Eight county chairs from the Utah Democratic Party voted Wednesday to cancel their request for a Special Central Committee meeting — which was to be held  Aug. 23 to discuss allegations of misconduct against Utah Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City.

In an email Wednesday, Utah County Democratic Party Chair Katie Adams-Anderton stated that UDP has placed Davis under temporary suspension until an independent investigation is completed by the Utah State Senate.

The UDP released a statement Saturday regarding accusations of misconduct made by his former intern and campaign staffer, Sonia Weglinski.

“Following Ms. Weglinski’s statement last week, party leaders and members of the Executive Committee spoke privately with Senator Davis,” reads the letter. “Though he denied specifics of the allegations in his interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, we believe the behavior he acknowledged, regardless of context or intent, was unacceptable. We requested he voluntarily step down. In light of Senator Davis thus far failing to resign, we have a duty act.”

The UDP also formally requested the Senate to release the investigation results to the UDP for further review and action. Adams-Anderton told the Daily Herald the eight chairs overwhelmingly support the UDP’s decision to have Davis temporarily suspended from party activities, pending an investigation.

Adams-Anderton said she has spoken to Weglinski about the UDP’s decision to suspend Davis.

“There’s nothing we could do to make this 100% whole for her, and I talked to her about it,” she said. “This isn’t going to erase the pain and such that comes with the situation. However, my hope is that this changes to the cultural of how UDP reacts to these situations.”

The waiting game for Davis’ fate has begun, but the UDP has lots of work ahead of them, Adams-Anderton added.

“I think the other part is that we now have to have a serious dialogue to ensure this doesn’t happen again and review what we’ve done up to this point and see how we can do better,” she said. “Our party needs to strive for excellence in all places, and that includes protecting our members. My hope is that UDP will continue to strive for that protection.”

Besides Adams-Anderton, the other chairs who voted to cancel the meeting request were Iron County Party Chair Glenn Little, Emery County Party Chair Geoffrey Smith, Sevier County Party Chair Michael Papineau, Carbon County Party Chair Jared Gallegos, Juab County Party Chair Donald Ball, Kane County Party Chair Vince Olson and Salt Lake County Party Chair Eva Lopez. All of the county chairs canceling the meeting request were among the 55 signees of the original letter.

Davis served in the Utah House of Representatives from 1987 until 1999 when he first took his seat in the Utah Senate. Davis was defeated by challenger Nate Blouin for the seat’s Democratic nomination earlier this year.

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