SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Utah Democrats and Republicans are fighting over two boxes of documents.
The documents were used when the state crafted new political boundaries last year.
The Democrats paid the state five thousand dollars for one box of documents but the legislature says it will cost ten thousand more to get the other two.
Monday, a very rare legislative committee hearing was held to decide the future of these documents.
The Democrats have been asking for the redistricting records since last October.
Monday, Jim Dabakis, the Democratic State Chairman told the committee,
"I went over to the legislative counsel office and I said here's your five thousand dollars, give us the documents. And I expected to get documents."
And the state's top Democrat did get the one box of documents.
But the staff of the Republican-controlled legislature told the Democrats the other two boxes of records would cost them nearly ten thousand dollars more.
Ivan Dubois, the Utah Republican State Executive Director told the committee,
"I think it's very irresponsible the request that the Democrats made."
So for three hours Monday, Democrats and Republicans went back and forth.
But since, deep down, I want all politicians to get along, Monday afternoon, I filed my own government records request.
In it, I argued the two boxes of documents should be turned over - free of charge - to ABC 4.
And, to quote myself, I wrote,
"[The]…widespread media coverage clearly establishes that these documents are indeed of great interest to the Utah public."
After the hearing, Dabakis told ABC 4,
"It's wrong; the documents ought to be released. Put them up on the website. [The] Democratic Party doesn't want them. We want the public to have them."
We will keep you posted on what happens to our request.
FOLLOW CHRIS VANOCUR ON TWITTER: @cvan4
