Utah Politics

Utah’s once-a-decade redistricting process is barreling to a close with both the legislative and independent redistricting committees are finishing up public meetings around the state. 

The independent group already has several map proposals online. They will present their final proposals to lawmakers on November 1. 

Chairman Rex Facer says they have to take a number of things into consideration as they draw their maps. 

“Part of what was going on in our mind was trying to think about the logistics of being a representative. One of the challenges we have is the rural parts of the state are sparsely populated, so those districts have to be really big, and the logistics of managing that size is really, really difficult,” Facer says. 

Given the strength of former President Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP, it’s reasonable to believe the party’s future is leaning harder into the MAGA agenda. But Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan thinks that’s the wrong path.

Duncan says Trump gave his supporters and other Republicans a “short-term sugar high” with his bombastic and combative style. But, that rush also turned off a lot of voters and caused him to lose an election that should have been an easy layup.

“We forgot to remind America of the policies conservatives are really good at. We need to own the economy and the best vision for people’s next job and their career advancement. We forgot to do it,” Duncan says. “We need to own the policy lanes to get back to the kitchen tables and boardrooms across America to start winning elections again.”

Duncan lays out his vision for the future of the GOP in his new book “GOP 2.0. How the 2020 Election Can Lead to a Better Way Forward for America’s Conservative Party.”

Duncan also talks about his experience in the aftermath of the 2020 election as Trump and his allies furiously worked to overturn his loss to Joe Biden. Duncan’s refusal to go along with Trump’s falsehoods about election fraud led to threats of violence against him and his family.

“I was down in my office at the Capitol looking out my window. There were guys with AR-15s and body armor protecting me from potentially other Republicans, not terrorists,” Duncan said. “We had state troopers outside watching us while I was playing catch with my kids.”

Geoff Duncan on Twitter: @GeoffDuncanGA

Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, has a unique perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only is she a Utah Legislator, but she also works in a busy operating room as an anesthesiologist.

“As someone who’s been working in our hospitals during this fourth wave, this is a huge problem,” Harrison says. “Our staff is exhausted and we’re having a hard time finding beds for the people that need care.”

She thinks her Republican colleagues in the Legislature have needlessly politicized the public response to the pandemic, which has harmed the state’s effort to respond.

“In some ways, legislative leaders are talking out of both sides of their mouth. On one side they’re saying getting the vaccine is important, but on the other side, they give credibility to anti-vaccine groups by giving them time to present at a legislative hearing. It undermines the work our doctors and nurses are doing to save lives,” Harrison says.

Listen to the full conversation below.

Rep. Suzanne Harrison on Twitter: @VoteSuz

On this week’s show, we chat with Grant Burningham. He’s the new Statewatch Editor for The Tribune and will lead our government and politics reporting team. He discusses the importance of holding public officials accountable, and providing context to political news.

Author Ben Mezrich also joins the podcast this week. His book, “The Accidental Billionaires” about the founding of Facebook was turned into the Academy Award-winning film “The Social Network.”

His new book, “The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to its Knees” tells the crazy story about how a group of Reddit users were able to beat Wall Street. He also discusses what happens when sentiment drives trading rather than the intrinsic value of a thing. 

Grant Burningham on Twitter: @Granteb

Ben Mezrich on Twitter: @Benmezrich

Author Tom Nichols says democracy across the globe is under threat, but not for the reason you may think.

Nichols, who is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, argues technologically advanced societies have increased their standard of living so rapidly, citizens are becoming bored, and care less about their fellow citizens.

“People just got used to the idea that if things didn’t go the way they wanted or things didn’t happen in ways they approved of, it wasn’t the fault of some government policy, it was the fault of democracy, and they wanted to overhaul the whole system and replace it with something more rigid,” Nichols said.

He says in his new book Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assult from within on Modern Democracy that this is happening across the globe as once democratic nations are abandoning protections for free speech and religion and other important institutions.

Nichols says nowhere is it more evident that Americans don’t care about their fellow citizens than in our elections.

“Our politics has become all about hurting other people, instead of trying to create something positive. We used to go to the polls and say, here’s what I’m voting for. Now we go to the polls to vote against something and we hope it makes others really mad. The idea that we could all work together toward something has become alien to millions of people,” Nichols said.

Listen to the full conversation with Nichols below.

Tom Nichols on Twitter: @RadioFreeTom

In 2017, then-Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson was the subject of a criminal investigation. After several months, prosecutors declined to file charges against Gibson because they said there was not enough evidence to charge him with the crime of misusing public money. 

The report on the investigation, and what prosecutors found, remained out of the public eye. Longtime local journalist Cathy McKitrick filed an open records request to make those findings public, but Gibson fought hard to keep it under wraps. 

“Gibson kept claiming the release of the documents would embarrass his family and tarnish his reputation. But, as a public official, he is subject to a higher level of scrutiny,” McKitrick says. 

After a three-year court battle, the Utah Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Utah’s open records laws do apply, and McKitrick won access to the documents. 

She joins the podcast to discuss her fight to get the report, and why it’s important to hold public officials accountable. 

After a pandemic-related delay, the Census Bureau finally released the data Utah lawmakers will use to redraw the state’s political boundaries in the once-a-decade redistricting process. 

On this episode, we bring you an on-the-record conversation between The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board and Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield and Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, the chairs of the Legislature’s Redistricting Committee. 

Ray says he’s eager to get down to business, but he understands no matter what the final maps look like, not everybody will be happy.

“Our job is to look at the data, put it together, and do what we feel is the best move for Utah. There’s always going to be a contingent of people that claim something is gerrymandered. There’s nothing we can do about that,” Ray says. 

They discuss their approach to drawing the state’s new political maps, how the public can get involved, and whether Utah’s districts are drawn to favor Republicans over Democrats. 

Sen. Mitt Romney was warned ahead of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that he might be the target of violence from supporters of former President Donald Trump. That warning came from fellow Sen. Angus King of Maine, who himself was alerted to possible violence by America’s top military leaders. 

That’s just one of the dozens of startling revelations contained in the new book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year” by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.

Rucker says Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was alarmed by threats of violence on social media, so he gave Sen. King a heads up. 

“King then thought Mitt Romney is definitely a target. He’s persona non grata for Trump world and MAGA supporters. King gave Romney a call who was at home with his wife,” Rucker says.

Rucker and Leonnig spoke at length with Romney for their book. Romney told the pair he informed his wife, Ann, about the threats of violence as he prepared to return to Washington to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election over Trump. Ann Romney pleaded with Mitt not to return to D.C., because it was too dangerous and his life could be at stake.

“Mitt said he had to go back because it’s his job and his duty. ‘Nothing is going to keep me from going, and by the way, I’ll be safe in the U.S. Capitol. There’s nothing that’s going to happen to me there,’ he told her,” Rucker said. 

Rucker says Romney was warned by his staffers on January 6 he had to get to safety as rioters broke into the Capitol. That led to the dramatic video of Romney running into Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman who told him to return to the Senate chamber because the rioters were just seconds away.

“It’s a chilling reminder of how close he came to real violence and potentially losing his life. He’s the first person, maybe the second person behind Mike Pence, but one of the first people those rioters would have wanted to destroy,” Rucker says.

Philip Rucker on Twitter: @PhilipRucker

Rep. Blake Moore violated federal law by failing to report up to $1.1 million in stock trades. But, for that he was fined just $200 by the House Ethics Committee.

Dave Levinthal, Deputy Washington Editor for Insider.com, who broke the Moore story, says these laws are in place for a reason.

“It was put in place to defend against potential conflicts of interest or just give the public the ability to see what members of Congress are doing in terms of their personal stock trades at a time when they’re being lobbied by the very companies they themselves may invest in,” Leventhal said. 

“These companies many times will have tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars at stake with the decisions being made by the government, including contracts the government hands out to them. There’s a tangled web of financial interests here, and this was put in place to shine sunlight and provide transparency,” Levinthal added. 

He also says the small fine Moore was required to pay shows how poorly Congress does when it comes to regulating themselves. 

“It’s like having two football teams take the field and there’s no referee. The two teams just sort of decide how they’re going to play the game. Oftentimes you’ll have situations where the penalties are quite low because nobody really wants to put themselves into a situation that could be precarious,” Leventhal said.

Dave Levinthal on Twitter: @DaveLevinthal

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is holding its annual meeting in Salt Lake City next week. 

Lawmakers, mostly Republicans, from around the country will converge on Utah. There, they’ll meet with representatives from the private sector to discuss public policy proposals that may be implemented in statehouses around the country. Those proposals take the form of “model legislation” that serves as a template legislators can use to craft their own legislation.

Critics of ALEC say the group promotes “pro business” bills that are simply “copy and paste” proposals. A recent investigation found at least 10,000 bills copied from ALEC’s model legislation were introduced nationwide over an eight-year period, with more than 2,100 being signed into law. 

Today we present an unedited, on-the-record conversation with The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Board and representatives of ALEC. 

George Pyle and Tim Fitzpatrick from The Tribune engage in conversation with Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who is the national chairman of ALEC this year, Lisa Nelson, ALEC’s CEO, Bill Meierling, ALEC’s Chief Marketing Officer and Johnathan Williams, ALEC’s Chief Economist.