Utah

From dKosopedia

Diaries and stories tagged as "Utah" on Daily Kos: most recent most recs front page

Utah is the heavily Republican completely Mormon dominated state in the West.

To date, 14 citizens of Utah have been killed in the War in Iraq.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Congressional Delegation 3 State Government 4 Cities & Counties 5 Elections 6 Drug War 7 Utah News, Etc 8 Political Blogs 9 See also

Introduction

Governor John Huntsman, Jr., a Republican, beat Scott Matheson, Jr by a margin of 56%-43% to win the governor's seat in the 2004 general election.

Huntsman replaces Olene Walker, a member of the Republican Party and Utahs first woman governor. Walker took over as Governor on November 5, 2003, following the resignation of Mike Levitt. Walker was Levitt's Lt. Governor since 1992. Walker's term ended in 2004. Walker lost re-election bid in State Republican Convention.

The state legislature is heavily Republican but there are Democratic strongholds in the Salt Lake City area, and in Carbon County (Price) and San Juan County (Moab) in the southeastern part of the state. The mayor of Salt Lake City is Rocky Anderson (D), who is also an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

Utah's politics are closely tied with the state's status as the headquarters of and strongest base of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a/k/a, the "Mormons". This has led to some unusual shifts in party affiliation at various times in the state's history. Currently, Mormons tend Republican in their voting but this was not always the case. During the early 20th century they tended Democratic. This changed starting in the 1950s when Dwight Eisenhower appointed a Mormon leader as his Secretary of Agriculture and continued when Jerry Falwell and other religious right leaders courted Mormons as part of their New Right coalition during the 1980s. However, Mormons despite their socially conservative views cannot be considered a staunch part of the religious right nor even the conservative coalition, and the current alliance is an uneasy one at best. The three counties (Salt Lake, Carbon, and San Juan) with Democratic strongholds are not coincidentally, the only three counties in Utah where the percentage of Mormons is below 50%.

Congressional Delegation

• Senate
  • Senior Senator: Orrin Hatch (R)
  • Junior Senator: Robert F. Bennet (R)

• House of Representatives
  • UT-01 Rep.: Rob Bishop (R)
  • UT-02 Rep.: Jim Matheson (D)
  • UT-03 Rep.: Chris Cannon (R)

• US Congressional Delegations from Utah (Wikipedia)

State Government

• Executive Branch
  • Governor: Jon Huntsman Jr. (R)
  • Lt.Gov: Gary Herbert (R)
  • Treasurer : Edward T. Alter (R)
  • Attorney General: Mark Shurtleff (R)
  • Auditor: Auston G. Johnson

• Legislative Branch
  • Utah State Legislature

• Judicial Branch
  • Utah Judiciary

• Utah State Constitution
  • Utah State Constitution

Cities & Counties

• (Interactive) County Map(State of Utah)
• Utah Counties Map
• Utah County Selection Map (U.S. Census)
• Utah Counties (National Association of Counties}
• La Verkin
• Utah County

Elections

• Election Results
• Utah State Elections Office (Lt. Governor's Office)
• 2008 Elections
  • Utah elections, 2008
• 2006 Elections
  • Utah U.S. Senate election, 2006
  • Utah U.S. House election, 2006
• Utah election results
• see U.S. elections

Drug War

• Weldon H. Angelos

Utah News, Etc

• Utah Newspapers (NewsLink.org)
• Newspapers and News Media Guide(ABYZ News Links)
• Politicians On The Issues (OnTheIssues.org)

Political Blogs

• A Liberal Mormon
• Blue In Red Zion
• Bob Aagard
• Brian's Utah Weblog
• Centerville Citizen
• Davis County Watch
• Davis Didjeridu
• Dee's Dotes
• Deseret Spectacle
• Education in Utah
• GreeneThoughts
• Jen's Green Journal
• JM Bell
• New West - Salt Lake City
• One Utah
• Part of the Plan
• Pete Ashdown
• SLC Spin
• The SideTrack
• The Third Avenue
• The LDS Democrat
• Unabashed Utahn
• Utah Amicus
• Utah Conservative Democrat
• Utah Opinions
• Voice of Utah
• The World, According To Me

See also