Standard-Examiner Letter: Weber County GOP Leaders Should Resign Over Harvey Campaign Funding

We'll enthusiastically join with Mayor Taylor's reasonable demand for Mr. Knighton'a and Ms. Pipkin's heads on a platter

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In the interest of sparking some political discussion after something of a lull,  as we stand poised on the brink of Tuesday's Utah Primary election, we're delighted to put the spotlight on this morning's boffo Standard-Exaxminer letter to the letter, submitted by none other than North Ogden City Mayor Brent Taylor, concerning Weber County GOP party shenanigans in the pending Weber County Commission primary race. The original  material's short and compact, so we'll simply incorporate the text in full:

It is outrageous that Weber County Republican Party leaders donated party funds to make the biggest contribution by far of the entire Weber County Commission campaign to one of the two candidates in a contested Republican primary election.
Out of fairness to all candidates, the state Republican Party bylaws strictly require neutrality of state party leaders in Republican vs. Republican primaries, and this principle should carry down to the county level. Instead, we have seen county party leaders and elites trying desperately to manipulate the election with mudslinging, rumor mills, and now by giving a massive amount of party funds to one candidate.
Thousands of the Republican Party dollars given to commission candidate Jim Harvey were donated by people like me who are supporting a different Republican candidate — which is exactly why it is so inappropriate to use party funds in a primary election.
In his famous 1796 farewell address, President George Washington spent nine paragraphs warning America against the "baneful effects of the spirit of party,” warning that “They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community.” Party has never been more important than people, and Washington’s words ring true today as we see party leaders who, instead of acting as neutral party officials, have manipulated the process and injected a veritable tsunami of party money to try and sway the outcome and to protect their preferred candidate and — more importantly — to protect their precious party power.
I call on Chairman Noall Knighton and Vice-Chairwoman Lynda Pipkin of the Weber County GOP and anyone else associated with this outrageous use of party funds in a contested Republican primary election to step down, and for Weber County Republican voters to look through the party-funded smokescreen at the real issues this election should be about.

Brent Taylor
North Ogden

We'll enthusiastically join with Mayor Taylor's reasonable demand for Mr. Knighton'a and Ms. Pipkin's heads on a platter.

So what say out Gentle Readers about all this, folks?