Sen. Chris Buttars, who has been asked to resign by the NAACP after making what's been seen as a racist statement, is being quietly pressured by Senate GOP leaders to announce he won't seek re-election this November.
The West Jordan Republican met for about 45 minutes Friday morning with Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, about a statement Buttars made on the floor of the Senate earlier this week.
While Bramble declined to detail any specifics of the conversation, sources told the Deseret Morning News that it was made clear to Buttars this needs to be his final term in the Legislature.
Bramble said that what happens next is "his decision. He needs to decide what he's going to do. We talked about a lot of things. I think I can state with some certainty he feels remorse for his comments. He's apologized. The Senate has accepted his apologies and wants to move on."
While Buttars reportedly has told fellow senators in recent months he planned to run again, he has not publicly announced he is seeking re-election. At one time, he intended to instead serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he is now apparently prevented from doing so by health problems.
Senate Republican leaders apparently are hoping that an announcement from Buttars that he won't run for a third term this November — senators serve four year terms, and Buttars was first elected in 2000 — will put an end to the controversy surrounding the statement he made during Tuesday afternoon's floor session.
Buttars used the word black to negatively describe the "baby" being divided by a bill dealing with sharing school district revenues, saying, "This baby is black, I'll tell you. This is a dark and ugly thing."
That led to a call for Buttars' resignation from Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"We're not backing down," Williams said Friday. She was headed Friday to a national NAACP meeting where she planned to discuss the issue with the civil rights organization's national president.
Williams said she had yet to hear from Buttars despite making several phone calls to him over the past two days. Buttars told the Morning News on Thursday he stood by his apology and "this issue is done as far as I am concerned" when asked about the call for his resignation.
Buttars attended a committee Friday morning but did not appear on the Senate floor during the morning session. Senate staff said Buttars had decided to go home for the rest of the day after the meeting with Bramble. He had already taken time off this week as a result of the fallout his statement.
He apologized from the floor Tuesday after Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, announced his words were a breach of decorum. He also posted an apology to the Senate majority's Web site, www.senatesite.com/blog, but, aside from his comments to the Morning News, has not made any further comment, according to Senate staff.
"My read is he's very distraught over this whole issue," Valentine told reporters Friday. He said again that the Senate had gone as far as it could under its rules by rebuking Buttars for his remarks.
Valentine said he had received about 50 e-mails about Buttars, including some supporting the senator. "That's not a big amount," Valentine said, compared to some issues that attract hundreds, if not thousands of e-mailed comments.
Bramble said some of the e-mails he received "have been threatening," suggesting the Senate had not done enough against Buttars.
The story has attracted some attention from outside Utah. A posting on the Daily Kos Web site urged readers to contact Utah lawmakers and "let them know that the whole world is now capable of watching the racist rantings of one locally powerful but ultimately pitiful state senator from Utah."
House members are watching the Buttars issue from afar, with perhaps gladness that it wasn't one of their own who made the remarks.
House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said he has talked with leadership of both parties in his body and emphasized not only proper decorum must be maintained at all times but that there needs to be special awareness when the Senate bill Buttars was talking about hits the House floor for debate.
"We don't want any jokes coming when this (school district) equalization bill comes up" in the House, said Curtis.
Sometimes lawmakers, facing a difficult situation, try to make light of it. But that would be inappropriate in this matter, he added, saying House members need to watch their language in all debates, but especially on that bill specifically.
Contributing: Deborah Bulkeley, Bob Bernick Jr.