Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, David Clark, recently posted a poll on his political blog “Speaker Clark” asking his readers who they thought would be best fit to handle the redistricting process: The Governor, The Legislature, The Supreme Court, or An Independent Commission. Clark, being a strong supporter of the Legislative option, clearly felt that his readers would side with him.

That…was not the case.

Liberal blogger Jeff Bell informed the internet of this poll and invited people to go and vote how they felt – not surprisingly his readers are not fans of the states appalling gerrymandered districts and voted accordingly. Soon the poll was overwhelmingly one-sided in favor of a commission (the last I saw it was leading by 85%), soon after it disappeared from Clark’s site.

But this post is not about a magical mystery poll – it is about the utter lack of criticism, demonstrated by Clark’s actions, that Republican leadership have in their position as representatives of the citizens of the state of Utah. This mindset that ignores the will of the people is a classic sign of a bloated and ineffective government that serves more as an oligarchy than a republic.

This pattern of behavior is nothing new: Vouchers, cuts in current health care funding for children and the elderly, questionable business practices with people indicted for fraud, bribery of opponents in elections, the rejection of an ethics commission, an utter disdain for the earth, a total rejection of public education – from preschool to college, and Byzantine laws regarding legal actives all point to a legislature that is out of touch with the people they are charged to represent.

So, does it come as a surprise that power-brokers want to do all they can to prevent the people from wrestling power away from them in favor of a more representative government? After all – the last time we challenged law makers in a head to head battle, the people overwhelmingly rejected decision makers. The battle regarding redistricting is another example of how the Utah Legislature loathes and despises the people they represent.

And so Speaker Clark is showing us the tactic House and Senate Republican leaders are going to employ in regards to this issue – deny there is a problem and reject the will of the people in favor of maintaining power.

I challenge Speaker Clark to post the results of his poll on his website, and I further challenge Speaker Clark to engage in an open and honest debate with representatives of the Fair Boundaries project. Furthermore I challenge Speaker Clark to allow this initiative to go to the people of Utah so that they may decide who represents them – if you are correct and that the Legislature is truly fit to choose its voters, then you should have no problem convincing the people of this fair state of this fact.