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Provo • After months of contentious debate, the Utah County Republican Party voted Saturday to end its practice of giving elected officials automatic delegate spots at its state convention.
The issue had created intense feelings on both sides, with emotional exchanges taking place behind the scenes in strongly worded emails and during debate at Saturday's meeting of the County Central Committee.
Julie Blaney, of Payson, argued that the automatic delegate system favors incumbent officeholders over challengers.
"Do you take umbrage at the insinuation that you're too dumb to know how to vote on the issues? I've heard party insiders say that's why we need to hand out these ex officios," she said. "Are you going to allow your politicians to stack the deck in their favor?"
The 144-130 vote by the central committee reflected the divisive nature of the issue. Several legislators lined up in opposition to doing away with their delegate status.
"It's funny how the people who are in power are in that line," said Brian Hall, of Santaquin. "I'm tired of the politicians who are in power wanting to hold on to power."
Currently, 78 of the county's 687 delegate positions are allocated to ex officio delegates. That number would climb to 85 next year. That means numerous precincts would have had to surrender delegate positions to accommodate the so-called superdelegates.
Stripping the superdelegate status from members of Congress, legislators, local and state party officials and legislative district chairmen means they will have to be elected at neighborhood caucuses if they want to be delegates and vote for party nominees at the Republican state convention.
Several committee members argued that puts a burden on legislative district chairmen, who have to run the caucus meetings and may not be able to campaign for a delegate spot.
Utah County follows in the footsteps of Weber County, which has also done away with automatic delegates.
Becky Pirente said the ex officio delegate spots help the party function more efficiently.
"Nobody's evil in the party," she said. "It's not about trying to tear down power from those who are in authority. What we ought to be looking at is making our organization function as a unit."
Advocates for ending the ex officio status for legislators and legislative district chairmen insisted it was an issue of equity, making impassioned arguments that the automatic delegate status was a special privilege that denied other party members an opportunity to be a delegate.
Ben Smith, of Santaquin, said it is improper to "redistribute" delegate positions.
"To me, that's not a conservative principle," he said. "That's the liberal Democrat guys. And if we want to behave [that way] that's why we're in trouble."
But Doug Cannon of Provo said elected officials have been thoroughly vetted by voters and deserve a say in running the party.
"By excluding those who by definition are most capable … and the legislative district officers and other party officers from having a say in the governance of our party, I think that is unwise," Cannon said.