SALT LAKE CITY -- At the end of the Utah legislative session, one local political scientist said the Speaker of the House, Rebecca Lockhart, hurt her chances for higher office.
Tim Chambless of the University of Utah Hinckley Institute of Politics said Lockhart, a Republican representing District 64, could have collaborated more.
"She hurt herself,” he said. “As a Speaker she sets the agenda. She's leading 75 members of the House, and I think the better way to handle the situation was to be cooperative.”
Chambless said Lockhart demonstrated lack of cooperation by presenting an educational technology plan costing $200-300 million without collaborating on the idea in public before the session. He also pointed to the Speaker's opening speech of the session, in which she referred to the governor as an "in-action figure."
Lockhart has more than $88,000 in cash in her political action committee, the Speaker's Victory Fund--according to state records. Utah's first female Speaker of the House has not said publicly that she has plans to run for governor. She has said she is not running for another term in the House
