This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Senate Democrats re-elected Sen. Gene Davis of Salt Lake City as the minority party leader and Sen. Karen Mayne of West Valley City as minority whip for the coming year.
The minority caucus also chose Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, as assistant whip. Robles, who lost her bid for Congress on last week, replaces retiring Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay, in the post. Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, the former party chairman, replaces Robles as the Senate caucus manager.
"I appreciate the support of the caucus Democrats in re-electing me as leader," Davis said in a statement. "Utah legislators as a whole will be faced with many tough issues this coming legislative session, and our caucus looks forward to collaborating with our counterparts on resolving these issues for the betterment of the state of Utah."
Democrats hold five seats in the 29-member body, a makeup that was unchanged from the current year. Senator-elect Jani Iwamoto won the seat formerly held by Jones.
Senate Republicans met last week and re-elected the same leadership team from last year, with Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy; Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe; Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton; and Assistant Senate Majority Whip Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City.
House Republicans chose Draper Rep. Greg Hughes as House Speaker, Taylorsville Rep. Jim Dunnigan as majority leader, Mapleton Rep. Francis Gibson as majority whip, and Kaysville Rep. Brad Wilson as assistant whip.
House Democrats will chose their leadership team Nov. 19.
Twitter: @RobertGehrke