The Rev. France Davis of Calvary Baptist Church said he's also called Buttars and offered to meet with him but has gotten no response.

"The more he talks the more he reveals about his own self," the Rev. Davis said. "I'm still hopeful that the first thing he'll do is take an opportunity to learn about people who are different than him. After that he might want to asses whether he can genuinely represent all of the people of Utah or not."

The Rev. Davis said Buttars' apology is out there, and it remains to be seen how he'll follow up on it.

"How do you make amends, how do you change things, how do you change yourself," the Rev. Davis said. "Words are one thing, actions are what really count."

Buttars has told the News that the Feb. 12 debate was intense, and before he spoke, he had listened to other senators speak of splitting the "baby" among school districts and labeling it an "ugly baby."

Shortly after the debate ended, Buttars said he told Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, during a break that he wanted to apologize.

When the senators returned to the floor, Valentine announced there had been a breach of decorum and that the senator involved wanted to apologize. Buttars said he was sorry and apologized a second time in writing on the Senate GOP majority's blog.

Valentine declined to talk about Buttars' latest questionable statement. "I'm not making amy more comments about Sen. Buttars," Valentine said. "That's his thing now. He's not speaking for the Senate caucus."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com