In 2006, after years of President Bush's policies, Seim wanted change.

He signed up to make phone calls to encourage people to vote to regain a Democratic majority in the U.S. House and Senate.

"It was a real response to what I felt was corruption within the Republican Party," Seim said. "I had had enough."

When the voting was over, he went down to the Utah Democratic Party headquarters to see how else he could get involved.

Almost immediately, the now-32-year-old was drafted into the Utah Common Values project, an under-the-radar effort aimed at getting young and ethnic voters to the polls through community outreach and canvassing.

"I think that the party leadership really is heading in the right direction," Seim said. "Their focus is on bringing these bright, young minds into the fold."

Part of the goal is to bring the Utah Democratic Party to the same level as in some of the surrounding Rocky Mountain states, said Wayne Holland, state chairman. But to do that, they hope to have an operating budget of $1.1 million.

"That would be a Cadillac operation," Holland said. "That's the number we would like to raise."

While awaiting more donations, the project is pushing forward with 14 staffers, who range in age from their early 20s to mid-30s.

However, Holland has been reluctant to discuss the project, and would talk about it at length only after party Vice Chairman Rob Miller detailed the project to the Hispanic Caucus at the recent Salt Lake County Democratic Convention.

"Always in politics you have a plan, you have a strategy," Holland said. "I just did not want to have some of our target activities known too early . . . [the Republicans] are going to find out anyway, but the later the better."

The project has been in place since August, and Holland said he came up with the idea for Utah Common Values in part after seeing other Western states push back against Republican majorities.

"It's there to somewhat counter what we see Utah becoming under the Republican leadership, which is using Utah as a laboratory for national right-wing ideas," Holland said.

He calls tax-funded vouchers for private schools one such idea that galvanized communities.

Tracy Van Wagoner, director of Utah Common Values, agrees.

"Vouchers were a real wake-up call," Van Wagoner, 36, said. "People realized their own legislators weren't voting along the lines of their own constituencies."

Matthew Burbank, associate professor of political science at the University of Utah, says programs such as Utah Common Values often work because of the instant credibility brought by personal contact.

"This kind of tailoring to people who know you instead of contacting in a general sense creates a fair amount of credibility," Burbank said.

In addition to talking about politics with peers, the staffers also do nonpolitical service projects, much like the LDS Church does nonproselytizing missions.

The projects range from registering people to vote to, this year, certifying tax preparers and offering free tax preparation on the west side of Salt Lake City.

"What we're trying to promote is our Democratic Party values really are in line with what the community is hungering for," Seim said. "[Those values include] being served and feeling like they have a voice in the community and in our political process. . . . This isn't just a political institution. We're interested in serving them as well."

In addition to targeting youth and ethnic voters, the project also employs a handful of returned LDS missionaries to talk with their peers.

"You talk to people and they almost whisper that they are the only Democrat in Davis or Utah County," Van Wagoner said. "But if you look at our candidates down in Utah County, they are stake presidents or mission presidents. You can be a good Democrat and a good Mormon."

Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, said such peer-to-peer campaigning is highly effective.

"People have to be able to find the relevance in participating, volunteering and contributing, and there's no one better than a peer because it's someone they can automatically relate to," Jowers said. "I wish the Republicans would focus more on it. The more participation from a wider diversity of people the better."

smcfarland@sltrib.com

GOP dominance

* Now: Democrats occupy the Mayor's Office in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County. They hold no statewide office and just one of the five national offices (Rep. Jim Matheson, in the 2nd Congressional District). They are outnumbered 76-28 in the Legislature and hold four of nine seats on the Salt Lake County Council.

* Later: In this year's election, Democrats hope to pick up a few seats in the Legislature and to attain majority control of the Salt Lake County Council.