A plan to have potential Republican candidates vetted and judged based on their commitment to the party's principles before being eligible for its nomination is drawing fire from some in the GOP who say it empowers a small elite group of insiders to decide who gets to be a candidate.Read up, Peeps! And no! We are NOT making this up!
Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans said the idea of creating committees to help screen potential candidates springs from concern that, under the state's new nominating process, people who aren't even Republicans could gather signatures and get onto the primary ballot and the party would be helpless to stop them.
To combat that, Evans said candidates would have to come meet with the interview committees to become certified members of the GOP. If they refuse, they would be ineligible to be a candidate for the Republican nomination, he said, because the law says the candidates have to be a party member.
That's right! "$10,000 and a panel interview, just like Thomas Jefferson (and our other founding fathers) always wanted."
On the heels of last week's strong Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune editorials, together with Sunday's Frank Pignanelli/LaVarr Webb D-News Op-ed piece, we'd hoped Chairman Evens would gather his wits, and start playing amiably by "the new rules."
Sadly, these "gentle nudgings" seem to have had just just the opposite effect.
First order of "new business" for the upcoming 8/15/15 Utah GOP State convention?
Oust this idiot, before he irretrievably turns the Utah GOP into a dead-ender laughing stock!
Wake up before its too late, my Utah GOP friends!
Update 4/22/15 7:51 a.m.: Utah Policy chimes in this morning with a story of its own. Don't miss the embedded audio of Monday's KVNU radio program, wherein "state Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Bountiful, was a guest, talking about possible changes to party vetting of candidates, when Chairman Evans called in – and the two had an interesting debate":
Update 4/22/15 2:15 p.m.: The Trib's Pat Bagley "NAILS IT, once again (as per usual):
Update 4/23/15 10:30 a.m.: The Tribune keeps the pressure on with this morning's scathing house editorial:
Update 4/23/15 10:30 a.m.: The Tribune keeps the pressure on with this morning's scathing house editorial:
And the Deseret News reports this morning on yesterday's Utah GOP Executive Committee "train-wreck":
Update 4/23/15 7:51 a.m.: More from ABC4 Utah, focusing on the tactical split which is now occurring within in the "fractured" Utah GOP:
Update 4/25/15 8:00 a.m.: More blowback from the Tribune's Paul Rolley:
It gets "interestinger and interestinger,"dunnit?
7 comments:
Wasn't one of the arguments in favor of the caucus system that it allowed non wealthy candidates a equal chance to win the party nomination? !sn't a $10,000 entry fee to prove idealogical purity defeating their own talking point?
So anybody with enough money can now get on the ballot in Utah for any primary, just by paying people to collect signatures. That's what Utah's rich, and some here, call freedom.
Meanwhile, anybody with enough money nationally should not be allowed to buy unlimited advertising to express their views because that is not freedom. Or so some here say.
So paying to express your opinion is not freedom, but paying to be put on the ballot by hiring signature collectors is freedom. And once you buy a spot on the ballot, you should be able to pick whichever party's primary you want to run in and the party itself should have nothing to say about it, because one is freedom and the other is not.
Nobody should be able to say what they want, and no political party should have any say at all in who runs under their banner.
Okay, I think I got it.
The cartoon also misses the mark, because in the Soviet Union and Iran there is one party and the people have no choice. In Utah there is one party because the people choose for it to be that way. In other words, success of the Utah Republican Party in free elections is no reason to suggest that we have a closed system as they to in totalitarian regimes. We have a one-party state because people choose for it to be that way year after year. The Republicans should have the right to choose their candidates by any process they wish as any other organization should be able to do. People can vote for another party if they don't like what the Republicans have put forward. I've been doing myself that for some time now.
I've been doing that myself for some time now.
I have reconsidered my comment about the $10,000 fee to pass muster before a group of select Republicans. Now I see it as a brilliant move to bolster business, basically James Evans payday loan business. Now borrowing limit increased to $10,000 for GOP candidates but the annual interest rate will still top out at 800+%. It gives another meaning to the old saying "Pay To Play".
Just a little OT observation....most everything as of late is about the legislature or the GOP or such....which of course does affect us all...but there are other pressing issues confronting us that are very local....Water and Sewer issues in the Ogden Valley for one...and it does flow downhill into Ogden....just another 2 cents
Thanks for the "tickle," smaatguy. I'm planning to post something on this topic later today, when my schdule permits.
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