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| Upside Down |
The Utah Republican Party seems at first blush to be basking in its success and popularity.Check out Mr. Rolly's tantalizing full column, peeps:
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.
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."
The Utah Republican Party’s most recent proposals of a $10,000 fee for candidates to run as Republicans and a purity test for all Republican candidates are just more evidence of being out of touch with reality. This exclusionary thinking goes against the fundamental purpose of a political Party and makes the Party irrelevant in the entire discussion of getting more people involved in Utah’s political process. The more the Party makes outlandish proposals, the more they prove the CMV hypothesis that those with power within the Utah Republican Party are so power-hungry they won’t give up that power even if by doing so more Utah voters will get involved. It is a sad state of affairs.
Many say that all of this Republican Party dysfunction is a failure of Party leadership to lead. As a former Republican Party Chair, I know just how difficult it is to lead a Party. The most difficult responsibility of a Party Chair is to propose Party direction that challenges Central Committee preference. Almost all Chairs face that dilemma and their legacy becomes how they handled those difficult issues. To my friend James Evans, I would say that his legacy hangs in the balance.Our take? James. Evans' very survival as State GOP Chairman hangs in the balance, as Utah GOP warhorses such as Mr. Lockhart keep "piling on," (if you take our meaning):
MURRAY — Salt Lake County GOP delegates were urged Saturday to participate in a state party survey about what requirements candidates must meet to run as Republicans under a new law being challenged in court.Read the full story, O Gentle Readers:
"We do have to move forward and prepare for 2016," Utah GOP Chairman James Evans told the more than 1,000 county delegates gathered at Cottonwood High School for their annual convention.
He said the party can't afford to lose its focus on the upcoming election "because we don't want a Democrat to gain even an inch in Salt Lake County or anywhere else in this state."
The state party survey, which went out last week, lets Republicans weigh in on some of the controversial proposals that have surfaced to deal with changes made to the candidate nominating process in SB54.A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to D-news reporter Lisa Riley Roche, for providing the link to the online survey, wherein Utah GOP "leaders" seem to be reaching out (surprise of surprises) to find out what Utah voters think:
The proposals include requiring would-be Republican candidates to meet with party officials, attest to their support of the party platform and, for the first time, pay a yet-to-be determined fee before being allowed to run.
The survey also asks whether Republican candidates should lose their party membership for choosing to bypass the caucus and convention system in favor of the newly available option of gathering signatures for a spot on the primary ballot.
Results of the survey, being conducted by mail and online, are scheduled to be discussed Tuesday at a meeting of the state GOP's executive committee. The final decision on the proposals will be made at the party's state convention in August.
Despite the unprecedented success of Republican governance in our state, it is sad for me to see the Republican Party itself divided in an acrimonious struggle over how Republican candidates are to be selected.
Alexander Hamilton once said, “In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword.” Heavy-handed tactics will neither protect nor save the Utah Republican Party. If the party is to survive and thrive in the years to come, we must preach the principles of the party using persuasion, logic, compassion and kindness to continually grow, re-energize and renew our ranks.
In short, we must apply the principles of the Republican Party to the Republican Party.
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.
James Evans, the Utah GOP chair, said he is disappointed, but Romney is doing what the former Massachusetts governor believes will give Republicans the best chance of winning the White House.It gets "interestinger and interestinger," dunnit?
“I happen to think that he’s the best possibility,” said Evans, who led a Utah-based “Draft Mitt” campaign to encourage Romney to run again.
Evans is still holding out hope that Romney could change his mind again and run after all.
“I still think there could be a possibility for him to run if none of the other candidates catch fire,”RomneyEvans said. “Maybe everyone will come to Mitt Romney later this year and say, ‘We need you to do this.‘“
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The first crop of candidates to go through Utah’s new nominating process in 2016, if it holds up in court, will include Gov. Gary Herbert, the four Utah House members and — perhaps most notably — Sen. Mike Lee.
Herbert, according to a new poll, won’t have any problems. He’s got a 74-percent favorability rating.
Lee, though, does appear more vulnerable.
A slight majority — 52 percent — view him favorably, while 45 percent have an unfavorable impression, according to the poll released this week by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. Nearly one-third of those have a strongly unfavorable perception.
In fact, Lee’s overall approval rating of 52 percent is a substantial improvement from a year ago when, on the heels of waging an intense budget battle that led to the federal government shutdown, Lee’s favorability was at just 40 percent and 56 percent had an unfavorable impression, with 43 percent strongly unfavorable.Check out the full Robert Gehrke story here:
"To me, they just have an end game for a particular election cycle," [Utah GOP Chairman James} Evans said, although he wouldn’t name Lee specifically. "Everyone needs to ask the question: What else is going on here?"So whaddaya think, folks? Does U.S. Senator Lee still have a giant "kick me sign" affixed to his back, despite our Utah electorate's obvious short-term memory deficit?
Others are more direct.
State Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, who is committed to undoing the nominating changes in SB54, thinks the changes are squarely focused on ousting Lee. If SB54 survives, he said, he expects former Gov. Mike Leavitt, one of the founders of Count My Vote, to challenge Lee in a Republican primary.
In order to qualify to have their nominee from the caucus/convention system appear as their designated candidate on the general election ballot, however, they must agree to certain rules set down by the law. They must change their threshold for a candidate winning the nomination at convention from 60 percent to 65 percent of the delegate vote. They also must have alternate delegates who can sub for delegates unable to attend the convention. And, they must allow unaffiliated voters to vote in their primary elections.Mr. Rolley also identifies the statutory provisions most likely to be left intact:
Legal experts tell me that the courts have been consistent in upholding a state’s right to set the criteria for candidates getting on the ballot. More than 40 states already have some form of a direct primary. But political parties do have rights to set their own policies and rules. So if there is a chance of anything being overturned, it would be the rules imposed on the parties under SB54.Taking the foregoing into account, we're inclined to believe that in negotiating the SB54 compromise bill with the State Legislature, Count My Vote petition advocates capably "did their homework."
If that is struck down, however, the Count My Vote part of the bill — the signature-gathering process for direct access to the primary ballot — would still be intact because when the Legislature passed the bill, it included a severability clause. That means that if one part of the bill is declared invalid, it does not invalidate the rest of the bill.
Utah's Democrats switch their position on the "Count My Vote" compromise while some GOP lawmakers support the Republican lawsuit against the law:We'll continue to keep you informed, of course, as the developing political firestorm continues to engulf Utah GOP Party Chairman (and "payday" loan shark) James Evans, et al.
LaVarr Webb pens an open letter to Republicans who back the lawsuit against the CMV compromise law:
- SB54 Causing a Schism Among Republicans While Democrats Support the Compromise
- Utah GOP fractured over Count My Vote lawsuit
- Some GOP legislators backing party lawsuit
The Utah Republican Party plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday, asking a judge to declare unconstitutional a deal to let candidates compete for the party nomination while circumventing the party's convention process.Here's the full story, Utah Sheeple:
Meantime, a state senator and opponent of the deal, Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said he will once again sponsor legislation that would essentially obliterate the agreement, allowing parties to make their own rules when it comes to nominating candidates.
The GOP plans to argue in its lawsuit that attempts by the state to dictate the organization’s nominating process violates its First Amendment right to free association.And here's the addition kicker:
"My position has always been that the government doesn't have the authority to dictate how we select our nominees, period," said Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans. "A court will clearly have to define those boundaries and, absent that, the only boundary we have is what was passed in the law, and that is simply not constitutionally appropriate."
The lawsuit has been a long time coming and is a strategy that has twice been endorsed by the party's governing body and once received a vote of support from delegates. Evans said he plans to file the suit on behalf of the party on Wednesday.
It will then fall to the attorney general and the lieutenant governor to defend the law, SB54, a compromise with the Count My Vote group that received broad support during the legislative session.
[Weber County's own Senator Scott] Jenkins, meantime, said Monday he will once again introduce a proposed amendment to the Utah Constitution which would plainly state that parties can pick their nominees any way they want, without interference from the state.Mr Gehreke further reports that "'Kirk Jowers, one of the leaders of the Count My Vote movement, said he has met with representatives from both [the Governor's and Attorney General's?] state offices and they have assured him they would defend the law 'with vigor.' 'We anticipate the state defending its law forcefully,' Jowers, an attorney, said. 'I think there really is zero legal question on the heart and soul of SB54.'"
It would, in essence, wipe out the agreement struck in SB54.
"That dings Count My Vote pretty hard," he said.
Jenkins said he also plans to sponsor a bill that allows parties to decide who is allowed on their party primary ballot, even if the state is paying for the primaries.
Despite being specifically authorized to run a pro-caucus/convention citizen petition this year, because of time and money constraints the State Republican Party will not go forward with its own citizen initiative drive.
GOP chairman James Evans told UtahPolicy this week that “I have to concentrate all my efforts” on preparing for the March 20 statewide GOP neighborhood caucuses, where county and state party delegates will be chosen.
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Set aside the question of whether or not these choices were wise ones; my point is that the current closed convention/primary structure does not shield the process from the power of political money.Read up:
The Utah Republican Party again rejected a series of reforms to the party’s nominating process in a move that could trigger a threatened ballot initiative to overhaul the system for picking candidates.Read up, folks:
Count My Vote, a group made up of several prominent Republicans, including former Gov. Mike Leavitt, argued the current system puts too much power in the hands of a small group of delegates, depresses turnout and leads to radicalization of Utah politics.
The group had said if changes weren’t made, it would push for a ballot initiative — likely by gathering signatures on a petition — that would give candidates an alternative to going through the delegate process to get into a primary election.
At the Utah Republican Party State Convention on Saturday, GOP loyalists once again rejected any reform proposals, in particular a measure that would have required a candidate to get more than two-thirds of the delegate vote to avoid a primary.
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| Utah's new "State Fish?" |
• Democrats take campaign finance fight to Utah Supreme CourtInteresting background data from the Tribune sidebar, demonstrating that the failure to file financial financial disclosures isn't an exclusively Republican county party problem:
71 » Percentage of major county political parties that didn’t file financial disclosures due Aug. 31.And in the midst of a spirited Utah gubernatorial campaign wherein Democratic Party challenger Peter Corroon has pretty much kept Republican Governer Gary Herbert on his heels regarding "questionable campaign donations," one opportinistic veteran Salt Lake County GOP party hack indulges in a little self-indulging political payback:
29 » Percentage of parties that did file.
22 » County Democratic parties (out of 29) that missed the filing deadline.
19 » County Republican parties (out of 29) that didn’t disclose their finances.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune research
• Former GOP leader sues Corroon alleging he violated county campaign lawsIn Ius Voco Spurius, as the old saying goes amongst experienced litigators...
• Paul Rolly: More campaign frivolity from James Evans
The head of the Salt Lake County Republican Party says officials of the NAACP's Salt Lake chapter violated the organization's nonprofit status by vowing to help defeat Utah Sen. Chris Buttars after the senator made racially offensive remarks.Regarding the merits, the IRS provides online information which we believe to be instructive on general standards applied to the pertinent 501(4)(c) compliance issues:
Party chairman James Evans said he sent a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service on Friday, asking the agency to review the Salt Lake chapter's actions.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake chapter of the NAACP, did not return messages left on her cell phone Friday, but told KCPW radio that the group focuses on issues, not candidates.
"We seek people that support the work of civil rights organizations like the NAACP, and we can do that. That's what has been said and that's what we will do," said Williams.
In February, Buttars said of a school construction bill: “This baby is black, I'll tell you. It's a dark, ugly thing.” Williams called for Buttars' resignation. He refused, claimed a “hate lynch mob” was after him, and vowed to run for re-election, prompting Williams to promise to work to recruit and support an opponent for Buttars.
The Salt Lake chapter is organized as a nonprofit under section 501(c)(4) of the law for social welfare organizations. Such groups, according to IRS publications, are permitted to engage in political activity, as long as it is not the group's primary purpose.
But Evans says that Williams' activity goes too far, even if they are a 501(c)(4).
“Actively trying to recruit someone to run against a candidate, I think, crosses that line,” he said.
He said he doesn't know the extent of the group's activity - only that Williams said publicly they were going to defeat Buttars. But he said the IRS would be able to find out if it investigates.
To be tax-exempt as a social welfare organization described in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(4), an organization must not be organized for profit and must be operated exclusively to promote social welfare. [...].Even taking the above language into consideration, would be impossible for anyone to draw any firm and final conclusions about the merits of the Salt Lake GOP's complaint at this juncture. Still, it seems clear that IRS regulations generally provide 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (such as the NAACP) fairly broad latitude for engagement in political activity, so long as such activity is not a "primary organizational activity." And notably, our morning googling reveals that IRS guidelines apparently provide no specific prohibitions against recruitment of political candidates.
To be operated exclusively to promote social welfare, an organization must operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community (such as by bringing about civic betterment and social improvements).[...].
The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity. [Emphasis added].
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