Marc Roberts and Legislative Roadblocks, Fall 2017

Waterfall at the end of the Grotto Trail.

One of the politicians in Utah County that I have been particularly impressed with is Marc Roberts. Shortly after moving to Utah, I heard about a couple of interesting bills that particularly impressed me. These were the Food Freedom Act (HB 144), and Beekeeping Modifications (HB 115). When I got around to researching these bills, I was quite pleased to discover that the legislators who had introduced these bills were both the same person; Marc Roberts. Not only that, but he also represented me. I have rarely had a representative who represented me so well, so I was very pleased to see him quickly re-elected.

Here are some of the things he has tried to do this year:

• HB 123 - Juvenile Offenses Amendments - Jan 2017 - Passed
  Sought to address illegal sexual activity between minors that currently would been classified as statutory rape. ("Unlawful sexual activity with a minor" - If my reading is correct, all regular sexual activity between minors is currently illegal under exactly the same statute that makes adult sexual activity with minors illegal.)
• HB 277 - Direct to Consumer Food Sales Modification - Feb 2017 - Failed (?)
  This is a less ambitious version of his Food Freedom Act. According to the activity record, it passed a voice vote, and then the clerk struck the enacting clause. I don't understand the procedures well enough to understand why that might happen. I'm glad to see he tried again.
• HB 332 - Criminal Procedure Revisions - Feb 2017 - Failed (Vote)
  Sought to provide some protection against the continuing erosion of our right to trial by jury. In particular, the bill would require that juries be informed of the potential sentencing, and their right to find a defendant not guilty if a guilty verdict would be unjust. (It is common practice across the country for judges to try to strong-arm juries into acting as rubber-stamps for abusive government policy, even though a jury's purpose is to act as a check on tyranny and injustice.) The final version was more watered down, and merely required that juries be informed of potential sentencing.
• HB 333 - Utah Indoor Clean Air Act Amendments - Feb 2017 - Failed (Rules Committee)
  Makes some hookah and e-cigarette business exemptions permanent.
• HB 447 - Political Party Amendments - Feb 2017 - Failed (Rules Committee)
  Sought to temper the effects of SB 54 by requiring that candidates could only choose the signature method or the convention process, but not both.

When I look at this list, I see a set of bills that I very much like. They all tend to soften or reduce government abuse and overreach. Two died in the rules committee, which is unfortunate, because it gives us little insight into who the opponents to these bills are. However, HB 332 failed on a vote, 29 yeas to 45 nays, so we can get an idea who fears the jury power. It is a long list, however, so, since my blog is really focused on Utah County, I thought that I would focus on members of the house who's districts overlap with Utah County. Theoretically, getting (flipping) 8 more representatives who care more about limiting government abuse would be enough to get a tie.

All such members of the house include:
Jefferson Moss (District 2, Yea)
A. Cory Maloy (District 6, Yea)
Michael S. Kennedy (District 27, Yea)
Keven J. Stratton (District 48, Yea)
Kay J. Christofferson (District 56, Yea)
Brian M. Greene (District 57, Yea)
Val L. Peterson (District 59, Yea)
Brad M. Daw (District 60, Yea)
Keith Grover (District 61, Nay)
Dean Sanpei (District 63, Yea)
Norman K Thurston (District 64, Nay)
Francis D. Gibson (District 65, Yea)
Michael K. McKell (District 66, Nay)
Marc Roberts (District 67, Yea)
Merrill F. Nelson (District 68, Nay)


So, of the 15 representatives in Utah County, only 4 voted against the bill. I have often heard the assertion that Utah County is the most conservative and Constitution-loving county in Utah, and this evidence certainly supports that notion. If this generalizes, then I would imagine that the numerous government abuses we endure at the state level, and the failure to resist abuses at the federal level, come, for the most part, from outside our county. It makes me proud to be a citizen of our county, seeing how well we buck the trend of tyranny.

I'm a software engineer by trade, and I found that the state has published the data for a set of maps, including a file defining the boundaries for the house districts. So, I put together this little graphic.

House districts, color coded by how their representatives voted on HB 332. Red represents a "Yea" vote. Blue represents a "Nay" vote.

In looking at the map, it is interesting to me that this measure of the rejection of tyranny does not separate really well between rural and urban areas. There is some definite clustering, but, although urbanization has typically correlated negatively with some measures of conservatism, something else seems to be going on here. Indeed, the position pressed by HB 332 is not necessarily a conservative or liberal one. It is more libertarian, constitutionalist, or classical liberal in nature. Our modern misunderstanding of the jury system is a long-standing one, such that modern conservatives might be ill-inclined to correct the current false traditions, even if they are often naturally allied with constitutionalists.

Due to the clustering, I would think that representatives that neighbor red districts would be likely to be more easily persuadable (or replaceable).

I'm kind of excited about importing some of these maps for a Risk-style game I recently wrote. If it doesn't prove too difficult, maybe I can make it available with some Utah maps during the next house campaign to hit Utah county. Either way, it will be nice to start diving into some of the geographical patterns of Utah politics.