Comments about ‘Poll shows support for 2 citizen initiatives’

The only real reform initiative is the UEG which details and explain what ethics and morality is for our legislators. The more power in the hands of the people the better our government will be.

I suspect the other redistricting reform is one being secretly backed by our legislators and has no ethical reform at all. It's a copy of what our legislators have had before them currently. It's a cop-out initiative that says nothing about ethics or morals and allows things a usual. It's a reform to defeat any future reform, by themselves as legislators or other initiatives. Which ever one passes, hopefully the UEG, it will be permanent and a force to be reckoned with. If the redistricting no change initiative passes it will be impossible to ever get any ethical reforms in our legislature.

This is a long term program and every bit of control we can put on representation means a better government of the people by the people and for the people.

My best hope for change would be to bar any lawyer from ever being allowed to be elected as a part of the administration offices of government.

Of course the high ranking republicans are against this, it would cut off the gravey train.

To stevo: Don't feel bad, democrats in California are against it too: It would cut off the gravy train here too! Both parties are pathetic leeches on the public dole, no matter where they are! At least in Utah the Legislature isn't so inclined to try to raise taxes by 26 to 31 billion dollars per year like here in California! Hopefully you can pass your reforms there! it would be good for small business there and help make it possible to get more jobs into Utah!

how many of the people polled have read these initiatives?

I do support reform, but I think the initiative as written if flawed. Here is an excerpt...
-"The commission shall meet, allocate its budget (legislative function), marshal its resources, prioritize its work, and conduct its business as it deems appropriate, and its independence in this regard shall not be abridged, impaired, or threatened by the legislature, any committee of the legislature, or any legislator."
I interpret this to mean that once in power, Nothing can stop them. They have no oversight or check or balance mechanism in place.
To me this is a situation that will be ripe for abuse and make a mockery of the reform system.
Lets get some reform, but lets do it properly.

The districting in this state is horrible. Why is SLC cut into three pieces that each include a third of the state`s rural communities?
Like many other states, the party in power redraws the boundaries in order to suppress the votes of the opposition party. This should be illegal. It is not democracy.
The voters should pick their representatives, not the other way around. The independant panel for redistricting should be passed.

To BJ: you express concerns with the "power" this commission will have. When the initiative passes, the commission still won't have any real power. It will be simply advisory to the legislature. In other words, it can't do anything but make recommendations. Final decision-making authority stays with the Legislature.

The legislators have brought this upon themselves.

Taking money, "gifts", etc.

Building themselves new multimillion dollar offices while making our children sit in 100 year old school buildings.

Giving money to start charter schools then setting up their own businesses to run the charter schools. (See the guy that just resigned)

Taking money from energy solutions and now we are stuck with a trainload of uranium "temporarily" that will be here forever.

They are a completely self serving group of individuals.

They need ethics and they have none.

The Fairboundaries redistricting initiative if passed by the voters can really make Utah a less gerrymandered state. Gerrymandering is the political tactic of drawing your own Congressional district lines to essentially lock in a demographic or a perceived notion of a certain type of voter. If you are liberal, you would want to dilute the power of Republicans and create the districts that you seen in California. If your are conservative, you may want to create the districts that Tom Delay helped gerrymander in Texas. It is essentially the politician choosing their voters and not the other way around. The Fairboundaries initiative would create a bipartisan commission comprised of citizens to oversee that the district line are being drawn fairly. Both left or right, Utahns are an ethical bunch and they certainly want their politicians to maintain this high standard.

So where are these iniatives for those who want to sign/support them?? They've been in the news for weeks, but nothing is publicized about how/where to access them???

BJ: PJ is correct. The commission is advisory in nature only. Its force would be in the expression of public opinion: redistricting is still the prerogative of legislature according to established law and the Utah Constitution.

BTW, redistricting favors the incumbents of whichever party is in the majority. Thus, redistricting reform ought to be very popular right now given nationwide dissatisfaction with incumbents everywhere.

We voters should choose our representatives, not vice versa (as happens when the "ins" are able to define the districts so they'll be voted back into office).

For a really interesting illustration of how this works, look up "gerrymandering" in Wikipedia.