Petition could bring gov race to school

J. Gunnar Thorderson | Staff Writer
Photo credit: Brooke Morrill | Photo Editor | @brookemorrill

With Utah’s upcoming gubernatorial election in 2016, students at UVU are pushing for a debate between the candidates. Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a club on campus, has been gathering petition signatures in order to hold the first official debate between current governor, Gary Herbert, and the only other contender running against him, fellow Republican Jonathan Johnson, former CEO of Overstock.com.

In a little over a week, YAL club members gathered over 1,500 signatures, which they planned to present to both Herbert and Johnson. Many students were anxious to sign the petition as well as voice their concerns about the possibility of the debate request being denied.

Rex Linder, President of the Secular Student Alliance at UVU said, “Without the ability to compare the merits of ideas, can we really expect to elect competent politicians to lead us? Worst of all, we lose the ability to hold our politicians accountable.”

On Sept. 23, more than six students with clipboards in hand gathered petitions for the debate.

Trevor Williams, a Peace and Justice Studies major, signed the petition because he “would like to see Governor Herbert defend his views against Johnson’s. There’s no reason that this debate shouldn’t happen and if anything, it’s anti-democratic for either party to try and prevent it.”

The number one question asked of students who signed the petition was, “so when will we get to see the debate?”

Young Americans for Liberty is pushing for a debate near the end of October or early November. The petition states, “The debate will be held in 2015”.

J. Gunnar Thorderson is the president of Young Americans for Liberty at UVU.