This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

There is an interesting twist to the story of Utah County Republican Party Chairman Craig Frank withholding delegate lists from certain legislators for not fulfilling his "candidate fitness" requirements.

Frank is a lobbyist. His success in getting bills passed or defeated on behalf of his clients depends on his ability to persuade legislators to vote his way.

These would be the same legislators — at least the ones in Utah County — whom he has tried to intimidate by manipulating their ability to become the GOP nominee in their House or Senate districts.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday that state Sen. Deidre Henderson, R-Spanish Fork, could not get the delegate list in her district from the party for more than a week because, according to Frank, she had violated the county party's bylaws by not filling out the evaluation form to determine whether she was "fit" to be a Republican.

She finally got the list when the party learned that other GOP candidates — who also had not filled out the five-page form — had received delegate tallies.

This form has been a source of controversy among Utah County Republicans, with many charging the party's bylaws don't call for such a fitness test. It's just a creation of the party boss.

The irony of punishing Henderson — who said she intended to fill out the form all along, but not as a condition of being legitimized by the party — is that she has been a staunch supporter of maintaining the caucus-convention system, which is the same stance taken by the state and Utah County GOP.

Another irony: Frank has joined with other party officials in praising the caucus-convention system because of the sacred position held by delegates in the nominating process. He then takes the decision-making away from those delegates by making it difficult for them to meet with their incumbent candidates before the April 16 Utah County Republican Party Convention.

Henderson also has been told she cannot participate in a party-run "meet the candidates" event Saturday because she hasn't met with the party's steering committee to answer their star chamber-type questions to determine her fitness.

Never mind that she just recovered from a bout with pneumonia.

Frank is a lobbyist for Sovereign Strategies LLC, the Utah Association for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and Early College Alliance, which pushed a bill before the Legislature to relieve early college high schools of certain state school board requirements imposed on traditional high schools and restrict use of the term "early college high school" to only Frank's group.

His wife, Kim, is a lobbyist for the Utah Charter Network, an association of charter schools formed by the Franks to compete with the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools for paid members.

The school bill, HB107, failed. It was sponsored by Rep. Val Peterson, R-Orem, and Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem — both from Utah County and under the rules and regulations imposed by that county's GOP led by Frank.

Frank spent several years in the Utah House until it came to light that he didn't live in his redrawn district.

He had to resign but briefly rejoined the House with a new address. He ran for the Senate against Republican incumbent John Valentine and lost.

Frank's relationship with his colleagues could be summed up this way: He ran for assistant majority whip in 2006 and received one vote — presumably his own.