Rep. Nelson Abbott says House leaders killed his rural jobs bill because he objected to $10 million in taxpayer money going to a downtown SLC trail.
I hear this kind of story a lot, but most won’t talk about it publicly.
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UPDATE: The Davis County Clerk says they've finished counting packets and there are enough signatures to put SD7 over the threshold by 48 — AS OF NOW.
There are still removals to be processed and whatever changes come from the secondary review of those rejected signatures.
So, after more than three months, $4.3 million, promotion by President Trump et al, whether the Prop 4 repeal makes the ballot now comes down to a tiny handful of signatures in Senate President Stuart Adams' district.
And, frankly, it doesn't look good for the repeal effort.
DavisCo Clerk Brian McKenzie said they'll also do a second review of the signatures that were rejected. So more could be gained there.
But opponents still have 45 days to round up removal forms.
There is no recount for an initiative. But loser will surely go to court.
Over the last several days the average has been about 6-7 signatures in SD7 per packet. (Insert 6-7 joke here.) So the 3 packets could/should push them over.
But the clerk says they have 4-5 days of removal forms they haven't processed while the finished signature verification.
WILDEST finish to Prop 4 repeal!
GOP-led repeal group has met the statewide mark & qualified in 25 of 26 required Senate districts.
But they're 8 sigs shy in SD7.
Davis clerk says he has THREE packets left and "a pretty good bunch" of removal forms.
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Breaking: DOJ sued LG Henderson & 5 other states, demanding they turn over complete voter registration database, including voters' private data.
Henderson: No state or federal law lets "DOJ collect private information on law-abiding American citizens,”
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Notably, the GOP group made headway in to must-have Layton districts. In SD7, they picked up 285 and now need 260 more. In SD8 they gained 592 and now need 316 more.
I don't, as of right now, know how many more packets remain in DavisCo.
And then there's the knock-off effort.
The effort to repeal Prop 4's ban on gerrymandering has crossed the statewide threshold and now has close to 150k signatures.
They still need to meet the targets in six more state senate districts, but they made significant progress there, as well.
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
Breaking: The effort to repeal Prop 4 now has 149,781 signatures, passing the statewide threshold. Still needs to get to the mark in senate districts.
More analysis after I get my coffee.
They have 21 days from submission to verify the signatures but they’ll be done before that. UTCO and SLCO are aiming for Friday and Davis was 2/3 done as of yesterday. So roughly the same.
Then there are 45 days from the time someone’s name appears to remove it. So like April 21.
As of yesterday the clerk told me they had 150-160 left — which MAY not be enough, but funky things could happen with the distribution and rejection rates.
Right now they’re 83% of the way there in SD7. Added 275 signatures today and need 908 more there. Gonna be close — and then the removal process is key.
Despite the really big day, not much has changed. Remember, they need to meet their signature targets in 26 of 29 Sen districts. Three look certain to be short (13, 14 and 9). Three are still in play (8, 15 and 7) and they HAVE to get all three, so 7 is still the tipping point.
So close! The push to repeal Prop 4 is now just 86 signatures from the statewide goal after the biggest day of verification yet. They have 140,662. They also have met the threshold in 14 senate districts and need 12 more.
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I think you’re both right. 13, 14 and 9 are unlikely. Meaning they have to get 15, 8 and 7. Right now I see 7 as the tipping point. Davis had 160 packets left this morning. If they get there, I think they’ll barely get there. Then there’s the removal period.
Morning signature update: Prop 4 repeal now has 129,946 verified signatures and needs just 10,802 to hit the statewide mark. The repeal effort has also met its goal in nine senate districts. They need 17 more. About 3,400 people have removed their names.
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SLCO will be done this week. UTCo has several hundred left. Maybe 500. But SLCO, Weber and Davis are the ones that matter right now.
Morning Update: As of Monday, Prop 4 repeal is on track to get to the 140,748 signatures needed statewide. They now have 123,449. But they still only have six of the 26 senate districts needed (close in several others). 2,741 have withdrawn signatures.
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There is still an appeal pending in federal court from Reps. Owens and Maloy. Barring intervention there, the court-imposed map will stand for the 2026 election.
The justices said the Legislature could have appealed the boundaries after Gibson’s rulings in August or November, but failed to do so in the allotted time. Now the appeal can’t be heard under court rules.
Breaking: Utah Supreme Court rejected the Legislatures appeal in the redistricting case.
Morning update on Prop 4 signatures: Repeal effort now has 107,793 of the 140,748 needed, just over 3/4. They secured a 4th senate district, 22 more to go. There have been 1,925 removals.
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I think it’s a little early to draw conclusions on this. Half of the signatures haven’t been dumped in. But it is something I’m keeping an eye on.
I don’t have a good answer.
Typically groups doing these want to have a running tally, so they log the packets before they’re submitted. I’ve seen it done where they also pre-verify them to have an idea how many valid sigs are on each packet.
I don’t know if they did that though.
I've been negligent, but here is the 2026 Graffy, showing how much taffy I have consumed so far this session. Consumption is down significantly and my teeth are happy about it.
Glenn Beck teed off on Utah Republican legislators, calling them "hypocrites" for packing the Utah Supreme Court and warning it could be the end of the Republic.
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
A bill in the Legislature would require the Jazz, Mammoth, RSL and others to allow concealed weapons into their venues.
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
Also worth noting: The Republican-backed Utahns for Representative Gevernment have a little over 65k signatures, 46% of the way to their goal, with two weeks left. BUT it’s hard to know how many sigs have been collected and not submitted.
Tensions are high as signature gatherers clash with opponents of the bid to repeal Prop 4 and restore the Legislatures ability to gerrymander. In a handful of cases, police have been called.
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
