- Emily Buss, a Forward Party member, filled a Utah Senate vacancy.
- Sen. Mike McKell proposes SB194 to ensure vacancies match prior party affiliation.
- Buss criticized the bill for discouraging independent thinking in Utah politics.
SALT LAKE CITY — There's a new member of the Utah Legislature this year, and she's not a Republican or Democrat.
Emily Buss, a member of the Forward Party of Utah, is the only third-party officeholder on Capitol Hill. But the way she was elected has some lawmakers trying to prevent that from happening again.
It all started when former Sen. Daniel Thatcher resigned from the Legislature. Thatcher had been a Republican for a long time, but he didn't like what the party was doing, so he left and joined the Forward Party.
This past October, Thatcher announced his departure from the Senate, and the Forward Party launched a process to replace him. It elected Emily Buss, a nonprofit executive and social worker from Eagle Mountain.
But that bothered some who felt the seat should have gone to a Republican since that was the party Thatcher held when he was last up for reelection.
"That's what the voters originally intended, and I think we need to respect the voters in that situation," said Sen. Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork.
McKell now has a bill, SB194, requiring any future vacancies to be filled with someone from the same political party the prior officeholder held during the most recent election.
"I really like my new colleague," McKell said of Buss, "but that seat has less than 3% of the Forward Party. That was a seat voted for by Republicans, and that's just common sense. I think it's a matter of fairness."
"I definitely don't love that," Buss told KSL.
The new senator said McKell's proposal ignores voters who are more independent, especially millennials and Gen Z.
"It discourages free thinking, and I feel like it's a scare tactic to keep people within party lines," Buss said. "It's OK to change your mind when you have new information and new experiences, and I think it's going to be harmful in the long run."
Buss is finishing out this current term, which ends in 2027. She doesn't caucus with any political party, but she said her fellow legislators have been "really welcoming." Buss is running for a full term of her own this year, but she's facing four challengers — three Republicans and a Democrat — who also want the seat.
McKell's SB194 has not yet received a committee hearing. Besides addressing the issue of vacancies in elected offices, the bill also seeks to tighten the process for ensuring noncitizens can't vote in Utah elections, create a process for the lieutenant governor to deal with conflicts of interest and classify certain voter registration information as public.
The legislative session ends March 6.
