Initiative supporters 'on track' for deadline

SALT LAKE CITY — Backers of a legislative-ethics citizen initiative say they are on track to gather 95,000 signatures of Utah voters by the April 15 deadline.

But a group composed of many of the same people managed to gather the required signatures in less than 40 days in an anti-private-school voucher initiative effort two years ago.

Utahns for Ethical Government have collected signatures since last September and still need tens of thousands more across the state. It, among other things, wants an independent legislative-ethics commission, higher ethical standards for the part-time lawmakers, campaign contribution limits and more disclosure of possible conflicts of interests.

Another group, Fair Boundaries, which has a petition that would set up an independent redistricting commission to recommend new U.S. House and legislative boundaries to Utah lawmakers, also has a way to go, its leaders say.

But both groups believe they will make the April 15 deadline, with Utahns getting the chance to vote on the initiatives in November.

Vic Arnold, head of the Utahns for Ethical Government's signature effort, said the group doesn't want to turn many signature packets in to local county clerks for signature verification too early, "for strategic reasons."

Once a packet is turned in, it becomes public, and opponents of the legislative-ethics initiative (the state Republican Party, for example) "could call up those who signed and persuade them to take their names off," Arnold said. Such a removal can only be done by a notarized, written request and only before the county clerk certifies the petitions to the lieutenant governor's office, up to a 30-day window following the April 15 deadline.

"We don't want our opponents to have any more information than we think it is wise for them to have," he added.

Arnold, who was the chief political advisor for the Utah Education Association (the main teacher union in the state) in the 2007 voucher fight, said one reason the petition drive has taken longer now is that the UEA and the PTA are not, as organizations, giving the support they did two years ago.

Utahns repealed vouchers, 62-38 percent, in November 2007, after the most expensive initiative battle in the state's history. About $8 million was spent between the pro- and anti-voucher sides.