When Rep. David Butterfield talks about his constituency, you can tell he loves living and working among them. A nearly lifelong resident, he refers to Cache Valley as “God’s country” and remembers milking cows and hauling hay and moving pipe. Perhaps it is that background–working the land in beautiful northern Utah–that has taught him the pragmatism and commonsense that was plain when we spoke on the phone.

Like all the legislators I’ve interviewed, he prefers serious non-fiction and focuses on reading what will inform and prepare him, as both a legislator and as a leader in business and his community.