Larsen on Twitter: @LeiaLarsenJeff Merchant on Twitter: @JeffreyMerchantSubscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Republican Burgess Owens unseated Democrat Ben McAdams to reclaim the 4th Congressional District for Republicans. That seat was the biggest prize for Utah Republicans, but they had tons of success all over the ballot, especially in Salt Lake County. We discuss what went right for the GOP, and where they came up short with Utah GOP Chairman Derek Brown. He talks about how Burgess Owens was able to win and their efforts to get Republican voters to the polls.Also, Brown talks about whether he plans to run for another term as party chair in 2021. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sen. Mitt Romney joins the podcast to discuss what he thinks will happen now that the 2020 election is over. Romney says he's alarmed by President Donald Trump's move to fire some defense department officials following his loss last week. Romney also discusses the issues Republicans in Congress can work on with President-elect Joe Biden next year, and hints he might run for another term in 2024.

On the post-election edition of the “Utah Politics” podcast, we’re joined by Jason Perry of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah.Perry discusses what happened in Utah on election day, whether Democrat Ben McAdams can hang on in his race against Republican Burgess Owens, and the mini-blue wave that rolled across Salt Lake County. He also talks about how governor-elect Spencer Cox will govern when he takes office in November.Then, host Bryan Schott is joined by Mark Salter, the longtime aide and confidant of Sen. John McCain. Salter is the author of a new biography of McCain, The Luckiest Man: Life with John McCain.Salter says he thinks Utah Sen. Mitt Romney will be able to find a way to work in a bi-partisan way with a Biden administration, but he does not think Sen. Mike Lee would be less inclined.“I think Sen. Romney is at the point in his public life where he gets up every morning and tries to figure out a way to make the country a little better,” says Salter. “Lee is a little too libertarian, and they have a tendency toward zealotry that always concerns me.”Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Election Day 2020 is nearly here.We're joined by Glen Mills, Senior Political Correspondent for ABC4 and host of Inside Utah Politics to discuss how the voting in Utah might go, and what races to keep an eye on. Utah's 4th District congressional race.What impact will Donald Trump have in Utah?The Utah legislative races to pay attention to. What Utah's large early vote turnout means.Are there really "shy" Trump voters?Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mitt Romney is “enemy number one” in the Trump administration according to Peter Baker, chief White Houe correspondent for the New York Times. “He is loathed in the White House,” says Baker during an interview on the “Utah Politics” podcast. “With [President] Trump, everything is about loyalty, and you’re not allowed to stray from the fold.”“In the Senate, I think Republicans there respect him. They defended him when Trump went after him. They see him as a principled actor,” he added.“He’s a party of one,” added Susan Glasser, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and author of the weekly “Letter from Trump’s Washington” column. Glasser and Baker are the husband and wife reporting team behind the new biography, The Man who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III.Glasser says Romney is a throwback to a previous era of politics, and his willingness to stand up to Trump is reminiscent of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith.“She, of course, was the famous senator who was the lone Republican to stand up to Joseph McCarthy, and it was two years before the Army-McCarthy hearings. She was a party of one for a very long time,” says Glasser. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the Friday edition of the “Utah Politics” podcast, we’re joined by Evan McMullin. McMullin was a presidential candidate in 2016. He captured nearly 22% of the vote in Utah just four years ago. He is now the executive director of Stand Up Republic, a non-profit group dedicated to government reforms. He’s also a frequent guest on cable news programs discussing national security issues.McMullin joins host Bryan Schott to discuss the impact foreign interference might have on the 2020 election, how QAnon has oozed into the mainstream of Republican politics in America, and why he has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president even though he was a lifelong Republican. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

National Journal's Josh Kraushaar joins the podcast to discuss where we stand with less than two weeks to go until Election Day 2020. He discusses why he thinks Republicans could be in trouble, whether Democrats could pull off a shocking win in Texas, and what to watch for when the polls close. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci frequently begins his day with President Donald Trump attacking him on Twitter. That’s what happened Friday morning shortly before he appeared as a guest on the “Utah Politics” podcast.“I have to be totally candid. It was unnerving the first time it happened,” said Saramucci to host Bryan Schott. “The second time he did it, I actually enjoyed it. And now, it puts me in a terrifically good mood because it means I’m being effective.”Trump’s ire was raised after Scully tweeted at Scaramucci earlier this month asking if he should respond to Trump’s attacks on him. Scully originally claimed his Twitter had been hacked, but was suspended after admitting that was a lie. Last year, Scaramucci tried to recruit Utah Sen. Mitt Romney to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination. Those efforts ultimately proved fruitless. “Mitt is a great human being. He would have made an amazing president,” said Scaramucci sounding wistful about his unsuccessful courtship of Romney. “Think about this. What if he was elected in 2012? If he had been re-elected in 2016, and we would be ending the Mitt Romney administration right now. Trust me, America would have been a much different place,” he said. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When Sen. Orrin Hatch was first elected to the Senate in 1976, his name was such an oddity that New Yorkers threw “Orrin Hatch” themed cocktail parties following the election according to Rick Perlstein, author of the new book “Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980.”“Hatch was introduced to the nation through a comedy article in the New York Times Magazine,” says Perlstein. “Everyone was throwing Jimmy Carter themed parties. This couple looked in the newspaper and they saw this guy won office with a funny name, Orrin Hatch. Nobody had heard of him.That inauspicious introduction aside, Perlstein says Hatch played a big role in ushering in the Reagan revolution once he got to Washington.“Not only does he become a senator, he’s a lot like the Tea Party guys. He’s the first senator to come from this very much more aggressive ‘New Right’ movement. He refuses to do the things senators are supposed to do. Instead, he becomes a leader. When there’s a big fight against a reforming labor unions law that would make it easier to join a union, he is the guy that the Republican caucus chooses as their field general to run a filibuster against the law that was successful,” he says. Perlstein was a guest on the “Utah Politics” podcast with host Bryan Schott. He said Hatch would not have won his election in 1976 without a big assist from Reagan. “The Hatch campaign was desperate. They have no money and no connections whatsoever. They decided if they can get Ronald Reagan, who is incredibly popular in Utah to endorse Hatch, maybe they can pull it out,” recalls Perlstein.“They call him on his vacation in Mexico. They can barely hear him over the bad connection. Reagan agrees to endorse him. They can hardly believe their ears. It’s four days before the election and they managed to get a telegram into the newspapers. That’s why he won,” he added.Perlstein also discusses the debate moment that doomed Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election and the legacy of the “Reagan Revolution.”