The new leadership of the state Senate was apparently stung by Gov. Jon Huntsman's statement that they had used committee assignments to encourage a no vote on Judge Robert Hilder for the Utah Court of Appeals.

Senate President-elect Michael Waddoups, GOP Majority Leader-elect Sheldon Killpack and other leadership members avow in an op-ed piece the Deseret News:

As the ones who made those committee selections, we affirm unequivocally that there were no quid pro quo for votes against Hilder.

OK, so the timing of committee appointments after the vote was just a coincidence.

Now, Utah's legal community would love to see an op-ed piece out of GOP leadership swearing that gun lobby pressure had nothing to do with Hilder's being ash-canned. Waddoups, godfather of Utah's wide-open gun laws, claims it was Hilder's "demeanor" that he voted against — not the judge's ruling against allowing concealed weapons being carried on the University of Utah campus.