GOP chief to utilize referee skills
New leader sees similarities between House and court
For 26 years, Rep. Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, refereed basketball as a side job, first at the high school level and eventually at the collegiate level. In many ways, it gave him a taste of what serving in the Legislature — and now, managing the often divided and sometimes rambunctious House Republican caucus — would feel like.
Clark was elected to succeed outgoing House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, who is stepping down from the Legislature to work with the Governor's Office of Economic Development. He defeated Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, in leadership elections in November.
"There is no better preparation for politics than officiating," Clark said.
While there's the obvious comparisons of dealing with hostile crowds and handling the verbal assaults that, even if delivered more politely in politics, can pierce even the stoutest armor, working as an official had some other, intangible benefits. Among the most important, it gave him the chance to see parts of Utah that many of his fellow legislators have never visited, especially when working a 1A game in a place like Trout Creek or Monticello.
"My career has purposefully been as a country banker," Clark said. "There is something unique about being small-town banker. It seems to be banking on a more personal level."
The election of Clark is a shift from the Wasatch Front dominated leadership team of the past two years, even with House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, still at the helm of the Republicans.
While he grew up in Utah County and attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship, he claims his roots in southern Utah, especially the Dixie area, run deep. His family has a long history in the area, and there are ancestral graves among those of other settlers.
That family history is closely tied to his great-grandfather, who left Ireland for Brooklyn and then attempted to come West for the gold rush. When his ship wrecked off of the coast of South America, however, he survived with the help of natives and only returned to America almost nine years later, where he discovered that the silver rush was in full bloom in the southwest.
Hoping to find his riches, he settled in southern Utah and brought his entire family from Brooklyn. While he never hit it big in the mines, he did make a suitable living through other pursuits.
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