- Dan Liljenquist
-
Dan Liljenquist 
Member of the Utah Senate
from the 23rd districtIncumbent Assumed office
2008Preceded by Dan Eastman Personal details Born July 10, 1974
Nashville, TennesseePolitical party Republican Spouse(s) Brooke Residence Bountiful, Utah Occupation Businessman/Attorney Religion The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Website DanLiljenquist.com Twitter: SenatorDanLFacebook: Dan Liljenquist Dan Liljenquist (born July 10, 1974) is the Republican member of the Utah State Senate representing the state's 23rd senate district in Davis County.
Contents
Early life, education, and legal career
Born in Nashville to Dr. John E Liljenquist and Colleen Redford Liljenquist, he spent most of his childhood in Idaho Falls. After a football injury sidelined him as a high school junior, his attention turned to politics. He served as the student body president of his senior class at Skyline High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) on a one-year renewable scholarship with a minimum 3.9 GPA required. Liljenquist was able to renew his scholarship annually and in 1998, graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. After graduation, he attended the University of Chicago law school graduating with his Juris Doctorate in 2001.
Already an experienced entrepreneur, Liljenquist spent the summer between his first and second years of law school interning for the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. He provided free law help as well as business consulting aimed at helping fledgling businesses get off the ground. During his internship, he was told by a Chicago alderman that "he didn't want his constituents going into business for themselves because it might lead them to believe they could become self-sufficient."[1]
Between his second and third year, he interned for Kirkland & Ellis where Ken Starr was the lead counsel. Before starting his final year of law school, he interviewed with Bain & Company. Out of 250 applicants from the University of Chicago Business and Law Schools, only he was chosen from the law school.
Business career
After joining Bain, he moved with his wife Brooke to Dallas, Texas where he worked for the internationally renowned global management consulting firm as a strategy consultant from 2001 to 2003 dealing with multi-million dollar accounts.
In 2003, he joined Affiliated Computer Services, a Fortune 500 Business Process Outsourcing leader. He served as Director of Operational Strategy for the $3B Commercial Solutions Group, working out of their Sandy, Utah office.
In 2006, he joined FOCUS Services, LLC and currently serves as its president and chief operating officer. A privately owned call center founded in 1995 with 2 employees, it now has just under 1500 employees working in 7 facilities around the world.
Utah Senate
2008 election
In 2008, incumbent Senator Dan Eastman did not file for re-election. Eight Davis county Republicans filed to take his place. At the 2008 Davis county Republican convention, Liljenquist emerged with 55% of the delegate vote.[2] In the ensuing primary with Ron Mortensen, Liljenquist won with 64% of the vote to Mortensen's 36%.[3]
After the June primary, Liljenquist was traveling in Guatemala with CHOICE Humanitarian when his plane crashed in a field. Eleven of the fourteen people aboard the aircraft died.[4] Liljenquist broke his right leg and left ankle in multiple places. Talking about the crash and the friends who died, Liljenquist said "For those families, I just try to make it count. I just try to make my life count for something. I just feel like I owe that to my friends."[5]
In the November election, he received 70.40% of the vote to Democrat Richard Watson's 26.2% and Constitution Party candidate, Jorgina Hancock's 3.3%.
Tenure
In his freshman year in the Utah Senate, Liljenquist sponsored SB 126: State Personnel Management Act Amendments that put performance over length of service when considering rehiring public employees, effectively eliminating tenure.
In 2010, Liljenquist tackled pension reform with SB 63, moving Utah to a defined contribution state maxing out at 10%. Spurred by a 30% loss to the state retirement fund in 2008, Liljenquist focused on changing the system for new hires entering after July 1, 2011, moving away from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution plan. He also successfully sponsored a companion bill, SB 43 that does away with the so-called practice of "double-dipping".[6]
In 2011, Liljenquist was the sponsor of Utah's Medicaid reform. SB 180, which passed unanimously, proposes block granting Medicaid funds to Utah, switches from a fee-for-service model to a managed care system and made Utah the first state in the nation to cap Medicaid growth. The reforms are estimated to save $2.5 billion on total funds in the first 7 years of its implementation.[7]
Governing Magazine named him a 2011 "Public Official of the Year" for his work on both pension and Medicaid reform.[8][9][10]
Committee assignments[11]
Appropriations:
- Retirement and Independent Entities Appropriations Subcommittee (Chair)
- Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee
Standing:
- Senate Business and Labor Committee
- Senate Ethics Committee
- Senate Retirement and Independent Entities Committee (Chair)
- Senate Rules Committee
Interim:
- Business and Labor Interim Committee
- Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Interim Committee
- Retirement and Independent Entities Interim Committee (Co Chair)
- Senate Health and Human Services Confirmation Committee
- Senate Retirement and Independent Entities Confirmation Committee (Chair)
2012 U.S. Senate election
Main article: United States Senate election in Utah, 2012Liljenquist will announce in early January 2012 on whether or not he will challenge longtime incumbent U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch. He also said that he believes SCHIP, one of Hatch's signature legislative accomplishments, is unconstitutional.[12]
References
- ^ "Strange Bedfellows", Forbes
- ^ "Few primaries will be the result of Davis, Weber conventions", Deseret News
- ^ "Primary Election Results", Deseret News
- ^ "Aero Ruta Maya crash"approval
- ^ "Guatemala plane crash one year later: Survivor making life count", Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ "State retirement changes gain final approval", Deseret News
- ^ "Utah's thoughtful approach to Medicaid reform", Deseret News
- ^ "Dan Liljenquist: Agent of Change", Governing
- ^ "Utah senator named legislator of the year", Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ "A success story", Deseret News
- ^ http://www.utahsenate.org/aspx/senmember.aspx?dist=23
- ^ http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/1111/Liljenquist_eyes_January_Senate_announcement.html?showall
Categories:- Living people
- American Latter Day Saints
- Utah State Senators
- 1974 births
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