This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Take a state, like Utah, controlled by an ultra-conservative religion like the LDS Church. Add a political caucus/convention system controlled by a very few thousand ultra-conservative LDS Church members who nominate the Republican candidates for public office, who then win the elections because they vote and most other Utahns don't because they have given up. And you have, voila, Shurtleff and Swallow. Another victory for Gayle Ruzicka, who knows the system and works it well.
What to do about it? I've about given up. As for Shurtleff and Swallow, now comes the Utah response for those good men caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "They have suffered enough."
As one member of the Utah Legislature said last week commenting on not expanding Medicaid, "It's the Utah way." I am tired of "the Utah way!"
John Dwan
Salt Lake City