Something's rotten in S.L. County GOP

Saturday, Salt Lake County GOP delegates get together to elect a new county party chairman and other party officers.

And, as it has become tradition in the county Republican Party, it will be a new chairman.

Current chairwoman Tiani Coleman is not running for re-election to a second, two-year term. Coleman will soon move to Utah County, she says, and so can't continue in the volunteer post.

Talk to any leading Republican about what happens in Salt Lake County GOP politics and you get negative comments.

I recall an insider in then-freshman Gov. Mike Leavitt's administration telling me that the Salt Lake County GOP in the early 1990s was a mess, dominated by petty backstabbing, ideological party loyalists who caused a lot more trouble for Republican officeholders than they did for Democrats.

Things haven't gotten much better over the years.

In 1998, two party conservatives were arrested at the party convention for passing out printed material at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Seemed county party leaders, needing to pay for the convention, required a $300 booth fee in order to pass out materials.

Tom Draschil and another conservative were just trying to give delegates a proposed party resolution. They refused to stop passing out the material, and were arrested for trespassing — charges that were later dropped.

Two years ago, county GOP leaders took away the local party offices (like delegate or precinct chairman) from 11 good Republicans because the 11 had publicly endorsed Democrat Randy Horiuchi for a County Council seat.

You either stay quiet or endorse the GOP candidate, otherwise you get the party boot, leaders were saying.

Such heavy-handedness apparently doesn't go over very well among rank-and-file Republicans in the county.

Over the past eight years or so, Republican voters in the county have shown a willingness to split-ticket ballot, picking a number of high-profile Democrats over their GOP challengers. Add that tendency to the implosion in 2004 of a number of county GOP officeholders, and you see why Saturday's party elections are so important.

Last year longtime county GOP auditor Craig Sorenson used his county-issued credit card to pay for gasoline not put in his county-issued car. Sorenso pleaded guilty to misusing funds.

County GOP Mayor Nancy Workman was caught up in an employee scandal that led to charges. She finally got out of the race (she was later acquitted in court). But the damage had been done. Democrat Peter Corroon won a three-way mayor's race.

Democrat Jenny Wilson defeated a well-known GOP incumbent for a County Council seat.