This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
In another slap to the financially strapped Utah Republican Party, GOP legislators are having their own fundraising banquet Jan. 7, about a month before the county parties hold their traditional Lincoln Day dinners.
The Utah County Legislative PAC, which was formed in 2002 to raise money for Republican legislative candidates primarily in Utah County, is sponsoring the event at the Marriott Hotel in Provo.
Participants can buy tables at $1,500, $2,500 or $5,000 a pop, and the gala promises a healthy turnout, said Rep. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork.
Other Utah County lawmakers predict the event will outperform the Utah County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner, scheduled a little later in the year.
Lincoln Day dinners are the main vehicle for fundraising for GOP's county parties throughout the state.
The fact the legislators are having their party is a reflection of ongoing tensions between many elected Republican officeholders and party bosses.
The Utah Republican Party and many of its county counterparts have run into financial woes in recent years as contributions have dwindled.
Detractors partly blame the GOP's lawsuit over SB54, which allows for signature gathering as an alternative path to the primary ballot. They argue the party should spend contributions to help elect Republicans, not to sue the GOP-dominated Legislature.
For his part, Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans points to some "powerful elite" party members who are discouraging folks from donating because of their own disagreements with GOP operations.
In Utah County, GOP Chairman Craig Frank has earned his own enemies by weighing in on Republican primary races in which one candidate chose the signature route and another went through the traditional caucus-convention system.
GOP bylaws prohibit party officers from supporting one Republican over another, although Frank and his backers insist candidates who shunned the convention in favor of signatures are not legitimate Republican primary candidates.
The state party has been dodging bill collectors for certain unpaid bills and is a defendant in a lawsuit over an $11,000 debt to a vendor.
Utah County legislators took a shot at the state GOP in November when they attended their own election night soiree at an Orem restaurant instead of the official party celebration in Salt Lake City.
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Unfair competition? • Chalk it up to limited budgets, staffing priorities or a free-market mentality in a conservative state, but the scenic calendars sold at the Utah Office of Tourism are no longer available.
They have been replaced by a journal that contains pictures with more room for notations.
For years, the office has sold the calendars that feature a Utah tourist highlight on each month.
Tourism Director Vicki Varela said sales have slipped. Since 2008, the office has lost more than $20,000 on the calendars.
She said stretched staffers can better spend their time by selling the Utah brand to tourists from around the world, rather than producing calendars.
Perhaps the most compelling reason, though, is the notion that government shouldn't be in the business of competing with the private sector. Varela noted that her office's tourism calendars were cheaper than those sold in stores, so government was undercutting private businesses.
For Utah politicians, that might be a sin.
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Outdated • Folks connected to John Swallow through the LinkedIn professional network received an automatic notice this week congratulating Swallow on his seventh anniversary at the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Swallow, a deputy in the office before his election as Utah attorney general in 2012, hasn't been with that office since late 2013, when he resigned under the cloud of corruption investigations.