The United States is facing a constitutional crisis. Only twice in the nation's history has a president been impeached. In both cases the president was not removed from the office because two-thirds of senators did not agree with the House. In one other instance, impeachment would have been likely had the president (Richard Nixon) not resigned first.

No act by a Congress has more import than the potential removal of a president of the United States. The founders set a high bar for doing so. A majority of the House of Representatives must vote to indict (impeach) the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Then, two-thirds of the Senate must agree.

That bar likely would have been achieved in 1974 when Nixon was found to have conspired to cover up a crime—the break-in into the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. His resignation made impeachment moot. The bar was not achieved in either 1868 with President Andrew Johnson or in 1998 with President Bill Clinton.

Now, the House of Representatives is on the verge of initiating an impeachment inquiry. The recent accusation that President Trump requested for the leader of a foreign nation to investigate a likely challenger in the next presidential election, and perhaps used the threat of suspended military aid to enforce his will on the foreign leader, is a grave one. Using US government aid to encourage a foreign leader to investigate an American, and even worse the president's likely general election opponent, may well qualify as an impeachable offense. That decision is up to the House of Representatives.

The United Utah Party has not taken a stand on the potential impeachment of President Trump. But all Americans understand the importance of leaders—particularly the president—upholding the laws of the United States, discouraging foreign leaders from becoming involved in the electoral processes of the United States, and recognizing the boundaries of the checks and balances built into the U.S. Constitution.

What can we do as Americans? We can remind our representatives that the impeachment process is not designed as a political tool to express opposition to the policy of a sitting president. But we can remind them that it is an instrument for assuring that a president does not misuse his office for his own advantage. If President Trump committed such an act, he should be impeached and removed from office. However, that conclusion can only be definitely reached after an impeachment inquiry, which the House is on the verge of commencing. It is incumbent on the House to determine whether an impeachable offense actually occurred.

Our nation faces another crisis. It is not a time for more partisanship. It is a time for uniting to determine if corruption exists and whether even the president of the United States is a party to it.

Go to unitedutah.org and volunteer and donate.  And share this message with others who you know are dissatisfied with politics as usual and want an alternative!

 –Richard Davis, Chair

Unite to Get Signatures for Term Limits! 

On Monday, 9 September 2019, the elections branch of the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office gave citizen initiative Unite for Term Limits the green light to start gathering signatures.  This follows seven public hearings held around the state by U4TL.

The United Utah Party is promoting this citizen initiative for the 2020 ballot to set reasonable limits on the times of continuous service of top elected officials and state legislators.  

Unite for Term Limits would limit state legislators to 12 years of continuous service and state executive officers to eight years.  For the full text of the bill, click here.  

A recent local poll from Utah Policy shows that 75% of Utahns think that term limits are a good idea, while only 7% think they are a bad idea.  16% say it depends.

We believe that if Unite for Term Limits makes it to the ballot in 2020, it will pass handily.  We just need to make sure it gets on the ballot.  That’s where you come in.

How do we qualify it?  We need to get a lot of people to sign on the dotted line.  That means we need you take a signature book around to friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers, and ask them to consider the initiative and sign the petition if they agree.  Some of those good folks will like the idea so much that they too will want to have a signature booklet of their own to take around.  That’s how we build momentum.   

How many signatures do we need?  According to the law, we need more than 115,000 valid signatures from registered voters across the state. We are aiming to collect many more because of possible duplicate signatures, ineligible signers, incomplete entries, retractions, and the like.  We need strong representations of voters from at least 26 of the state's 29 senate districts. 

So how much time to we have?  As of September 24th, we have only 147 days to bring it home.  The deadline is February 18, 2020.  No extensions will be granted.  We need to collect, on average, close to 1000 signatures per day.  We can do this if each one of us pitches in now. 

While we start printing the signature booklets, we need you to sign up.  Please go now to the U4TL website and get familiar with it.  Please volunteer to collect signatures.  Please donate to help us move ahead quickly.  If you don’t do this, who will?  If we want to show some strength in unity, now is the time to act. 

Our initiative effort is not just about term limits.  It is just the beginning of our initiative efforts to bring better government to Utah.  We want to show that we can use the citizen initiative process on this simple case so that we can tackle more complicated problems like campaign finance reform, government ethics reform, and the large influence of lobbyists and special interests. 

This is the first small printing of the term limits signature packets that we want to flood the state with. 

From our trunk to your home.  We are gearing up.  And we need your help.

County Conventions Happening Now

Bring your energy to one of our county conventions!  Wasatch County's convention is next. Come tomorrow, Wednesday, September 25th, at 7 pm to the Wasatch High School in Heber City to show your support!

The purpose of these conventions is to elect county officers, help party supporters get to know each other, and work together to build the party in the county.  We invite to our county conventions anyone interested in a new alternative to the dysfunctional Republicans and Democrats. Come join us in building a new political system built on moderation, common sense, and practicality.  You will find other like-minded people who want to end the partisan gridlock that dominates today's politics.

Check your calendars.   

United Utah Tax Reform Summit 

"Understanding the Storm Around Tax Reform"

It's the right time to be talking about Utah tax reform in a logical, reasoned way.  

We will be holding our second annual issue summit. Last year we covered housing affordability.

We invite experts to explain an issue, and we invite the public to listen and ask questions of them. Panelists this year are:

• John Valentine–a former legislator in both the House and Senate; he served two terms as President of the State Senate and currently serves as Chair of the Utah State Tax Commission.
• Joel Briscoe–currently represents House District 25 in the State Legislature; he is a member of the Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force.
• John Dougall–a former member of the State House of Representative (where he sponsored the last major tax reform bill); he currently serves as Utah State Auditor.
• Christopher Collard–a Research Analyst for the Utah Foundation; he has authored reports on tax burden and tax revenue volatility among other things.

When:  September 28, 2019 at 10:30 am–Noon

Where:  Day Riverside Branch, Salt Lake County Library, 1575 W. 1000 North, Salt Lake City