A recent Tribune article asserted that politics make Utah solidly red. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Democrat Kathleen Riebe outpaced Republican Celeste Malloy in Salt Lake County by almost 40%. But that becomes irrelevant when a rogue state Legislature ignores the will of the people as expressed in a redistricting voter initiative.
Generally, major metropolitan areas are not carefully dissected into four pieces and put into different rural districts with which they have very little in common. But Utah was convinced by a dominant institution some years ago that Republicans are holy and the state has voted red, with few exceptions, since then.
The effect is to essentially disenfranchise the people of Salt Lake County.
I would ask our Legislature one simple question: What is the purpose of the citizen initiative provision of the state Constitution if you can simply ignore publicly supported initiatives?
Dennis R. Edmonds, Sandy
