There's a fantastic story brewing up here in Weber County this morning, as this morning's Scott Schwebke story unravels the facts regarding Boss Godfrey crony Stuart Reid's last-minute decision to file his declaration of candidacy for Sen. Jon John Greiner's Senate District 18 seat (as a Republican), in the wake of Sen. Greiner's adverse Hatch Act ruling... a mere fifteen minutes prior the Weber County Clerk's Friday filing deadline. We've seen GOP RINO*s pull political flip-flops before; but we have to say this one takes the cake. We swear this has to be the strangest of those truth is stranger than fiction stories that we've recently seen. Even the most creative writer of fiction simply couldn't make this stuff up:
• Reid not Republican enough? Both parties wary after longtime Democrat switches in attempt to fill Greiner's seatA Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat goes out to Weber County GOP Chairman Matt Bell this morning for his forthright comments about the latest RINO* to mendaciously pin on the Republican Party label pin:
OGDEN -- A local Republican Party official is suspicious of developer Stuart Reid's last-minute switch from the Democratic Party to the GOP to run for the seat held by embattled state Sen. Jon Greiner.Reid's former Democratic Party colleagues have also been rendered near-speechless, of course:
Reid's longtime Democratic Party affiliation makes him unsuitable as a Republican candidate to represent Senate District 18, said Matt Bell, chairman of the Weber County Republican Party.
"He's as much a Republican as President Obama or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," who are both Democrats, Bell said. "I don't think the party supports Reid."
Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said he hadn't expected Reid to run for the Senate, much less switch to the Republican Party to do so.And you have to love the sheer audacity of Reid's comment on the matter, as he takes on the role of Weber County's #1 Drama Queen (temporarily ousting Boss Godfrey from that role):
"I was stunned and blown away," he said.
Being shunned by leaders in both parties is an unusual predicament, Reid said."It's a very odd place to be in. I'm a man without a country."
As an aside, we'll add that Reid's action in switching parties 15 minutes before the filing deadline, and leaving his own Democratic Party in the lurch, is a perfect illustration of the manner in which Matthew Godfrey and his minions work. With this group of opportunistic game players, there exist no absolute values of right v. wrong. Political action, philosophy and party affiliation are fuzzy abstractions to these political chameleons, transformable and capable of being shifted at will.
Needless to say, Reid's candidate filing puts The Weber County GOP in a very tight spot in the event that Greiner drops from the Senate race. With their County Nominating Convention looming on April 10, Reid, a long-time Democratic Party insider, would remain the sole candidate officially filed under the Republican banner in such a scenario. We'll thus take a wild guess, and assume that even now, Weber County GOP leadership is boning up on Utah Election Law and Utah GOP foundational documents to devise a strategy to strike Stuart Reid's name from the list of certified party convention candidates, deny his credentialling on the convention floor, and subsitute another legally-qualified GOP candidate, in the event Greiner drops out.
A lot depends on what course of action Jon Greiner adopts, of course. In fact, he's holding most of the important cards... cards which he dealt himself. Should he adopt the strategy suggested in this morning's most-excellent Standard-Examiner editorial, the Weber County GOP's problem is alleviated for the most part, we think:
• OUR VIEW: Greiner should resign as chiefNevertheless, asking a man like Greiner, (who's devoted his whole life to a law enforcement career,) to step down from his Police Chief job is a lot to ask, we'll concede.
So what will Greiner do? Will he sacrifice his law enforcement career to the principles of his political party? Or will he continue in his Police Chief role, and throw his party to the political wolves? Perhaps these questions could be better framed as What SHOULD Sen. Greiner do?
Your blogmeister had a short phone conversation with Sen. Greiner yesterday, by the way. He's out of town and is still weighing his options.
It's a fantastic story brewing up, as we said.
Who will be the first to comment?
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*Republican In Name Only
Update 3/26/10 6:56 a.m.: For the sake of accuracy, we need to make a slight correction. It occurred to us this morning that Senate District 18 also overlaps a portion of Davis County, so the Senate 18 nomination will occur at the 5/8/10 Utah GOP Nominating Convention, rather than the 4/10/10 Weber County Nominating Convention. Thus the Reid candidacy becomes a problem not only for the Weber County Republican Party, but for the Davis County GOP and the Utah GOP, as well.
