This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A federal judge wants attorneys for the Utah Republican Party and the state to try to hammer out their differences over a law passed in 2014 changing how candidates for office are nominated.
The passage of SB54 stripped the parties of much of their authority to determine their nominees by letting candidates gather enough signatures to end up on the primary ballot without having to run the traditional gantlet of the party nominating convention.
The law was passed as a compromise, forced by a ballot initiative effort by the group Count My Vote, made up of prominent political leaders in the state, including former Gov. Mike Leavitt, which argued the nominating conventions put too much power in the hands of the delegates and resulted in nominees who don't represent mainstream Utah voters.
The Utah Republican Party sued Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, arguing that parties should get to decide who will be the party standard-bearer on the ballot, without meddling from the state.
The lawsuit has been working its way through the courts for months and the Republican Party delegates recently endorsed, by a near-unanimous vote, continuing the litigation.
Now, U.S. District Judge David Nuffer is pushing the Republican Party, the Constitution Party, and the state to try to identify a potential mediator and negotiate a resolution to their differences — although he acknowledges the prospects for success are tricky, since it is up to the Legislature to agree to change the law, and the 104 lawmakers are not a party to the litigation.
"You are to some extent negotiating with a ghost," Nuffer said. "You will never sit across the table from someone who has the authority to bind the state."
One alternative, suggested Marcus Mumford, the attorney for the Utah Republicans, is for the party to reach an agreement with the governor's office and for Nuffer to issue a consent decree, ordering the state to comply with various revisions to the law.
Nuffer said the prospects for a consent decree are "remote," but whatever path talks go down, coming up to agreed-upon language needs to be the first step.
However it unfolds, Nuffer directed the parties to move quickly toward settlement talks, suggesting they trade proposed changes to the law and recommendations for a possible individual to moderate the negotiations by Sept. 14 and meet to pick a moderator by Sept. 16.
"This is a drop-dead deadline," Nuffer said of the Sept. 14 date.
The sides agreed to hold the first round of mediation on either Sept. 30 or Oct. 1. An earlier meeting between the two sides was unproductive, but Nuffer suggested having a moderator involved might move things along.
"I'm very happy to rule on things, but to the extent you cut short the litigation process by reaching agreement, you do everyone a great service," he said, saying he would prefer negotiation to ruling on the matter himself. "I get an ax and you have pocket knives and you could do a wonderful sculpt and I just cut broadly."
In the meantime, the litigation moves forward, with some urgency to reach resolution so the lieutenant governor's office can prepare for the 2016 elections.
Faced with the prospect of having its candidates — including potentially Sen. Mike Lee and Gov. Gary Herbert — unable to run as Republicans in 2016, the Utah GOP last month adopted changes to its state bylaws allowing the party to comply with SB54, although its legal challenge continues.
Twitter; @RobertGehrke