On Nov. 10, I joined a crowd at the Kaysville City Hall for one of the mandatory hearings the Utah Republican Party hosted in its bid to overturn Proposition 4. Proposition 4, passed by voters via a citizen ballot initiative in 2018, established an independent redistricting commission and binding criteria for new maps. In other words, it codified a process designed to do away with partisan gerrymandering.
You can find a history of what’s happened with the quest for fair maps since the initiative passed here. In brief, the maps the Legislature adopted after the 2020 census contravened both the intent and letter of the law. The most egregiously gerrymandered among them — the congressional map — became the subject of a lawsuit. After years of litigation and appeals, the Utah judiciary gave the Legislature a last chance to produce a fair map this fall. It failed to do so, forcing Judge Dianna Gibson to choose one of the plaintiffs’ maps. Now, without Proposition 4 ever having been implemented as voters intended, the Utah Republican Party is looking to repeal it. They’re gathering signatures to put the question to voters on next year’s ballot.
When introducing the Proposition 4 repeal effort at the Nov. 10 hearing, the meeting’s Republican host emphasized that the ballot initiative passed in 2018 with money from out of state. She implied that it therefore didn’t represent the interests or desires of Utahns. Her point about out-of-state money warrants further scrutiny.
As context, you should know that it’s arguably harder for voters to get citizen initiatives on the ballot in Utah than it is anywhere else in the nation; only seven initiatives have become law in Utah’s history. And the Legislature is trying to make it more difficult still. The most onerous requirement is gathering signatures of at least 8% of active registered voters in Utah, meeting a signature threshold in a minimum of 26 of the 29 state Senate districts.
The Legislature has ratcheted up the difficulty by design. What that means in practical terms is that it’s nearly impossible for citizens to mount an initiative campaign without raising money wherever they can get it — from both in and out of the state. It’s true that donations from outside of Utah helped with the prohibitive expenses of getting Proposition 4 on the ballot. But — and this is huge — the effort also got donations from more than 7,000 Utahns in 2018.
In stark contrast, the effort to repeal Proposition 4 is being funded by a single out-of-state group called Securing American Greatness. That group, which isn’t required to publicly disclose its donors, has contributed over $4.3 million to overturn Proposition 4 and secure the Legislature’s right to gerrymander. It’s hard to know much about this group, but the public record shows it spent tens of millions of dollars last year supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
We must conclude, then, that the Utah Republican Party doesn’t actually object to an influx of out-of-state money when they’re the ones using it. But it’s a useful talking point for them since many voters aren’t aware that while Proposition 4 was a grassroots effort facilitated by money from both Utah citizens and out-of-state groups, the effort to overturn it is being funded exclusively by an out-of-state group.
In public comments at the hearing in Kaysville last month, there was a repeated refrain: Voters should pick their politicians rather than politicians picking their voters. Let’s make sure that happens — by rejecting misleading claims about Proposition 4 and making sure voters understand: This campaign to restore partisan gerrymandering in Utah is being bankrolled by a dark money group in Massachusetts.