Guest opinion: How to get legislators to pay attention to majority will

A debate has raged recently over whether Utah legislators reflected the will of the people by revising initiatives passed last November. Republican legislators say they have been mirroring public will by changing the initiatives. While others argue the Legislature has thwarted the public will.

The legislators' contention that they are simply tweaking the public will and not thwarting it would have more legitimacy if their recent actions were aberrations. But they are not. There is a long history of the Legislature seeking to thwart the public's will. These initiative changes are just the latest examples.

One example is education funding. Over many years, surveys of Utah voters show they are willing to pay more taxes for public education because they want their children to get a top-notch educational experience. They know that is difficult to achieve with limited funds. However, the Legislature has repeatedly ignored the public's will.

Another example is SB54 — the Count My Vote approach that allows candidates to bypass the convention to get on a primary ballot. Public support has been high for that option. But legislators still seek to overturn SB54.

The initiative process itself is another example. It is clear that voters appreciate the opportunity to bypass the Legislature when they feel it is not enacting policy they want, such as Medicaid expansion, less partisan redistricting and medical marijuana. However, over the years, the Legislature has responded by raising the bar higher and higher for groups to get an initiative on the ballot.

Yet another example is term limits. In 1994, the Legislature adopted a 12-year term limit law on Utah legislators to stave off a citizen initiative for that purpose. Then, they repealed the law in 2002 before any legislator was actually affected by it. At the time, a Deseret News survey found that 76 percent of Utahns did not want the term limit law repealed.

The list could go on.

Why are Utah legislators so dismissive of the public will? The problem is that legislators do not view themselves as answerable to the voters at large. No, their main constituency consists of the Republican activists who control the convention process and the larger group of Republican voters who participate in primary elections. Since Republican primaries are not that frequent, the real influence for legislators is that small group of Republican delegates.

So when the general public supports a particular policy outcome and even votes for it through the initiative process, Republican legislators don't feel bound to respect that vote if it contradicts the views of Republican activists and primary voters. That was the reality with the recent initiatives.

For example, polls showed that more Republican voters opposed Proposition 3 than supported it, while the vast majority of voters generally supported the measure. It is likely that if Republican convention delegates had been surveyed, support would have been even lower. Legislators listened to the Republicans (particularly the activists) and altered the initiative to reflect those voters' wishes.

How has this situation occurred? It is the product of years of non-competition in Utah where the Republican convention or primary determines who takes office. The same is true in strong Democratic areas, although those are far fewer in number.

Only when there is competition will legislators start caring about the voters who cast ballots in a general election. Only when incumbents are called to account for their votes against the public's views will they respect the will of the majority rather than the wishes of a partisan minority. That can only happen in a general election.

That is why the United Utah Party was created. We are former Republicans, Democrats and independents who have joined together to make government accountable again. We seek to create the competition in general elections that is sorely lacking in Utah and elect responsive legislators. Representatives should be accountable to all the voters, not just those from their own party. Join us in bringing about the real competition Utah sorely needs. Only then can the will of the majority matter once again.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2TgU5dB