The evil Sen. Chris Buttars announced that he will retire from the Utah Legislature at the end of the 2011 session.
Buttars made the announcement on the Senate floor after the final gavel went down. He was first elected in 2000 and has two years left on his third term.Good riddance
When first running for office, he said, he told voters where he stood on issues but didn't want to hear their views.
"It served me well. But I've sure been in a hell of a lot of trouble," he said.
A lifelong diabetic, the 68-year-old Buttars has suffered poor health in recent years. "Let me tell you, getting old is not for sissies. It's tough."
The West Jordan Republican was often a lightning rod for controversy during his tenure.
In the 2008 session, he was accused of making a racist statement on the floor when he used the word "black" to negatively describe the "baby" being divided in a bill.
He quickly apologized for saying, "This baby is black, I'll tell you. This is a dark and ugly thing" and won re-election to a third term in November 2008.
Senate leadership removed Buttars from as chairman of two judicial committees in February 2009 after he made anti-gay comments to a documentary filmmaker. He continued to chair the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and co-chair the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
For years he worked with troubled and drug-addicted youth as director of Utah Boys Ranch, now known as West Ridge Academy. He was a champion of the Drug Offenders Reform Act or DORA, which funded rehabilitation as an alternative to prison for substance abusers. He also supported assisting child crime victims and raising the minimum wage.
Buttars also sponsored legislation against gay straight alliances in public schools, introduced a resolution urging stores to have their employees say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" to customers and promoted an intelligent design bill.
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