Debate Night With the Utah GOP

The Northern Utah print media report on last night's GOP "debates."

Both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Standard-Examiner provide brief writeups this morning on the topic of last night's Weber County GOP "debate," wherein Legislative District 7 candidates Glen Donnelson and Ryan Wilcox were invited to field questions from GOP voters from their legislative district. From this morning's Kristen Moulton article:

OGDEN - What was supposed to be a debate turned into a town hall meeting Friday night, giving candidate Ryan Wilcox, challenger to the absent Rep. Glenn Donnelson, a chance to tell 75 District 7 residents his views on everything from property tax reform to energy policy.
The nondebate attracted a much bigger crowd than Weber County Republican Chairman Matthew Bell expected. The high turnout was due in part to media reports that the state Republican Party told Bell it was a bad idea to host a debate between an incumbent and challenger.
"We're going to do it more often," Bell said after the forum. "There is nothing wrong with Republicans debating Republicans."
Donnelson said Wednesday that he would not debate Wilcox because he and Bell could not agree on the format and because Friday is his date night with his wife.

The article suggests Donnelson's decision to decline debating his challenger may have exacted at least some political price:

Christy and Kevin Bailey, noting that it was their date night, too, said Donnelson only hurt himself.
"I was shocked when I heard him say [on a radio show] it was of no interest to him," said Kevin Bailey, a former Pleasant View council member. "Anytime you have an exchange of ideas, it's a good thing. Maybe he's just too confident that he knows what his constituents think."

According to the Tribune report, candidate Wilcox comported himself well, deftly responding to at least the one key question which precipitated a political firestorm within the Utah GOP during the past week:

"What's the motivation for running against a proven conservative incumbent in one of the most conservative districts in the state?" he asked.
"First, I believe in competition. That's part of being a conservative. That's good in business and it's good in politics," said Wilcox, who works for a cell-phone company. "The issue is, it's time for new representation."

As we said, the Standard-Examiner's Scott Schwebke also contributes additional information about last night's event in his own report.

All-in-all, it appears from these two print media reports that Chairman Bell capably moderated the event; and aside from the fact that the incumbent candidate declined to participate, the event otherwise went off without a hitch This of course is something Weber County Republicans have come to expect, under the leadership of Weber County Republican Party Chairman Matt Bell.

We'll also make parenthetical note of another intra party GOP debate which was held last night. Unlike last night's Weber County Leg. 7 event, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that last night's 3rd Congression District Cannon/Chaffetz debate was a genuine old-fashioned knock-down brawl. We have to admit we're sorry we missed that one.

So what about it, gentle readers? Should the Utah GOP (indeed all parties) adopt a firm policy requiring all party candidates to debate prior to party primaries? Should this be a condition for a political party's endorsement? Does the public interest in "openness" and "transparency" trump an incumbent's "right" to conduct his own campaign in the manner in which he sees fit?

It will be interesting, we believe, to examine the post-primary results in the Legislative 7 and Congressional District 3 races, to compare the results for an incumbent who did debate, with the outcome for one who didn't.

And we again invite any readers who attended either of these Friday night GOP debates to chime in with their own observations and comments.