This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Republican Party is so dominant in Utah that, even though only a handful of state residents have a say in its leadership, what the party does matters greatly to the future of democracy in this state.
So when the delegates to the party's state convention bring a new day to state politics by voting out their state chairman in favor of a new leader who promises a change in direction, it matters to us all.
Airline pilot and former Air Force officer Rob Anderson was elected Friday on a promise to bring wayward members — and donors — back to the party, a party that has been sharply divided over the question of how hard it should fight against a state law that forces all political parties in the state to open up their process of choosing nominees for local, state and federal office.
Anderson won over then-Chairman James Evans and Vice Chairman Phill Wright, who both stood for defending the old caucus-and-convention system, a system that held all the power of nominating candidates and setting party rules in the hands of a tiny number of activist delegates. Anderson was somewhat more conciliatory, favoring the retention of the caucus-convention process but criticizing party officials for refusing to compromise on the issue and making the whole debate — needlessly, in his view — into an expensive legal battle that has left the party itself deeply in debt.
The lawsuit, which remains active, was the party's attempt to say that it, and not the Utah Legislature, gets to decide how it will choose Republican nominees to appear on general election ballots.
The Legislature felt otherwise and passed SB54, a measure that commanded the parties to accept a certain number of signatures on petitions as an alternative to the caucus-convention system to get a candidate's name onto Republican (and Democratic) Party primary ballots.
The point was to open up the process to many more people, both candidates and voters, a change that can do nothing but make the results more legitimate in the eyes of the larger population.
And which is likely to move the party's office holders at least a little bit toward the political center. Which, in Utah, is still pretty conservative, but which also is more supportive of public education, more worried about air quality and other public health concerns and less devoted to fighting the federal government over public lands, wolves and just about everything else.
The fact is that Utah Republicans might find that they actually gain more power if they were more willing to share it. A GOP that is, or is perceived, as being dominated by the far right only discourages participation from a growing number of people, especially younger people. Thus are more and more voters either turning to the Democrats or, more common across the nation, becoming hard and fast unaffiliated voters.
Voters who, come time for general elections, feel they have no mainstream choices before them and simply tune out.
It is enough of a void that a new political party, the United Utah Party, has been formed and is seeking to get a candidate in the November special election to fill the 3rd Congressional District seat being given up by Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
Utah Republicans have a choice: They can create a bigger tent or collapse into a black hole. The tent is better.