Utah Republicans will be cleaning their fish tanks during tonight's State of the Union Address

By Kelli Lundgren

Utah’s 2013 Legislative Session could be defined as voting-rights-light, although plenty of other concerns are being argued, including the ever uphill battles of ethics and transparency.  Since Represent Me Utah focuses on issues that strengthen democracy, the bills we track are making few waves this session.

One bill, Elimination of the Straight Party Ticket Voting Option, Patrice Arent’s HB0258, positively made it through rules committee but failed in the House Government Operations Committee. 

At RMU, we believe that previewing and reviewing candidates for each political office, then voting for a candidate on individual merits is a better way to vote than by voting for political party ideology.  But then, many members of RMU are unaffiliated, and of course we tend to vote for individuals rather than political platforms.  

We’d like to see our country less divisive.  Also, if more voters voted by candidate rather than by party, they could have skipped over Attorney General Candidate John Swallow last November, benefitting all involved.  RMU members like to see candidates gain office on platforms that are more pragmatic and problem solving toward state and country, versus toward the benefit of a singular political platform or ideology.    

Interestingly, RMU was accused of being unethical, along with Alliance for a Better Utah and Utahns for Ethical Government, by Utah House Representative Mike Noel.  He said it was his reason for voting against Arent’s HB0258 bill.  Ironically I had just stated in testimony that “although Democrats and Republicans are fairly civil to each other in Utah, they are not in our Federal Government's current condition.”  Apparently I spoke too soon!

I perceive the overall theme for Utah's 2013 legislative session to be: anti-federal-government-anything.  Rants and grandstanding abound by Republicans in the Legislature.   Senator Curtis Bramble is running a bill that offers Utah’s support for “Israel’s God-given right to self-governance and self-defense,”  SCR4.   (Insert "Utah" where Sen. Bramble lists "Israel" in the bill and you will get the point.)

And of course Republicans are running a whole slew of bills on gun rights, and the protection thereof from the despicable Federal Government that dares to offer tighter gun control laws to prevent future tragedies such as Sandy Hook.  Forget that it's A-okay to have guns for hunting, collecting, target shooting, etc., the emotional point is "fury with the liberal President."

Also consistent with an anti-Fed theme, Utah is working toward freeing itself from its U.S. Government dependency using several incremental bills such as HB0131 by Representative Ken Ivory, and one forthright bill, SCR007 by Senator Aaron Osmond.  These moves in 2013 follow suit with Utah Republicans' 2012 attempt to tell the Federal Government it intends to takeover federal lands in Utah.  SCR007 also looks like it is setting up reasoning for Utah to raise state taxes.  And, another specific bill does just that: tries to reduce the Federal Government’s tax on gasoline so Utah may increase its gasoline tax.  (SCR006). 

I believe it’s somewhat ironic that Utah wants to reduce or even eliminate its dependency on the Federal Government.  I suppose there's always an apocalypse on the horizon; the latest fads are the federal deficit and walking zombies.  Yet, Utah is one of several red states that bring in more federal dollars than state residents give to the Federal Government.   Utah will have to do a lot of taxation rebalancing once it walls off its borders, even though Governor Herbert touts Utah as a well-managed state. 

Today I saw a tweet by a Republican legislator saying she plans to work on Utah legislation tonight instead of watching the State of the Union address by President Obama.  Fair enough.  I imagine many in Utah will turn off their televisions as well.   This is the overall theme in Utah right now and it’s pretty ugly.