Bob Bernick's Notebook: Everybody Wants to Ditch the Caucuses...Except (Ultra) Conservatives

Don't let the "tail" continue to "wag"  the "dog," O Gentle Ones

As our latest installment on the Count My Vote citizens initiative topic, we'll put the spotlight on this morning's UtahPolicy.Com story, wherein Bob Bernick examines "[t]wo public opinion surveys [which] have been released over the last several weeks, both showing substantial support for the Count My Vote citizen initiative, which would end candidates being vetted by their own political party delegates and move Utah to a direct primary system."  "One poll was paid for by CMV. The other by the Olene Walker school of political science at Weber State University. Both were conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, Utah’s longest running private polling firm."  Interestingly, Mr. Bernick reports, with respect to both new surveys, "the numbers are with the direct primary switch" It's a pretty "chewy read," all-in-all:

• Bob Bernick's Notebook: Everybody Wants to Ditch the Caucuses...Except Conservatives

Mr. Bernick also devotes a few paragraphs to explaining why Count My Vote-style election law revisions will never arrive via the Utah legislature, due to the current caucus/convention setup, which stacks the deck against any Utah politicos who might favor such legislative solutions.

So who is the tail wagging the dog, and dragging its feet on the implementation of sensible and democratically-based  Count My Vote political nomination reforms? "Respondents [who] identified themselves as 'very conservative,' or about 25 percent of the total sample," "a rather narrow slice of the Utah populace," that's who.

It's in that connection that we'll once again devote some electronic ink toward steering mainstream Utah lumpencitizens to the Utah locations where you can conveniently find a hard-copy Count My Vote petitions awaiting your signatures:

• WCF Saturday Special: Ogden Area Count My Vote Petition Site Map and Addresses

Don't allow a crazed "uber conservative" minority to maintain its continuing stranglehold on the Utah political nomination process, folks.  Amble on over to one of these convenient locations, peeps.  Let's put the grownups in charge of the Utah political nomination process, once and for all.

Don't let the "tail" continue to "wag" the "dog," O Gentle Ones.

Attention Mike Lee and John Swallow fans:  Please feel free to ignore this notice, since your "faves" are already the "poster-boys" for Utah political nomination procedure reform.