Commentary: Do Utah leaders honor the people’s trust?

(Rick Bowmer | AP file photo) The Utah Legislature goes into session Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Salt Lake City.In voting, we, the people of Utah, select political leaders we hope will represent our views and act with honor and integrity. In fact, we might pray for them using words such as pioneer Eliza R. Snow’s: “Let them seek for wisdom instead of power and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise.”

Democracy, we believe, provides assurance that the power and trust we invest in elected leaders will not be abused. To that end, George Washington, in his farewell address on Sept. 17, 1796, forewarned, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are…