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Provo • A showdown over whether to muzzle Republican Party leaders never got off the ground Saturday.

But Utah Republican Party Vice Chairman Lowell Nelson apologized if comments he made had embarrassed the party, and Todd Weiler, the sponsor of a resolution to clamp down on party officers, said he accomplished what he set out to do.

Weiler had sought to restrict anyone but the Utah GOP chairman from speaking on behalf of the party after Nelson and Drew Chamberlain, the party's secretary, appeared on a radio program hosted by the Utah Democratic chairman and called for an end to Medicaid, Social Security and public education.

The resolution also stated that GOP officials are not to sue the party — as Nelson and Chamberlain currently are, challenging the practice of automatically giving elected officials a vote in nominating candidates along with elected delegates.

Party officials who broke the rules could be punished or removed from office.

The resolution before the state Central Committee drew attention to a sharp division in the GOP between long-standing Republican leaders and the insurgent anti-establishment tea party faction that rallied to elect Nelson and Chamberlain.

But the battle over the resolution never came. The measure wasn't filed in time to be added to the meeting agenda, and Weiler was distracted and missed his opportunity to make a motion to add it for consideration before the agenda was adopted.

Once the agenda was set, it required a two-thirds majority to change it, and the motion narrowly fell short of the threshold.

Nelson told Central Committee members Saturday that he had said some things and the "media glommed onto them."

"I feel badly about that," he said. "I hope you'll understand I'm on a learning curve here, but I learned my lesson. I'm licking some wounds."

Nelson said he has learned that he "can talk about the proper role of government, but shouldn't go to the logical conclusions of them."

He also said he has filed a motion to withdraw from the lawsuit against the party.

After the meeting, Weiler said the near-two-thirds vote to put the resolution on the agenda probably shows support for it.

"I'm not disappointed with today because I think all of my objectives have been met," Weiler said, "and if the officers don't live up to what they said today, I can bring it back [at the next quarterly meeting] in November or the meeting after."

State Party Chairman Thomas Wright said he believes Nelson's mea culpa is adequate to put the issue to rest.

"I believe that Lowell meant it and has the integrity to do exactly what he said he's going to do," Wright said. "I don't think the officers or the party is nearly as divided as our opponents made us out to be or some people in the party think we are."

In the recent interview on KRCL — during which Nelson and Chamberlain said they were speaking for themselves — Chamberlain said he would "personally" like to see Social Security and Medicaid abolished. Nelson said public education could be eliminated.

Rick Votaw, a member of the Central Committee, said the resolution would have passed, and he would have supported it. When candidates run for party office, he said, they know they are giving up their ability to talk to the media or advocate for issues that aren't in the platform.

"They knew that going in," he said. "Personally, I would have drummed them out of the office."

gehrke@sltrib.com twitter: @RobertGehrke House speaker: Bank on redistricting lawsuit

House Speaker Becky Lockhart said Saturday that she anticipates the Legislature will be sued after it adopts new boundaries for state offices — regardless of what it does.

"I hope we don't, but we've already seen comments from groups in the newspaper that they are going to do it," said the Provo Republican, who is a member of the Utah Redistricting Committee. "You can't prevent it."

Taxpayers will be on the hook for paying to defend the boundaries. Lockhart said there are things the committee can do to try to solidify its legal position and it is doing those things.

"We'll be in a very strong position," she said, speaking at the Republican State Central Committee meeting Saturday.

Utah was one of three states that wasn't sued over its new political boundaries when they were drawn 10 years ago.

The Central Committee also voted to hold its party caucuses on March 15 next year, a Thursday. It will mark the first time in years that the delegate election meetings haven't been on a Tuesday.

It also appears to be the first time in recent history that Republicans will hold their meetings on a different night than the Democrats, who have scheduled their neighborhood meetings for March 13.

Central Committee members expressed concern that Democrats — who wouldn't have to attend their own meetings — would instead infiltrate the Republican gatherings.

But others objected to setting theirs on March 13 just because the Democrats had. —

Lawsuit coming?

Regardless of what the Legislature does on redistricting, House Speaker Becky Lockhart expects that there will be a lawsuit. › B7