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The embattled secretary of the Davis County Republican Party has resigned after a months-long war with the party chairman and other members of the executive committee.
On her way out, she alleges unethical behavior by GOP leaders in Utah's third-most-populous county.
"After almost 18 months of service, I can no longer serve under Chairman Phill Wright's high-handed governance and ineptitude," Kathleen Anderson wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Davis County party officers, delegates and elected officials.
"He has consistently operated under the assumption that the bylaws apply to everyone but himself."
Anderson's accusations echo statements made by former Davis County GOP Vice Chairwoman Lisa Bingham when she resigned earlier this year.
But the current vice chairman, Joe Levi, wrote on a Republican Facebook page that Anderson's charges were investigated by the party's ethics committee, which unanimously found them to be without merit.
Wright told me that the ethics panel is now investigating Anderson for allegedly making false statements against him.
The intraparty feud revolves around the Count My Vote petition for a ballot initiative to change how candidates are nominated and the Legislature's compromise bill, SB54, which prompted Count My Vote backers to stop their petition drive.
Count My Vote would have changed the current caucus convention system of nominating party candidates to a direct primary.
SB54 keeps the caucus-convention process intact but allows for another path to a primary ballot if candidates can get a prescribed amount of signatures from registered voters of their party.
The Utah Republican Party is fighting SB54 and at least five bills reportedly are being prepared for the 2015 legislative session to repeal or alter the law.
The party also is raising money to challenge in federal court the Legislature's ability to determine for a political party the way it picks its nominees.
State GOP Chairman James Evans has written emails to county Republican leaders that the legal tussle will require between $50,000 and $100,000.
That's where Anderson's main beef with Wright lies.
"Under Chairman Wright's direction, $17,000 of [the county party's] funds were allocated to two different Political Information Committees (PICs) to fight Count My Vote," she wrote in her resignation letter. "Now, with the passage of SB54 by our duly elected Legislature and signed into law by Governor [Gary] Herbert, Chairman Wright continues his personal agenda to fight this legislation. He intends to provide additional funds to the State Republican Party to file a lawsuit against SB54."
Anderson has maintained that is a misappropriation of party funds, which should be used to help elect county Republicans.
Wright, however, says when he was elected chairman, he pledged to fight to preserve the caucus-convention system of nominating delegates and to resist efforts to change that process.
Helping the state party finance a lawsuit against SB54 is exactly what the delegates elected him to do, he says, adding that he believes the Legislature's forced alteration of how a private political party chooses its own candidates is unconstitutional.