At least two of the five candidates running for state Republican Party chair adamantly oppose the practice of including automatic delegates among those who get to cast votes at county and state conventions.
"I would get rid of automatic delegates statewide," said candidate Brian Jenkins, a licensed loan officer from Saratoga Springs. "I'm obsessed with freedom -- we can't have freedom unless people can choose their candidates."
Since the 1940s, Utah's political parties have chosen their nominees using the caucus/convention process.
Each March of even-numbered years, neighbors meet in home-held caucuses to elect delegates to vote on their behalf at subsequent conventions.
In some of Utah's 29 counties, party officers and elected officials also double as delegates; these so-called automatic delegates ultimately making up about 10 percent of the overall statewide delegate pool.
Opponents of the practice believe that it protects incumbents and ignores the interests of the grassroots caucuses, which the automatic delegates need not attend.
Chair candidate Mike Ridgway, a Salt Lake County Republican who often criticizes the party's powerful, said he's battled the automatic delegate practice for several years.
"We have become a party-boss operation where patronage is rampant," Ridgway said. "They skim slots off the top to give to automatic delegates, and you end up with caucuses that are not represented."
While his candidacy might be a long shot, Ridgway said he wants to ultimately bring about change.
"If 20 to 30 people understand this issue, we believe we could win this fight over time," Ridgway said.
Also contending for chair, Dave Hansen -- a consultant to U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch who served as the party's executive director three decades ago -- believes the issue merits further debate.
"It should be up to the counties to determine their selection process," Hansen said. "I'd be more than happy to resolve this problem . . . to put it to bed once and for all."
Steve Harmsen, a former Salt Lake County councilman who also is competing for the top slot, said the chairperson has little control over how counties select delegates.
"The objective should be to get as many elected delegates and as few appointed delegates as possible," Harmsen said.
That said, Harmsen also believes that elected party officers and public officials should be given deference.
"To say that delegates should only be elected from their neighborhood caucus is too narrow an interpretation," Harmsen added.
Novice candidate Jared Law, a Highland constitutionalist and businessman, believes that automatic delegates do not pose a problem.
"I'm more concerned about the Republican Party sticking with its platform," Law said.
Provo Sen. Curt Bramble, who has chaired the party's powerful state credentials committee for eight years, also sees nothing wrong with the practice.
"In Utah County, when an individual runs for office and gets elected -- to a party position or public office -- part of their job is to serve as a delegate," Bramble said.
"This issue has been settled by delegates for years," Bramble added, "Notwithstanding certain individuals wanting to rewrite history."
Since 1998, Nancy Lord -- a former GOP national committeewoman -- has studied the history that Bramble suggests she and others want to change.
Automatic delegates were not allowed under Utah law that governed political parties until 1994, Lord said. At that time, a U.S. Supreme Court case privatized the parties and Utah's GOP incorporated the state statute into the party's constitution.
"One vote can change the outcome of an election," Lord said, pointing to West Jordan's controversial Sen. Chris Buttars, who avoided a primary last year by a single convention ballot.
"They're concentrating more and more power at the top," Lord said, "and it's making people angry."
