State Party

Utdemocrats.org has the results of the national delegate elections for Utah's Obama and Clinton delegates as well as the election for national committeewoman (Patrice Arent) and committeeman (Joe Hatch).

Salt Lake Tribune:

Buttars escaped a primary contest with the strongest of his rivals, Gary Armstrong, by a single vote at the Salt Lake County Republican Convention. One ballot was discarded because the delegate had apparently marked both names. The two-term incumbent now goes on to face Democrat John Rendell in the November general election.

Armstrong did not challenge the discarding of a spoiled ballot even though, had it been added to his total, it would have put him over the 40 percent mark to force a primary in June.

But he expressed bitter disappointment at the race's outcome.

"Our district can't survive four more years of Chris Buttars. I will support the Democrat," said Armstrong.

Republican delegates and party activists tend to be farther right on the political spectrum than Republican voters as a whole, so we can expect Buttars' support in the general to be even less than what he got at the convention.

Salt Lake Tribune:

The intra-party squabble seems to have intensified since January, when Burridge accepted a time-consuming litigation job at the law firm Siegfried & Jensen.

While Democratic leaders gave few specifics about Burridge's ouster, board member Ellen Birrell said Thursday the outgoing chairman simply did not have the time to serve as an effective party boss.

"We have so much momentum, we have got to do everything possible to preserve it," she said. "That will take someone in the leadership role who can devote those many, many hours each week."

Apparently 1st Vice Chair Weston Clark now takes over as chair.

Update: From an e-mail sent out on behalf of Weston late Thursday:

As First Vice Chair for the party, I am Acting Chair and intend to seek the approval of the Central Committee to continue serving as Chair. This will take place at the Central Committee Meeting, which will be part of the County Convention on April 26. If anyone is interested in running for the position of Chair, nominations should be submitted to Angela Romero, Secretary, Salt Lake County Democratic Party, via email at angela_y_romero@yahoo.com or call 801-973-2250 to make other arrangements for submission.

That's one more superdelegate for Obama (Salt Lake Tribune):

Holland is one of six Utah superdelegates who can decide whom to support for the Democratic nominee regardless of the results of the state primary. But in explaining his decision, Holland leaned heavily on Obama's big win in Utah's Feb. 5 vote.

"Sen. Obama has helped to energize our state party," Holland said in a statement. "While we are blessed at having two exceptional candidates, Obama was clearly the choice of Utah Democrats."

Utah's other five superdelegates remain split. Former U.S. Rep. Bill Orton is backing Obama, while former state Sen. Karen Hale and state party committeewoman Helen Langan are backing Clinton. Though, Hale and Langan are considering a switch to Obama.

Rep. Jim Matheson remains undecided. Holland will name the sixth superdelegate during the state Democratic convention in May.

Ralph Becker and Peter Corroon, as well as our own Political Action Committee chair Sheryl Ginsberg, have applied to be some of Utah's 23 pledged delegates (Salt Lake Tribune):

Paul Rolly in the Salt Lake Tribune:

The Utah Republican Party seems to be in a battle for its political soul.

Fifteen Republican incumbents in the state House of Representatives are facing stiff challenges from within their own party. Of the nine Republican incumbents who are up for re-election in the State Senate, five are being challenged by fellow Republicans.

For the first time in memory, all 75 House seats are contested, while in the Senate, only President John Valentine, R-Provo, escaped with no challenger at all. [...]

One telling feature of this year's political climate is that while many Republicans have GOP opponents, the most outspoken anti-voucher Republicans — Reps. Sheryl Allen, Kory Holdaway, Steve Mascaro, Mel Brown and Kay McIff — have no Republican opponent. That is a shift from past years when moderate Republicans were the ones being targeted in GOP conventions by the armies of the right.

Getting more Democrats in the legislature would be great, but replacing the extremist conservatives with more moderate Republicans wouldn't be bad either.

Salt Lake City Weekly has published its yearly "Best of Utah" issue, and you'll recognize several of this year's winners (all of these are under the Media & Politics section):

• Best BYU Event – Dick Cheney Protest, April 2007

• Best Cash Infusion – Out-of-State School-Voucher Advocates
  
• Best Air Activist – Dr. Brian Moench (he spoke at our February meetup)
  
• Best Activist – Rocky Anderson
  
• Best Elected Official – Ralph Becker (Readers' Choice)
  
• Best State Legislator – Scott McCoy (Readers' Choice)
  
• Best Capital Kook – Chris Buttars
  
• Best Reason to Unionize – Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster
  
• Best Local Scandal – Anything Chris Buttars Says

The Deseret News takes a break from reporting on American Idol contestants to evaluate how often our state legislators actually manage to vote on bills:

The analysis shows that the typical legislator made it to three of every four votes in committee, and nine of every 10 on the floor. It shows, in this election year, who were the best attendees and the worst. But it also revealed some strange happenings. They include:

• Because of rules loopholes to accommodate legislative leaders, a surprising number of committee votes occur without a majority of committee members present. Sometimes as few as two members of a six-member committee were present for votes, but it was still considered a legal quorum.

• In half of all joint appropriations subcommittees votes, fewer than a majority of Senate members assigned to that committee were present. (Sometimes only one senator was present to represent the Senate in such budget votes.) House members have long complained that poor attendance at such meetings by their Senate counterparts make it difficult to conduct business. Some budget chairmen have resorted to holding votes at only the last meeting or two of the session, making it easier to round up wayward senators for a quorum.
  
• The lowest voting percentages are by legislative leaders, who say they are often pulled away for meetings on individual important issues. The leaders' attendance in their assigned committees is often much worse than, say, regular members who are battling a serious illness, like cancer.

Holy dark ugly baby, Batman! (Deseret News):

[Dan Jones & Associates] found that among Buttars' Senate District 10 voters, 67 percent said they prefer that Buttars not be re-elected, and that someone new should be elected in that state Senate district. In fact, 53 percent said that Buttars "definitely" should not be sent back to the Legislature. [...]

Among Republican registered voters in Senate District 10, Jones found that only 32 percent of members of Buttars' own party want him to be re-elected, while 54 percent said another person should serve. Thirteen percent of GOP voters didn't have an opinion on Buttars' re-election, Jones found. Jones polled 208 registered voters in Senate District 10, with the results having a margin of error of plus or minus 6.9 percent.

That's a big margin of error (due to the small sample size), but even given the MOE, the maximum support Buttars would have among Republicans is 39%.

Statewide, the poll found that about 40% of voters wanted to keep their state legislators and about 40% wanted someone new. All 75 House seats and 15 of the 29 Senate seats are up for election this year.

Very early polls, of course, since the election isn't for another 8 months. But the numbers look far worse for Rep. Chris Cannon than for Utah's other two Congressmen (Deseret News):

Of 200 people polled in the 3rd District March 17 through March 20, 30 percent support Cannon, 19 percent support Republican challenger David Leavitt and 4 percent are for Jason Chaffetz. Democrat Bennion Spencer received support from 12 percent of those polled, while 25 percent said they did not know whom they would support. [...]

Meanwhile, in the 1st District, 55 percent of those polled said they supported Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, with 15 percent opting for Democratic challenger Morgan Bowen.

In the 2nd District, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, got 60 percent of the voters polled, with Republican opponent Merrill Cook getting the most support of his Republican challengers at 7 percent.

And Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon has them all beat (Deseret News):

If the election were held today, Corroon would win with 64 percent of the vote, according to a new Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV.

Info from the Utah Democratic Party newsletter:

On Tuesday, March 25, Democrats from all over the state will gather at local caucus meetings to select delegates and precinct officers. These meetings are essential to the functioning of healthy local Democratic parties and provide every single Utahn interested in becoming involved in our party old enough to vote in this year’s November election the opportunity to participate.

Delegates serve two-year terms and are empowered to nominate local candidates for office. In Salt Lake County, those elected county delegates are automatic state delegates. Other counties usually choose to elect their state delegates at county convention. State delegates will vote at our state convention on May 9-10 on statewide candidates for office, congressional candidates, legislative candidates whose districts cover more than one county, and on delegates to the national convention. [...]

For a complete listing of caucus locations and local county convention dates and locations, please visit our Web site. You can also contact our office at (801) 328-1212, ext. 207, or e-mail Craig Axford at caxford@utdemocrats.org with any questions.