Informative Cathy McKitrick piece in the morning's Salt Lake Tribune, regarding the House District 7 state representative race, within tomorrow's Weber County GOP nominating convention. Four-term incumbent state representative Glenn Donnelson faces an intra-party convention challenge from Ryan Wilcox, a GOP political newcomer. We incorporate the article's opening paragraphs below:
Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, is passionate about cracking down on illegal immigration, so much so that some consider him a one-issue legislator.Read the full article here.
"There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in our district" - education and property taxes among them, says challenger Ryan Wilcox. "Rep. Donnelson has focused on immigration - that's a concern."
Wilcox, 30, hopes to unseat the four-term incumbent this Saturday at Weber County's Republican Convention.
Any candidate garnering over 60 percent of the delegate vote at the convention emerges as the party's nominee. If no one reaches the 60 percent mark, they face off in a June 24 primary.
"In principle, I agree with his stance on immigration," Wilcox says. "There are all sorts of consequences throughout our society because of the problem."
However, Wilcox believes that state immigration reform should strike a balance between law enforcement, moral principles and economic vitality.
"We need to be reasonable about solving the problem," Wilcox says.
Donnelson points to legislation he sponsored during the recent session as proof that he carried water on several issues, as only six of his 15 bills dealt with immigration.
Facing an intra-party challenge is nothing new - he's faced one in every convention, Donnelson adds. However, this year's could present more of a fight . [...].
Although the article distinguishes the two candidates mainly on the basis of their philosophies re immigration reform, we think the differences in the candidates are far more palpable than that. On Tuesday we mentioned the battle currently brewing between incumbent right-wing Republicans, and the political moderates of the Utah GOP. We believe tomorrow's GOP convention challenge is all about that -- with a little voucher blow-back possibly thrown in for good measure.
This intra-party contest is one that we'll carefully watch. If the challenger Wilcox manages to knock off a heretofore popular Legislative District 7 state representative like Donnelson in convention, we believe it could likely signal an across-the-board shift toward GOP moderation for the state legislative races in November.
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
