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The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear oral arguments in the Utah Republican Party's challenge to a new law that allows qualifying for a primary election by gathering signatures and/or the traditional caucus-convention system.

That's good news for some in the GOP, but newly elected Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson says it also makes it harder for him to unify a party split on that new law — and more difficult to dig its way out of about $500,000 in debt.

About $300,000 of that red ink has come from lawsuits that have failed so far in challenging the new law, called SB54. Many delegates dislike the law because it weakens their power to choose nominees.

However, many business executives, for example, say convention delegates tend to pick nominees far more to the political right than the general electorate and favor SB54 as a way to advance candidates who are more representative.

Anderson said he let the appeal sit in court after he was elected because that did not cost anything. But now that the 10th Circuit has agreed to hear oral arguments Sept. 25, it will "require incurring more legal fees to prepare."

He said he will ask the party's Central Committee if that is what it wants to do, and he figures that it will.

"I will bring up the costs we have incurred, and the cost-benefits of going forward,"he said. "But I think the Central Committee is 'damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.' "

Would proceeding hurt efforts to unify the party with SB54 backers? "I'm sure it does. I think it hurts most with donors," who have stopped contributing fearing their money would go to the SB54 lawsuit, he said.

Anderson has argued the best way to keep the caucus-convention system may be to preserve SB54. Otherwise, he figures, supporters of the Count My Vote initiative will again gather signatures to ask voters if they want to go to a direct primary to select nominees. Polls have shown Utahns support that move.

Anderson said party attorneys have told him that rules give him unilateral authority to end the lawsuit. He said if he did that, it would cost him the political support of many delegates "and there would probably be a move on the Central Committee to throw me out."

He said such an effort to oust him may fail, but it's also a fight that would cost the GOP more than it would benefit.

"The other thing is people want an answer" about the lawsuit, he said. "People want to know" if it would win. "So I think proceeding is probably the most prudent thing to do."

Anderson meet last week with the Elephant Club, a group of big party donors, to outline the GOP's financial woes — and to plead with many who had stopped contributing because they disagree with the lawsuit against SB54 to help the party again.

He told the Elephant Club that the party is so destitute at the moment that:

• The only way it could afford a special convention last weekend to nominate a replacement for Rep. Jason Chaffetz was that the outgoing congressman donated the money to pay for it. (The five-term representative had a $400,000 balance in his campaign account as of the end of March.)

• Even with Chaffetz's help, the party chose Timpview High School in Provo as the convention venue because it was among the few it could afford. "The building is free," Anderson said, thanks to school board generosity and negotiating by state Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo.

• The party still owes $30,000 from last month's state convention, which rented some pricey high-tech clickers for each delegate to speed voting and counting. Anderson said it used a much cheaper system at the special convention last Saturday.

• The GOP could not have afforded a needed mailer without Sen. Orrin Hatch providing $20,000 for it. "It is not well known that Governor [Gary] Herbert and Senator Hatch have been keeping the party afloat. We need to recognize their dedication and generosity," Anderson wrote in a handout given to the big donors.