Longest-serving woman legislator inspired as a teen to serve

When John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president, Carol Spackman Moss stayed home from school to watch the inauguration and was captivated by his call for sacrifice and service.

“It might sound cliché but when he said, ‘ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,’ it inspired me,” Moss said. “I was at that age where you’re very optimistic and looking at the future. I was always interested in politics and I always identified with the Democratic party.”

Her contribution to the public good has included more than three decades of teaching English and student government at Olympus High School in Holladay and serving on the boards of numerous organizations, including YouthLinc, the Inclusion Center, SpyHop, Prevent Child Abuse Utah, Salt Lake County Commission on Youth and Children of Ethiopia Education Fund.

In addition, Moss, D-Holladay, has served in the state House of Representatives since Jan. 1, 2001, and now represents District 34, which has parts of Holladay, Millcreek and Murray. Redistricting changed the boundaries of legislative districts beginning this year and she previously represented District 37.

Former Utah legislator, Patrice Arent, praised Moss’ work as a lawmaker.  

“Representative Moss is an effective legislator because she works hard, doesn’t give up, knows how to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle, and is always prepared,” said Arent, a Democrat who served 20 years in the House and Senate. “She works on important issues that make a difference in the lives of her constituents and people throughout our state.”

This spring, Moss became the longest-serving woman in the Utah Legislature, surpassing Margaret Dayton, an Orem Republican. Moss has served during 23 legislative sessions, one more than Dayton, who was in the House and then the Senate from 1997 to 2018.

Going door-to-door to meet constituents

Moss was born in Ogden, went to high school in California and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and an Educational Administration Certification from the University of Utah. While she was teaching and raising her three daughters, she didn’t have time to get involved in politics, Moss said. 

That changed in 2000, when her cousin, Rep. Trisha Beck, a Sandy Democrat, said District 37 needed a representative with an education background and encouraged Moss to run for the House. 

“I was looking at people who had been teachers,” Beck said. “She was very well-known and very loved in the community. She understood the dynamics of working with people, working with parents and children and students.”

Moss said other Democrats, including Arent, tag-teamed Beck and urged her to jump into the race, saying she would be able to raise the money for a campaign. She thought about it for a few days and decided to run.

After Moss told her students she was running for office, one of the teens said her mother, Pat Jones, had decided to seek a House seat in District 40. 

“That made it even more fun because we’re really close friends now and a lot of women ran that year,” Moss said.

In her campaigns, Moss uses the name Carol Spackman Moss. By the time she first ran, she was divorced from her first husband and remarried to Robert Moss but many of her former students and their parents knew her as Mrs. Spackman. 

“Name ID is really important,” Moss said. “In my case, I was Mrs. Spackman for 24 years.”

Some of her students volunteered to help her campaign and distributed flyers, Moss said. People would ask if they were getting extra credit but they weren’t — “they said, ‘it’s because we like her,’ ” she said.

Moss’ approach in every election is to meet with as many people as she can. She defeated incumbent Republican Ray Short in the 2000 election with more than 56% of the vote. 

“The thing that made the difference really was going door-to-door,” Moss said. “I’ve done that for all these years. I don’t get to every door but I’ve gone to thousands of doors.”

She added, “The key to my being successful in politics all these years is I know a lot of people.”

Jones also came out on top in her 2000 race and served in the Utah Legislature for 14 years, six in the House and eight in the Senate.

‘Relationships are everything’

Moss, who retired from teaching in 2001, said her years in the classroom were good training for being a legislator.

“The same skills that a teacher has to have translate well into politics, primarily in the fact that I had to communicate with different people every year, different personalities and different stakeholders, administrators, parents,” she said. “In politics, relationships are everything. I was good at that. It’s really served me well.”

The relationships she has developed during her tenure at the Legislature help Moss get community members through the bureaucratic maze.

“I can connect people with the right folks,” she said. “I can only do it because I’ve been in a long time. I’ve been able to help a lot of constituents with issues just by my calling the right people or referring them to the right people. It’s really gratifying. One of my neighbors calls me a connector.”

Moss serves on the Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee; Education Interim Committee; House Education Committee; House Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee; and Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Her professional affiliations include the Governor’s Education Excellence Commission; Utah Marriage Commission; Salt Lake County Commission on Youth; Children of Ethiopia Education Fund; Utah Coalition for Opioid Overdose Prevention Executive Committee; and the Attorney General’s Opioid Task Force Executive Committee.

Education is a priority for Moss, who advocates for higher teacher salaries and smaller class sizes. 

Her legislation has funded a peer mentoring teacher evaluation program in the Salt Lake City School District and secured ongoing funding for an International Baccalaureate program. Other bills require the adoption of anti-bullying and hazing policies by schools; created an exit survey to help districts recruit and retain teachers; and addressed the shortage of medical specialists, such as speech pathologists and audiologists, in schools. 

Helping refugees, addressing addiction

Another priority for Moss is helping refugees and people fleeing Afghanistan who have not yet been granted refugee status or asylum to obtain economic independence. 

Moss points out many know some English when they arrive in the country but might not understand, for example, that “crash” and “collision” mean the same thing. With Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, as the Senate sponsor, the Legislature passed bills in 2018 and 2022 allowing these migrants to take the written driver’s license test in their native language. 

Other successes cited by Moss include several homeowner association bills to make the communities more friendly to the people who live there — “You can be over-regulated,” she said — and legislation implementing the “Idaho Stop,” which allows bicyclists to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and go through an intersection without coming to a complete stop if there are no pedestrians or other traffic there.

A bill co-sponsored with Republican Sen. Todd Weiler requires the state Department of Corrections and county jails to report the deaths of inmates who were in custody to the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

Moss also has sponsored legislation addressing an epidemic of opioid addiction, including bills giving friends and families access to the drug Naloxone, which can reverse an overdose, and expanding that access to police, EMT’s and addiction and recovery centers. 

Another bill encourages bystanders to call for help for someone experiencing an overdose and stay until responders arrive without having to fear being prosecuted for drug possession or use. Moss said people had been abandoning their friends because they were afraid to report an overdose. 

“It’s one of the things I’m most proud of,” Moss said of the opioid legislation.

Sticking to her values

Moss has had some legislative defeats. She’s been trying for years to get a bill passed that would allow stricter enforcement of a law prohibiting using a hand-held cellphone while driving but has not been successful. 

Holding a phone to your ear while a vehicle is in motion is against the law but it is a secondary offense, meaning drivers can be stopped and cited for that only if another traffic violation is committed at the time. Moss said some GOP legislators say the measure would infringe on personal liberty and that the state has too many laws.

She has hope her hands-free bill will eventually become law and notes it took 10 years to make failure to wear a seatbelt a primary offense. 

Alliance for a Better Utah, a nonprofit with a stated mission of promoting the public welfare by advancing the quality of public governance, gave Moss an overall score of A for her votes and bill sponsorships in the 2023 session. 

Jones, now CEO of the nonpartisan Women’s Leadership Institute, said Moss puts a lot into her job. 

“If you can be an effective teacher, as she was, that prepares you for leading in other areas and especially in legislative duties,” Jones said. “You have to understand people and be a great listener. She really is a friend to all. She’s kind and thoughtful.”

She also said Moss will negotiate “but she’s not going to give in on her values that are really important to her.”

“I admire her for that,” Jones said. “She stands up for the majority of the people in her district. She knows them well. She walks her district every campaign. She has an ear on the ground for what’s going on with her constituents and I think that’s extremely valuable.”

Tackling controversial issues

Moss hasn’t decided yet if she’ll run for re-election in 2024. She’s had personal losses recently — her husband, Bob, and mother, Cleo Drumiler Snarr Murray, died within six months of each other in 2021 — and this year’s legislative session “was the worst I’ve ever seen, the most brutal and difficult,” she said.

The vitriol about controversial subjects has gotten bad and she gets emails attacking her and calling her names, she said. 

“I’ve always been an optimist and I don’t like to live in that space where I think everything’s negative but I really have never seen it quite this bad,” she said. “Everybody thinks they know what education should be because they were a student. This disrespect for teachers is so appalling.”

Issues tackled by lawmakers included this year abortion, transgender health care, school vouchers, critical race theory, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), tax cuts, teacher pay and vouchers.

“I think the biggest threat in Utah is the erosion of some of our freedoms — the freedom to read, the freedom for teachers to teach what they’ve been trained to teach and use their judgment,” Moss said. “There are bills that are very restrictive about not talking about controversial subjects.”

If Moss seeks another term, Beck has no doubt her cousin will win.

She said Moss, who she describes as an amazing woman, does her research and is well-versed on all issues.  

“She’s been very, very successful in what she had done and she’s highly respected, as well,” Beck said. “She’s done a lot of great things up there. I’m just so grateful to have her there.”