James Evans is a former Salt Lake County Chair and State Senator who along with Aaron Gabrielson and Marco Diaz are running for Chair of the Utah
Republican Party. Evans is a self-described “conservative” (Facebook). Elections are now less than
two weeks away on May 18th.
VOTING RECORD—SPONSORED BILLS
One of the strongest indicators of one’s political views is
one’s voting record and Evans had a term as a State Senator during 2003-4. An examination of his voting record is much
more insightful into Evans’ political leanings rather than a trite label of "conservative." In a careful examination of all of Evans
sponsored bills as a Senator there are a number of bills which seem rather
neutral, but I find none that in my estimation I would consider fiscally
conservative, that is tending towards any of the following:
reducing government spending, lowering taxes or fees, reducing
government regulation and bureaucracy, or reduction of bonds and debt.
Conversely, there were four that egregiously seemed to stand
out as antithetical to fiscal conservatism:
·
(2003) SB129 Criteria in
Awarding Bids Failed to pass, but attempted to restrict government contracts
over $100K to companies with 15+ employees, an apprenticeship program, and
health insurance. More unnecessary regulation
and anti-small-business.
·
(2003) SB140 Prescription
Drug Assistance Program More regulations
for pharmacies to require promotion of public freeloading on drug programs.
·
(2004) SB135 Center for
Multicultural Health, with help from Democrat House member David Litvack,
this appropriated $100K for a pork-barrel style spending for the creation of an
unneeded Multicultural Health Center. In
2011 the legislature incorporated the Center into the Utah Office of Health
Disparities while the appropriation was continued.
·
(2004) SB230 Reading Achievement
Program Evans tried to appropriate $30 million, but in the fourth
substitute successfully appropriated $15 million for a new reading program.
SB230 was in my estimation the most damaging of all the
Evans-sponsored bills. It grew the
public education bureaucracy without accountability and is a classic case of
money being thrown at education and hoping it stuck. Additionally, it also authorized school
districts to raise property taxes for this program so yes, it is fair to say
that everyone including Evans who voted for SB230 voted to both increase
spending and raise taxes.
"Although the overall objective of the state’s K–3
Reading Improvement Program is to ensure that all Utah third graders “read at
or above grade level,” this term and its measurement have not been specifically
defined."
In other words, we threw $15M at reading without ever defining a measurable
goal. The report concluded:
"After the implementing legislation was passed in 2004,
the K–3 Reading Improvement Program was immediately embraced, with all 40 of
the state’s school districts signing on. As a result, no control group exists
for comparison, and it is impossible to contrast participants and
nonparticipants. Thus, any relationship subsequently identified between the
program and student achievement outcomes is correlational at best and does not
imply that the program caused the results."
While I grant Evans freedom to use whatever label he desires
in describing his ideology, based on the purest form of measurability we have--bills
Evans voluntarily sponsored and initiated--I can see no iota of fiscal conservatism
or financial restraint from his actions as a Utah State Senator with which I would ever
voluntarily apply the term to him.
VOTING RECORD IN GENERAL
A pair of conservative Utah watchdog groups compiled
their own measurements of Evan’s record which examined not only bills Evans sponsored but his record as a whole:
·
UT
Taxpayers Association in 2004 named Evans in a list of ten most Liberal
Republicans. They also ranked
Evans below average in 2004 with a 69% vs. an average GOP 71%.
During this time as Chair, Evans compiled a lengthy list
pointing to a person of irascible character and tactics in dealing with his
opposition.
·
Evans played the race card in 2006 asking the
SLC council to censure SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson of a “racial remark” when the
Mayor used the term “slavish” to describe partisan, blind obedience to leaders
including Evans who supported policies in violation of fundamental human rights.
(Deseret
News) Funny, I feel Obamacare is
slavish, yet I love the skin color of our President.
· Evans pushed a heavily edited video on the media
right before the Sheriff’s race in 2006 to imply the Democrat candidate wanted
to “do an ass-kicking or shoot someone” when in reality the Sheriff was trying
to model bad behavior. (KSL) The tactic
backfired and the Democrat won in a landslide as a result of Evans’ lie to the
public. (SLTribune)
·
Longtime Utah GOP activist and former candidate
Mike Ridgway demonstrates with recorded documentation that Evans played a role
in lying to police to get Ridgway arrested. (YouTube)
·
Evans filed a frivolous complaint to the IRS
asking for removal of the NAACP’s tax-exempt status after the NAACP protested
certain remarks of GOP Senator Buttars and expressed interest in seeing his defeat
in an election. One blogger correctly
predicted that “zero, zilch, nada” would become of Evans' complaint and quoted the
law that such organizations “may engage in some political activities, so long
as that is not its primary activity.”
The blogger identified the impression left on the community as the
result of Evans' frivolity: “[Republican]
gutter politics” (WCForum)
·
In the rumor & gossip column it has been
speculated rather humorously that those who removed all of a major Democrat candidate’s
signage in a single night had ties to Evans (One
Utah). Certainly there does not seem
to have been any offer on the Salt Lake County Republican Party to help
compensate their Democratic counterparts for the theft of their property
(signs).
There are definitely more complaints registered about the
character of Evans available for discovery on the internet and traditional
media; I have tried to sample the flavor rather than provide an exhaustive
list. In contrast to Evans’ leadership
style is that of outgoing current Chair Thomas Wright. Wright has publicly made a point to extend
graciousness and exhibited a sense of fairness towards his Democratic
counterpart Chair Jim Dabakis in avoiding ad hominem attacks. While I do not regard Wright without flaw, going
from Wright to Evans in the area of character would be moving the Party in the wrong
direction.
MEASURABLE RESULTS
While political philosophy and character are important, the bottom
line for some is: can Evans get
Republicans elected? Obviously
philosophy is important because if one is viewed as not conforming to
Republican values, it will be hard to motivate the party to do the work. Likewise if someone is viewed either
internally or externally as of a bombastic or bulldoggish character people will
not be attracted to such behavior. So
what results did Evans’ style as Salt Lake County Chair produce?
After three years of Evans, the 2008 election was a disaster
for Salt Lake elections. A Democrat
President won Salt Lake county for the first time in memory while picking up a
trio of Utah House seats in Sandy and a Senate seat while the GOP challenger to
County Mayor was defeated. The Salt Lake council whom Evans had lobbied over “Rocky-gate”
picked up a seat flipping to majority Democrat. (SLTribune)
CONCLUSION
Some supporters have claimed Evans is a new man. I have not seen this. I have not seen apologies go out to the
people who Evans has lied about or persecuted.
Nor I have witnessed any involvement in Evans in working towards a
changed attitude about adopting fiscal conservatism. I believe with such a deep-rooted past record—one which
Evans himself touts—I would need to see irrefutable, tangible evidence of
changed philosophy, character, and results over a documented period of time before
I could accept such dubious claims of a new Evans.
