OPINION:
Utah Republicans say they have the votes to overturn the system that was supposed to make elections fair. In 2018, voters narrowly passed the Better Boundaries initiative, which transferred redistricting authority from elected lawmakers to a commission.
Concealing their design under the innocuous title, Democrats began plotting to snatch a few congressional seats in the deepest-red state in the union. Seven appointed members would now draw the political lines, with the Legislature limited to the ceremonial role of approving or rejecting the commission proposals.
Problems surfaced right away. Former Republican Rep. Rob Bishop resigned from the panel, accusing fellow commissioners of bias against rural areas. Legislators attempted to fix the setup’s flaws, but the state Supreme Court vetoed the modifications, insisting that voters had to endorse any change.
Now, low-level courts felt free to monkey with political boundaries on their own. In August, District Court Judge Dianna Gibson voided the legislatively ratified map. “Judge Gibson took 76 single-spaced pages to justify ignoring plain language of the Utah Constitution,” state Sen. Daniel McCay complained on X.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, observed on X: “In Utah and other red states, ‘independent commissions’ are just a way for Dems to take over.” The discontent drove Utah Republican Party Chairman Robert Axson to hit the streets and collect signatures to put a repeal of Better Boundaries on the ballot.
“All we did here is we put it back to the people of Utah. We’re giving it back to all of you, all of us. We get to decide come November what we want to see moving forward. That’s the way it should be,” Mr. Axson said Sunday as he dropped off the final batch of signatures needed to qualify.
The task wasn’t easy, as Democrats have no interest in the democratic process. The Deseret News confirmed police reports were filed after Republican volunteers in the Beehive State were assaulted and had the petitions they gathered pilfered by liberals.
This shows how deeply disturbed the left has become, resorting to barbarity when it doesn’t get its way. Democrats don’t mess around in Utah or elsewhere in the country. California is likely to succeed in rigging its maps to exclude Republicans from office, and rumors are swirling that Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington may soon follow.
Republicans appear incapable of matching these ploys because “moderate” members of the party cling to quaint notions of fairness as they block efforts to balance the electoral scales. Fairness didn’t work out so well in Utah because you can’t reason with revolutionaries.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Donald Trump was shot. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was shot. A man pretending to be a woman tried to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Virginia Democrats embraced an attorney general who celebrated violence against his political opponents and a “moderate” governor who enacted radical policies on her first day in office.
On April 21, that state’s residents will be asked, “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
It’s a dishonest initiative intended to ensure Republicans never hold office again. Red state officials can’t afford to play nice when the other side is vicious and unrelenting in the quest for power.
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