By Alan Choate and Nathan Johnson
Daily Herald
Sunday, January 28, 2007

At the end of the 1972 movie "The Candidate," Bill McKay (played by Robert Redford) -- after winning a seemingly impossible-to-win election -- looks at a campaign staffer and says, "Now what?"

You're in office, that's what.

Utah County has four new legislators this year, and a former House member has moved to the state Senate. Even though they're not strangers to the Legislature, they're still finding that they've joined a very busy, very active office where you have to learn the job on the fly.

Rep. Steve Sandstrom, R-Orem

"In some ways it's easier than being a city councilman," said Sandstrom, who previously served on the Orem City Council. "It's a lot easier to push the button and vote one way than have a couple hundred people in a city council hall staring you down, mad at you ... and knowing you have to vote the opposite of the majority of the people in the room, for whatever reason."

Sandstrom has jumped in feet first by sponsoring legislation and is focusing on illegal immigration. He has heard from people across the state, and he's also getting first-hand experience in being aggressively lobbied.

In fact, the demand for lawmakers' attention can make it hard to get from Point A to Point B.

"You get trapped in the halls," he said. "Maybe the more seasoned legislators know how to get their heads down and get past people. Sometimes it's hard to get to your actual committee meeting.

"The biggest thing that I've found is, the legislators are a great group of men and women -- even people on the other side of the aisle. I never thought that in my first week I'd be voting for a bill authored by David Litvack, a Democrat. But it was a bill targeting dating violence, and it was a very good bill."

Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem

It's different being a senator.

"Somebody described to me that the activities of the Senate are a boardroom brawl, and the activities of the House are more like a barroom brawl," said Dayton, who previously held the House seat now occupied by Keith Grover. "The Senate is a little more subdued."

It also feels like more responsibility, she said.

"I represent so many more people and I'm responsible to so many more people," Dayton said. "It weighs on me that there are a lot more people that I'm speaking for up here."

She is faring well legislatively. Dayton had four active bills as of Friday; two have passed the committee stage and the other two have cleared the Senate entirely. But she's also thankful for something much closer to home.

Her intern this year is her son, Perry, who recently had a kidney transplant.

"He's had a miraculous healing, as has my donor son, who is doing very well," Dayton said. "I realize every time I see him -- if he weren't feeling this well, not only would he not be my intern, I could've been planning a funeral right now and not participating in the Senate process."

Rep. Keith Grover, R-Provo

Good news from the freshman legislator, who says the democratic process is alive and well.

"I'm excited about the deliberate and accessible form of government that we have," he said. "I'm amazed, and I'm encouraged by the access that everyone has to the issues and to the legislators.

"I know that people who feel strongly about an issue can make a big difference."

The bills he's carrying this year aren't exciting -- "not that glamorous" is how he describes them, since they deal with subjects like retirement trust funds and audit standards. But one bill has made it out of committee to the House floor.

The public should know "how personal and close to the surface most of the issues are," Grover said. "There are a lot of bills on the board, but we have conversations about almost every bill. It's a conscientious effort of people reading and looking through the nitty gritty."

Anything else?

"There's food everywhere," he said. "I don't know where it comes from."

Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork

Corn-fed and farm raised, Rep. Ken Sumsion, while new to the Utah Legislature, has a legislative agenda worthy of the most seasoned politician.

Sumsion, R-American Fork, was raised on his father's farm in Taylorsville and has a master's degree in accounting from Brigham Young University. He is a CPA and has worked as a financial analyst for several companies and as an internal consultant for BYU.

Sumsion was elected on a platform of financial frugality, transportation improvement, education reform and tort reform. He has begun pursuing his education reform agenda by signing on to HB 79, a bill that seeks to increase funding for concurrent enrollment programs in public schools.

"It's quite a significant policy change," Sumsion said of the measure, but he believes that concurrent enrollment will save the state a substantial sum of money in the process of educating Utah's students, kindergarten through college.

Though he says he'll support UVSC's transition to a university, he has mixed feelings on it. He is aware of the arguments regarding its proximity to other universities, but Sumsion says that with the number of students attending UVSC, there is really no other solution in the long term but to grant UVSC university status.

"Bills come up very fast," he said explaining that he was trying to get himself "ahead of the curve." He can be found sitting at his desk on the House floor for some time after most of the other members have dispersed.

Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo

Rep. Chris Herrod had less than two weeks to prepare for this year's legislative session. He was chosen to replace Jeff Alexander, who did not run for re-election but made the announcement too late to get the ballot changed.

The short prep period didn't alarm him, though. Herrod says that he has "got his feet under him," even though he has had little time to think through his legislative agenda. "Most of what I am interested in," Herrod said, "has already been sponsored by someone."

Immigration, transportation and education top his list for Utah County's needs. "Transportation is absolutely critical," he said.