SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Republicans recently changed their tactics but not their strategy in the ongoing blood feud with state Democrats over voting district maps.
To explain that shift in direction, the state GOP is inviting northern Utah residents to a public hearing on their proposed initiative to repeal the Independent Redistricting Commission and Standards Act slated on Monday, Nov. 3 in Community Room B of the Logan Library.
Under the auspices of the Republican surrogate group Utahns for Representative Government (UFRG), the meeting is intended to explain the recent shift in tactics from a two-pronged indirect initiative attack on adverse court rulings to a direct initiative approach.
“Recent legal fillings by those opposed to our defense of representative government made it clear that the Lieutenant Governor’s office would likely be forced to deny our indirect initiative application,” according to Utah GOP chair Robert Axson.
“Utahns for Representative Government have withdrawn their existing application and immediately filed a direct initiative to repeal Proposition 4 and restore constitutional balance in Utah.”
This latest round of political maneuvering began after the Third District Court in Salt Lake City ordered state lawmakers to implement fair congressional voting maps by November of this year.
Utah Democrats and their allies were jubilant, assuming that decision would mean a rebalancing the districts of the state’s congressional delegation in Washington prior to the midterm election in 2026.
Back in 2018, Utah voters passed the Proposition 4 ballot initiative, which created an independent redistricting commission to redraw state congressional maps.
In a fit of pique in 2020, the Utah Legislature repealed and replaced the ballot initiative with a law that made the commission purely advisory. The legislature then drew its own congressional maps in 2021 that ignored the commission’s recommendations, especially slicing Salt Lake City to carefully dilute Democrats’ influence.
A left-leaning advocacy coalition comprised of the League of Women Voters and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued the state in March of 2022 and the issue has been moving through state courts at glacial pace ever since.
The Aug. 25 ruling by Third District Judge Dianna Gibson came on the heels of a Utah Supreme Court opinion affirming that when Utahns use a citizen initiative to reform government, those reforms are constitutionally protected. The court found that the Legislature’s decision to override a voter-approved independent redistricting process violated fundamental democratic principles.
Called into special session by Gov. Spencer Cox on Oct. 6, Republicans in the Legislature pulled a fast one by endorsing a congressional redistricting proposal know as Map C, which splits three cities (North Salt Lake, Millcreek and Pleasant Grove) and three counties (Davis, Salt Lake and Utah).
GOP lawmakers insist that legislation complies with Proposition 4 standards and legislative preferences while also satisfying judicial orders from the 3rd District Court.
While the courts ponder that decision, the Utah GOP spawned UFRG, claiming that Utah’s right to fair representation was under attack because Gibson’s ruling creates confusion, forces an impossible timeline and undermines Utah’s constitutional processes.
The GOP’s two-pronged indirect initiative strategy would have required them to collect 160,000 voter signatures by Nov. 18 to block the imposition of outside redistricting maps and 80,000 signatures by Nov. 15 to repeal Proposition 4.
When the GOP abandoned that approach, Utah Democrats applauded, savoring another victory.
“We believe in a Utah where communities, not politicians, choose their representation,” explains Brian King, the chair of the Utah Democratic Party.
“This process has once again revealed a legislature either unwilling or incapable of honoring that principle.”
Through the use of the same direct initiative approach that created Proposition 4, however, Utah Republicans are now seeking to collect 141,000 valid signatures to place a new referendum on the 2026 ballot to overturn it.
Sponsors of that direct initiative include Axson, Sen. Mike Lee, Attorney General Derek Brown and former U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, among others.
“The Utah Constitution is clear,” Axson argues. “The authority to draw congressional districts rests with the people’s elected representatives, not with the courts and not with an unaccountable commission.
“We again call on all Utahns to stand against judicial overreach and defend the separation of powers outlined in our state constitution.”
The Utahns for Representative Government public meeting is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3 at the Logan Library, while similar state-mandated gathering are being held in six other locations throughout the state.
The Logan Library is located at 285 North Main Street in Logan.