Utah GOP Opposes Fair Boundaries Initiative and Ethics Commission
The Charmain of the Utah GOP - Dave Hansen - views two citizens Initiatives as "ill-advised" and that the GOP would support the citizen's mandates "over (his) dead body."
The two initiatives are currently in petition form and organizations are gathering signatures to place them on the 2010 ballot for citizens to decide up or down on.
The first, supported by the Fair Boundaries, is designed to create an independent commission to suggest legislative districts to the Utah State Legislature, whom ultimately decides Utah's districts. Currently the legislature dictates their own voting districts with citizen oversight often being viewed as a formality rather than valued input.
The second, supported by Utahns for Ethical Government, will set strict standards on what gifts legislators can and can not accept from lobbyists with the intent of holding legislators to a higher standard by creating an independent commission to judge the actions of legislators as ethical or not. This initiative, if passed, would not longer allow legislators to judge fellow legislators actions as unethical.
The Utah GOP Party Platform specifically states that it demands "honesty, integrity, morality and accountability of our public officials."
Ultimately, the decision of the party to support or not support these initiatives will be left in the hands of the GOP's delegates. The next statewide meeting will not take place until May of 2010 and may very well be a moot point as the two initiatives require 95,000 signatures by April of next year.
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