Polls show that few Utahns can name their state senator or representative. And legislative candidates often complain that voters are not engaged in state House races.
So it is especially disheartening for a national organization that attempts to get legislative candidates to post their issue stands on the Internet to help educate voters to once again meet with organized resistance in Utah.
Project Vote Smart has mailed candidate questionnaires to Utah legislative candidates for years, only to see various groups encourage candidates not to fill out the PVS forms.
"We don't have a formal campaign against" Project Vote Smart, says Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party. "But if one of our (Democratic) candidates asks us about them, we tell them not to fill out their questionnaires."
Taylor says that he and other professional party operatives "have had problems with Project Vote Smart for more than a decade. But (Project Vote Smart officials) have never even talked to us to try to work things out."
PVS spokeswoman Rachel Pagliocca says it is unfortunate that the Utah Democratic Party opposes the group's questionnaire. "All of our questions include an open, blank response area" should the candidate not agree with the multiple-choice responses. "We allow for 30 percent of the questions to not even be answered," and PVS will still post that candidate's response on their Web site, she said.
"Our most basic question is: Are you willing to let citizens know where you stand on important issues of the day?" she said. Voters should demand that kind of information, she added.
PVS is a non-partisan, non-profit voter education group based out of Philipsburg, Mont., that polls gubernatorial, congressional and legislative candidates in all states. It uses experts in each state to localize their questionnaire — this year including Utah questions like whether the candidates support a flat-rate income tax or favor repeal of a law that allows illegal immigrant high school graduates to pay in-state college tuition.
Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Utah Republican Party, says his group does not make any recommendations to GOP candidates on any questionnaires. "We let our candidates make up their own minds. Some groups use questionnaires to decide if they will give financial support" to the candidate, and so candidates may want to fill out those forms.
Hartley said, "Some candidates don't like to be pigeon-holed by narrow answers to complex questions — and they won't fill out any questionnaires."
Project Vote Smart's questions are listed alphabetically. First on the form is abortion — always a touchy subject for Democratic candidates in Utah. The form gives seven different abortion stands and then a blank space where the candidate can write their own answers.
Among the seven check-a-box choices, Taylor notes that none accurately reflects the LDS Church's stand on abortion. "With so many candidates being LDS, their form doesn't work."
Beyond any specifics, Taylor says Project Vote Smart "asks the most hot button issues there are, giving the most simplistic, stupid answers you can imagine to chose from," says Taylor.
Legislative candidates get so many questionnaires "they could spend much of their time filling them out, but we (as party leaders) say unless doing so brings with it some real campaign pluses — like campaign donations, advertising and publicity — don't waste your time."
Pagliocca doesn't see it as a waste of time. In the late 1990s, a high of 40 percent of Utah legislative candidates filled out and returned the PVS questionnaires. That dropped to just 25 percent in 2004. Across the nation, she says, PVS has seen a drop in candidate participation in the early 2000s.
"It is just bad for citizens to not know how these candidates stand on the issues," she said.
The Deseret Morning News sends questionnaires to candidates. Often, newspaper reporters and editors have had to hound candidates to reply.
But Taylor said responding to a newspaper questionnaire may be a good thing "because it could bring considerable publicity" to the candidate.
After the deadline Wednesday for candidates to return their PVS questionnaires, candidate answers can be found on the group's Web site: www.vote-smart.org.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com