This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What do you call a political system where the leaders are chosen by less than 0.2 percent of the population? North Korea? Syria? Kuwait?
Try Utah.
A caucus and convention system that by law places all the nominating authority, and by default all the electoral decision-making, in the hands of a very few people has produced a government that cannot truly be called lower-case "d" democratic or small "r" republican. Policies do not reflect the will of the people. Voter turnout is small and dropping. The very legitimacy of our government is at risk.
A handful of the folks who know the most about this system have had enough, and are floating a plan to change it. Here's hoping they succeed.
Former Gov. Mike Leavitt and his one-time major domo, consultant and pundit LaVarr Webb, are the boldfaced names atop an organization called the Alliance for Good Government. The group has filed the necessary incorporation papers and is testing the fundraising waters for an initiative campaign that would change Utah law and create a path for real public participation in the selection of the state's governor, legislators and members of Congress.
Today, both Republicans and Democrats have a series of caucuses, leading up to county and state conventions. All the potential candidates for state and federal office are winnowed down to two for a primary election or, in cases where a candidate can win 60 percent of a convention's vote, a single candidate whose name is placed on the November ballot.
The process favors candidates who appeal to the true believers, who tend to be the most extreme on matters ranging from guns to taxes, abortion to education. The problem exists in both parties but, because Utah is so overwhelmingly Republican, results in a government that skews hard right.
The Leavitt plan would preserve the convention system, but add a parallel process, like that found in many other states, where political hopefuls could get on a party's primary election ballot by getting enough signatures on a petition.
Such a process would give hope to candidates who might appeal to the currently disenfranchised majority of voters, voters who care more about public education, clean air and transparent government than do the survivors of the current electoral gantlet.
The Alliance recognizes that the existing Legislature, chosen through the existing system, is going to stick by the status quo. So an initiative, perhaps in 2012, is the only hope for change.
It is a change Utah greatly needs.