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Don't let Republican legislators gut ethics reform |
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 Utah's Republican legislators have finally seen the light, at least that's what they want us to believe. Now they're talking about how important ethics reform is. They're even working on legislation to create an ethics commission. They say they really do support ethics reform. They just don't like the ethics initiative. So they're writing their own legislation that will fix the state's ethics problems.
Excuse me for not being convinced. These are the same people who have blocked ethics reform legislation repeatedly. The proposals they're now considering have been in bills they rejected year after year after year. The legislature never voted on them because the Republican leadership never let them come to a vote.
Now they want us to believe they're converted to the idea of ethics reform. Don't buy it. They don't mean it. And they're going to do their best to block serious ethics reform measures.
The fact is they're trying to pass a bill that will keep serious ethics reform at bay. They have no intention of enacting ethics reform that will limit their behavior. Instead, they want to pass a bill that they can gut once the heat is off.
Remember term limits? In the 1990s, the term limits movement led to several initiatives in various states resulting in limits on state legislator's terms. To forestall a successful initiative in Utah, Utah's Republican legislators passed a bill limiting legislator terms. The popular term limits movement thought it had won a victory. However, those same legislators then turned around and rescinded their own decision before it actually took effect.
Sound familiar? They're going to do it again, if they can.
How do we stop them?
1. Sign the ethics initiative. Encourage others to do so as well. Let's put it on the ballot. We can tell its going to make a real difference because they're fighting so hard against it!
2. Work for the Democratic candidate in your district who will support serious ethics reform and not attempt to hoodwink Utah's citizens once again. In Utah County, our Democratic candidates in 2008 supported serious ethics reform. That will happen again in 2010.
3. Make sure you turn out to vote and get your friends to vote for that candidate as well.
They only get away with it if we continue to let them.
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