This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

The ongoing battle for the soul of the Utah Republican Party is illustrated in the rankings of state legislators by two organizations that advocate solid conservative principles.

They just seem to differ on what solid conservative principles really are.

The legislators ranked as the best by one organization were ranked among the worst by the other.

Both organizations are nonpartisan and base their advocacy on principles and issues. Traditionally, the principles of both have generally fit more comfortably in the Republican Party.

But one organization, the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, stresses issues that best support business, which is that organization's goal, while the other, Utah GrassRoots.org, stresses conservatism, individual liberty and "constitutional principles."

The Salt Lake Chamber ran a full-page ad in the Salt Lake City newspapers Sunday that honored the "2016 Business Champions," listing by name the Utah legislators deemed friends of business on the basis of their voting records.

Sixty-six of the 75 members of the House (88 percent) were named in the ad as business champions, and 26 of 29 senators (89 percent) were cited.

Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, was named Legislator of the Year.

What's interesting, though, is the list of legislators who were left off the Business Champions roster.

If you thought the absentees are mostly Democrats who favor higher taxes and more social-services spending, you would be wrong.

In fact, they mostly are among the most strident and vocal right-wing legislators in the state who purport to be among the purest Republicans seeking to oust the RINOs from their midst.

Only one Democrat was included in the "Those Who Shall Not Be Named" group.

The outcasts include Republican Sens. Margaret Dayton of Orem, Mark Madsen of Saratoga Springs and Scott Jenkins of Plain City, the former Senate majority leader.

On the House side, they are Republicans Jacob Anderegg of Lehi, Mel Brown of Coalville (the former House speaker), Kim Coleman of West Jordan, Brian Greene of Pleasant Grove, Ken Ivory of West Jordan, Mike Kennedy of Alpine, Dan McCay of Riverton and Marc Roberts of Santaquin and Democrat Joel Briscoe of Salt Lake City.

Of that group of outsiders left off the chamber's champions list, Greene received the top score in the House on UtahGrassRoots.org's legislative report card for 2016, while Roberts, Coleman and McCay were all in the top seven.

Dayton received the highest score among senators, while Jenkins and Madsen rounded out the top three.

So the worst legislators on the Chamber of Commerce slate were the best legislators on UtahGrassRoots.org's report card.

Matt Lusty, communications director for the chamber, said the chamber had 16 priority bills in the Legislature this year. The bills ranged from improving Utah's business environment to boosting education and aligning school curriculum to business needs to addressing the homelessness issue to providing a stable work environment to protecting businesses' intellectual property, etc.

Lusty said the criterion for making the champions list was an 80 percent voting record in favor of the priority bill.

Most of the legislators who didn't make the chamber's list share some common threads. They generally adhere to their core conservative principles without much compromise. They generally favor the more exclusive system of nominating candidates through the caucus convention system and abhor the efforts to make a pathway to the primary ballot more accessible.

Six of the 12 are from Utah County. Three are from the southwest sector of Salt Lake County.

The UtahGrassRoots.org website lists its legislative priorities as protecting citizens from government asset forfeitures, opposing the continuation of the Women in the Economy Commission, protecting Second Amendment rights and protecting a political party's right to decide how to choose its candidates.

Members of the group omitted by the chamber but lionized by Grass Roots tend to be among the most passionate about public land transfers from the federal to state government, reducing regulations on various industries, including food products, and getting Utah out of Common Core education standards and mandated testing for students.

In other words, the different all-star lists symbolize the classic struggle in the Republican Party: the establishment, business promoters vs. the "give us liberty or give us death" crowd. —