Referendum defeat may cost Utah Republicans in '08 polls
By Robert Gehrke
Rarely does the Utah Legislature get its comeuppance as it did when voters overwhelmingly defeated state-funded private school vouchers last week.
But the real reckoning may come a year from now, when those who fought for a plan scorned by nearly two-thirds of the state seek re-election.
The public sentiment expressed in the referendum could hardly be more clear, nor could the disconnect between the voters and their elected representatives.
Not only did the voucher plan fail in every one of Utah's 29 counties, but an analysis by The Salt Lake Tribune shows it failed in nearly every district represented by the most ardent supporters of the voucher movement, in some cases by resounding margins.
Before the first vote was counted, Democrats sought to capitalize on voter resentment, reminding voters in five districts, including House Speaker Greg Curtis', that their legislator backed vouchers and ''doesn't share our values on education."
Republican Rep. Kory Holdaway, a Taylorsville High School teacher, pleaded with his legislative colleagues in February to listen to their constituents and vote down the voucher bill. He wishes some would have gotten the message.
"Quite honestly, I think the Legislature has gone too far to the right and I think the general electorate is not pleased with where we are as a body," he said. "I think there could be some political fallout related to this."
More...
7 comments:
I'm betting that Vouchers might cost the republicans in the house 1 - maybe 2 seats. But not enoguth to effect the ebb and flow of things.
The Senate will remain unchanged.
Unfortunately, I think that voters in Utah are more concerned with having the "right" kind of person in office and worry less about performance, ethics, and specific legislative positions.
Whatever, that's democracy. The will of the people doesn't have to be right or intelectually satisfiying or even make sense.
Maybe that's why educating the voter through campaigns and getting the vote out is so important.
Democrats should give us $3000.00 dollars a year to send our kids to private schools, because we are better than them.
Rob, you might want to be careful with this strategy...I know there was a great deal made over PCE going after six anti-voucher Democrats in the last election. And, now, here we are hearing about the same sort of single-issue, targeted campaign against six pro-voucher legislators.
Politics is politics, of course. But folks shouldn't complain about what PCE did and then turn right around and do the same thing.
PTM
Actually Paul, it's worse than just targeting anti-voucher democratic legislators in the election. That just sounds like a regular ol' election strategy in traditional party politics to me.
The big money players for the national cause of vouchers also went after other republican sitting legislators with huge donations for their opponents. The big money went after "non-partisan" state school board races also.
This wasn't plain old payback politics, but rather intense pressure brought to bear on our state's entire political structure in the interest of one narrow national cause.
This ugly campaign the past couple of years distorted our local political interactions and prioritized one issue at the expense of many other issues important to Utahns.
I believe that this has damaged relationships within the republican majority in the Utah House that will show up down the road in elections and during the session.
Paul-
Actually, as someone in the know on this subject (I'm working on the targeted project), this not a one-issue campaign. These targeted legislators were targeted by the Democratic party not for their veiw on vouchers, but because tese are races where we have either come close to winning or should be closer to winning. The fact that they all happen to have voted the same way on vouchers was a gift to us, as was referendum 1
Paul, you might want to be careful about giving political advice to anyone since you yourself recently posted on John Dougall's blog that the legislature should "ignore the vote of the people" and legislate school vouchers anyway by expanding the Carson Smith legislation to include other students.
This would really be representative government if they followed your advice, wouldn't it?
John Talcott
Post a Comment