The reality is that good and bad cross partisan lines. But it is worth noting what the "good guys" in Utah County have done, just in the past year.
Senate President John Valentine of Orem and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble of Provo "persuaded" publicly funded Mountainlands Applied Technology College to build a float for the Utah County Republican Party.
At first, college President Clay Christensen said he was pressured by the legislators to build the float, but then he recanted after a phone call from Bramble. I wonder what "good guy" Bramble said on the phone to make Christensen suddenly go silent.
When Bramble's actions became public, he blamed Rep. Becky Lockhart of Provo for the incident. "Good guy" Lockhart was involved, but not alone.
And then there's Rep. Aaron Tilton of Springville. He's the "good guy" who failed to declare he had a conflict of interest on the nuclear power issue for months while he served on the legislative committee that regulates nuclear power in Utah. In fact, Tilton still has power over regulating the nuclear power industry while he financially benefits from those regulations.
The "good guys" really showed how "good" they were on the voucher issue. Remember, it was last February that the "good guy" Republican leadership passed two bills on vouchers. The second one was mere housekeeping for the first one, they claimed.
The reality was they wanted vouchers to become law even if voters rejected them in a referendum. Their arrogance continued when several "good guys" in the Republican leadership - Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, Valentine and Bramble - threatened freshman Rep. Steve Sandstrom of Orem with loss of any substantive role in the Legislature unless he supported vouchers. So "good guy" Sandstrom reneged on his promise to voters of his district to oppose vouchers.
During the voucher referendum campaign, "good guy" Bramble declared that the state legislators might ignore a statewide voucher vote if vouchers passed in their districts. (Fortunately, vouchers were defeated in most of the legislative districts in Utah County.)
And then he bullied business leaders into opposing the referendum by threatening to scuttle their legislative issues.
Lockhart says that the "Republicans represent the morals and ideals of Utahns." The state Republican Party chairman insults all Utahns with such a statement. But it is particularly insulting to the citizens of Utah County.
Their arrogance and unethical behavior don't represent the morals and values of Utah County citizens or Utahns generally.
All of this doesn't even address the policy failures of these same "good guys." For example, while the traffic problem has worsened in Utah County, Republican leaders (both state and county) have dragged their feet on finding solutions or options.
Instead of raising teachers' salaries adequately, they criticize teachers for opposing vouchers. And they sit by while the state potentially becomes a nuclear-waste dumping ground.
That Lockhart has to assure us that GOP legislators are the "good guys" is indicative of his concern that voters are starting to catch on to how their lawmakers fail to represent their values and ideals. It's time for a change; Utahns clearly deserve real good guys.
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* RICHARD DAVIS is Utah County Democratic Party chairman.
