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Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Ure's defeat may mean end of tuition law

By Deborah Bulkeley
Deseret Morning News

It's not clear whether voters had immigration on their minds last week when they chose Kevin VanTassell of Vernal as the Republican nominee for Senate District 26 over Rep. Dave Ure of Kamas.
Rep. Dave Ure But Ure's defeat means he leaves the Legislature after 13 years in the House, and his absence could mean the death of a 2002 law Ure sponsored allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition if they have attended a Utah high school for at least three years and graduated.

In the 2006 legislative session, Ure was key in killing a bill to repeal the tuition law, even after it had received strong Republican support in the House Education Committee. The bill stalled in the House Rules Committee and never made it to the floor for a vote.

But with Congress apparently deadlocked on immigration reform, Ure told the Deseret Morning News that the tuition law's future is uncertain.

"I haven't talked to anybody," Ure said. "I don't know of anyone who is going to pick up the gauntlet."

Ure said the tuition bill's repeal would be unfortunate and eliminate the hope of higher education for hundreds of students.

"If (students) are not setting goals of higher education, they're not going to get it," he said. "They're going to drop out of school even earlier if they can't further their causes."

Ure said he used simple parliamentary procedure to keep the bill from House debate.

"I didn't make any compromises," Ure said. "I just knew what the rules were and how to work the system."

Immigrant rights advocates said Ure's primary election defeat was disappointing, but said there is a glimmer of hope in Congressman Chris Cannon's primary victory over challenger John Jacob, who ran on an anti-illegal immigration platform.

"That tells us many of the people in Utah are not backing the Jacob Jingleheimer idea," said Archie Archuleta, chairman of the Utah Coalition of La Raza.

He said it's tough to say how much of a factor anti-illegal immigration forces were in the defeat of Ure, who went for an open Senate seat rather than seek a seventh term for his more secure House seat .

Instead, strong Uintah Basin turnout suggested that eastern Utah voters simply wanted to keep a local senator in the district, which stretches from Summit County through the basin.

"Part of it was moving out of a place where people are used to him," Archuleta said. "It's not quite as big a blow as it could have been."

However, he acknowledged, unless a Republican "is willing to come out and take his lumps" on the tuition bill, "the only hope I see is on the Democratic side."

Michael Clara, spokesman for the Utah Hispanic Legislative Task Force, acknowledged Ure was a "great advocate" for education but downplayed Ure's role in the 2006 action. He pointed to a 35-34 House vote to keep the bill from a floor debate.

"We still have the majority vote that did not allow that to go to the floor," he said. "It wasn't hinging on one person."

The repeal's sponsor, Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, hopes his next attempt at repealing the law will see success.

However, he stopped short of saying it will be easier to pass the bill with Ure gone.

"You can't tell," he said. "I wish I could predict and predict right. . . . On any bill it's an uphill battle."

Alex Segura, director of the Utah Minuteman Project, has actively lobbied for the tuition law repeal, saying it places Utah at risk for a costly lawsuit by students who pay out-of-state tuition.

He sees Ure's absence as a positive sign, regardless of November's outcome.

"He was the one who was instrumental in holding it up in rules," Segura said. "With him out of the picture, we may have some success."


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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com