Dem
47
GOP
53
These days, this strikes us as a Politics 101-level lesson: If you're mounting a petition drive, get considerably more signatures than the minimum required. You never know what could happen, from signatures being duplicated, to signatures being invalidated, to signatures being... withdrawn, apparently.
It would seem that Utahns For Representative Government (UFRG), an extremely ironic name adopted by a bunch of Republican operatives who most certainly do NOT value representative government, did not get the memo. They are cranky that those infernal liberals in and around Salt Lake City might actually have a voice in Congress, due to recent political and legal maneuvers that slayed Utah's 4R, 0D House delegation gerrymander, and turned it into a (likely) 3R, 1D. So, UFRG launched a petition drive for an initiative that would have put the drawing of House districts back in the hands of "the people," by which they mean "the Utah legislature." Since the Utah legislature has 61 Republicans versus 14 Democrats in the state House, and 22 Republicans vs. 6 Democrats in the state Senate, it's pretty clear what would have happened if "the people" regained control of the process.
Anyhow, UFRG thought they had cleared the bar, signature-wise, albeit with a relatively small margin of error. But then an information campaign warned Utah voters what UFRG really stood for, and what the ballot measure was really about. Since people often sign petitions without knowing the contents (outside, say, the grocery store), it is plausible that many people did not know. And Utah law allows people to withdraw their signatures up to the point that the initiative is certified. And just enough people chose to exercise that right that the initiative fell below the minimum threshold. The overall total was actually enough, but there also has to be a certain minimum in at least 26 of 29 state Senate districts, and the efforts of state Sen. Kathleen Riebe (D) caused her district (SD-15) to drop below the minimum, leaving UFRG with the necessary number of signatures in 25 districts, which is close, but no cigar.
It is now too late for UFRG to fix the problem, though the group's leaders say they will try again next cycle. Maybe so, but they spent more than $4 million this time, and they also enlisted the assistance of Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) and other heavy hitters, yet came up short. In the future, people asked to sign petitions might just look a bit more closely before bestowing their John Hancock. Also, in a presidential year, it may not be as easy to come up with $4 million to chase just one House seat. So, the good people of Salt Lake City might actually be able to keep the pinko commie lib'rul they're likely to elect in November of this year.
Oh, and thanks to reader B.P. in Salt Lake City for sending this along. He's one of those pinko commie lib'ruls, of course. (Z)