Rolly: Big Debt Has Some Utah Republicans Grumbling

With the 2015 Utah GOP organizing convention looming in a short two months, we'll confidently predict that Evans' leadership days are "numbered."

Upside Down

Riveting Salt Lake Tribune column this morning, from journalistic heavyweight Paul Rolly.  Break out your Kleenex folks. We know this is gonna break your hearts:

The Utah Republican Party seems at first blush to be basking in its success and popularity.
After all, Republicans hold 24 of the 29 seats in the state Senate, 63 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives, all five statewide elective offices, all five seats in Utah's congressional delegation and dominant roles in the county commissions around the state.
In most of the big races, Republicans usually win by 20 percentage points or more.
But underneath the surface, things don't look too rosy.
The state party is $118,000 in debt and insiders say that after the expenses of putting on the state convention in August, that deficit likely will rise to $200,000.

Check out Mr. Rolly's tantalizing full column, peeps:

• Rolly: Big debt has some Utah Republicans grumbling

Under the "leadership" of Utah GOP Chairman James Exans, Utah GOP fundraising efforts have all but dried up. 

Much of the buzz about the party's money problems centers on GOP State Chairman James Evans and puts the blame on his decisions to cozy up to the right wing of the party, leading to the alienation of larger group of party centrists.

In summary, we'll take particular note of this comment from savvy Trib reader MillsLevan:

Another casualty of one-party rule. Why donate when they're going to win everything anyway? There are no battles to fight, nothing to rally the troops. Add to that the lack of leadership on the part of the state chair and it's no wonder they're in trouble.

With the 2015 Utah GOP organizing convention looming in a short two months, we'll confidently predict that Evans' leadership days are "numbered."

Eh, folks?