SALT LAKE CITY In 2018, Utah voters narrowly passed a proposition creating an independent redistricting commission that will recommend redistricting maps to the Utah State Legislature.
The propositions, however, are only suggestions and according to Utah s Constitution, the state Legislature draws the final boundaries. If legislators wanted to, they could ignore the redistricting commission s recommendations altogether.
So, what is the role of the redistricting commission, and will the Utah Legislature use its recommendations? What incentives does the Legislature have to take the commission s maps seriously?
The commission s limits What we did with that referendum is we essentially created this advisory committee, but it really is advisory, said Matthew Burbank, a political science professor at the University of Utah. Anything that they do does not have the force of law.
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The Sound of Silence. It could be the theme song of the Utah Democratic Party.
When Republicans, such as U.S. Reps. Chris Stewart or Burgess Owens, paint the Dems as socialists, or smack them with other derogatory labels, there often is no response or pushback just a very disturbing quiet.
There is no one like Jim Dabakis (the now-retired state senator from Salt Lake City) or Randy Horiuchi (the late Salt Lake County Councilman) to blast back at the GOP as cheap-shot artists whose talent for name-calling often seems to dwarf their other skills. And so, the effective Republican bumper-sticker sloganeering continues to eat its way through the Utah body politic.