SALT LAKE CITY — It’s an age-old question: Do politicians actually listen to their constituents?
A majority of registered voters in Utah don’t think so. Over 70% agree that Utah politicians “are too beholden to business, religious or other special interests and ignore the will of the people,” according to a new survey from the Utah Foundation.
Digging a bit deeper, Democrats and politically unaffiliated populations are more likely to agree with the statement and Republicans are less likely to accept that politicians are beholden to outside interests.
This mirrors national trends, as recent findings from the Pew Research Center show that 4 in 5 Americans do not believe elected officials care what constituents think.
In addition to the more than 70% of voters agreeing that Utah politicians ignore the will of the people, over 70% of respondents also agree that “religion should be kept separate from government policies.”
Less than 30% agree with the opposing statement, saying, “Government policies should support religious values and beliefs.”
These numbers differ when looking at political affiliation, with voters who identify as “very liberal” or “somewhat liberal” overwhelmingly expressing they want religion kept out of politics. On the other hand, those splits looked a little different when looking at the other side of the spectrum.
The survey shows that among voters who identify as “somewhat conservative,” 52% believe religion should be kept separate from government policies. For voters identifying as “very conservative,” 46% believe religion should be kept separate from government policies.
‘Some bad apples’
“There is no question that politicians have, you know, sort of a bad rap. And it’s not entirely undeserved,” said Utah Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City. “There are some, you know, there’s some bad apples out there.”
But why is this and why do an overwhelming majority of Utah voters, regardless of political affiliation, believe politicians are keen to ignore the will of the people?
The survey from the Utah Foundation and Dailey-Provost both express that this sentiment is likely felt for a multitude of reasons.
In 2018, Utah voters approved ballot initiatives legalizing medical marijuana, expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and creating an independent redistricting commission to address gerrymandering. Following this, the Utah Legislature significantly altered the terms of each initiative and made it more difficult for voters to pass ballot initiatives in the state.
Dailey-Provost said she believes there’s a “flippant attitude” around the aforementioned ballot initiatives, stemming from the fact that they all passed by narrow margins.
“An election is an election, and even if something wins by one vote, even if a candidate wins by one vote, it doesn’t negate or decrease the strength of whether or not something passes because something passing is binary,” she said. “This sense that the Legislature does not need to be deferential to the people has played out more with this ballot initiative discussions than anything else.”
Even as a politician, Dailey-Provost said she agrees with the sentiments Utah voters expressed in the survey.
“When you cast a broad net and say ‘Politicians aren’t listening,’ I believe that to be true in the state of Utah,” she said. “I think that the Legislature in our state has continued to grow its own power, relative to the other branches of government, certainly stripping the judiciary and the executive branch of power in recent years and solidifying, most poignantly solidifying to call an emergency special session with the term ’emergency’ being very vague and subjective.”
She believes the gutting of the ballot initiative that created the redistricting commission was done through “extremely dishonest and misleading language.”
This, she says, pushes the narrative that the Legislature is not listening to the will of the people.
Building bridges
So how can that relationship be repaired, or at least improved?
Dailey-Provost said she believes it can be done through politicians engaging in “better dialogue” with constituents. Instead of putting constitutional changes on the ballot through an emergency special session, she would like to see more conversations and broader engagement.
“We all talk about wanting to have that conversation, but we need to formalize those conversations at the legislative level. We can’t pretend that everybody’s going to walk away from that table happy, but actually having a conversation … and recognizing that we’re just, as a legislature, we’re just not going to always get our way and we have to defer to the voters. Even if it’s not the outcome we want, it’s part of the process and may provide some opportunity to start to build those bridges going forward,” Dailey-Provost said.
The Utah Foundation, an 80-year-old organization that aims to encourage civic engagement in policymaking processes, partnered with Salt Lake City-based Y2 Analytics to conduct the surveys.
Two open-ended questions were directed at 29,149 individuals randomly drawn from a list of registered Utah voters from Jan. 20 to Jan. 31, of which 709 responded, with an estimated response rate of 2.4%. It was emailed and texted to potential respondents several times to increase participation.
The main survey was conducted from Feb. 24 to March 24, including 656 individuals who responded out of 57,403 invited to participate, with an estimated response rate of 1.1%.
The full report from the survey can be found here.
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