This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here's a hypothetical exchange illustrating a common theme that has spread through most legislative races involving Salt Lake City districts and the east bench.
Candidate A: Education is my top issue. I would have scrapped a tax cut in favor of increased funding.
Candidate B: Me, too.
Candidate B: We are in desperate need of health care reform to get coverage to tens of thousands of uninsured Utahns.
Candidate A: I couldn't agree more.
Confused voter: Then why should I vote for you, Candidate A, over Candidate B?
Candidate A: I'm a Republican, and if you want your voice heard at all in Utah, you'd better elect me or you'll be marginalized along with the whole super-minority Democratic Party.
Candidate B: No, you should vote for me because you can't reverse the Legislature's wrong direction by throwing more Republicans into it.
These institutional arguments are dominating races from Senate District 7, where Republican challenger Bryce Jolley says, "If you're not in the room, you don't have a voice," to House District 36 where Democratic challenger Phil Riesen claims, "People are just fed up with the Republican dominance."
Brigham Young University political scientist Kelly Patterson understands the institutional arguments, but he says it's "a stretch" for voters, and would be more successful in England's Parliament than in Utah's Legislature.
Our form of government is "candidate centered," he says. Voters look at party identification, but they also are voting on personality, who they know and issues. Party-centered arguments - like the ones that are dominating these races - are a staple in parliamentary politics.
Selling Utah voters on the larger ramifications of their selections is "a fairly sophisticated and intricate argument to make," he said.
These races, where candidates have nearly identical positions on the issues, are banking on "voter fatigue," said Patterson, which only works if voters feel the majority party has not lived up to its commitments or that minority representatives are inept outsiders.
Republican Party Executive Director Jeff Hartley said party workers have canvassed voters to see how they react to their call to elect moderate Republicans in centrist or liberal districts. And he likes what he sees.
"We have tested it on the east bench and it is working there," he said. Republican challengers to Democratic incumbent Reps. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, and Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, are making headway in their races by pushing this argument.
Republican incumbents like Rep. Susan Lawrence, R-Millcreek, are making the same case.
"You can be an aggressive back bencher throwing bombs or you can be an effective representative in the majority party," Hartley said.
Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans in the Legislature 77-27, but they dominate in the capital city.
The last Republican elected in a Salt Lake City district was James Evans, who is now the chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party.
Evans, a former state senator, said some Republican candidates don't "completely explain" the advantage of being inside in the caucus meetings.
"It is the ability to be able to say 'no' to something that would be a disadvantage in the area and have that taken seriously," he said.
The Legislature is a "competitive environment" where lawmakers scrap to benefit their own districts.
"If you don't have the ability to say 'no' and back it up, then unfortunately your area does not get represented well," he said.
Utah Democratic Chairman Wayne Holland called this Republican strategy "a very weak argument and anti-democratic."
"It appears to me that is the only issue they have to campaign on," he said.
Holland believes Republicans "offend" voters by making decisions in closed-door caucus meetings. He also says moderate Republicans, like the ones campaigning in left-leaning Salt Lake City districts or the politically ambiguous east bench, would get "ostracized" by the more dominant conservative Republicans.
While Republicans field tested their position this year, Democrats have used their argument for legislative balance for the past 20 years, according to party leaders.
"People feel that they have bought a bill of goods and the Republicans have not delivered," Holland said. Democratic candidates particularly hound Republicans on education spending, even when the Republican in the race also backs public education.
Evans considers the balance argument disingenuous.
"I find it ironic that the Democrats are screaming about balance, but they conveniently disregard the dominance they have in Salt Lake City," he said.
Twelve state senators and representatives list Salt Lake City as their hometown. All of them are Democrats.
"Don't ask this one area to carry the burden," Evans said. "If you want more balance, make inroads elsewhere."