Did Demos fall down on job?

Richard Stauffer makes an excellent point in his letter (Forum, Sept. 7) asking what happened to the Utah Democratic Party between the time he left Utah in the late 1950s and now. All this time I've been assuming that it was the people of Utah just blindly following one party, but I think Mr. Stauffer has a point.

I lived in Utah and a neighboring state up until the late 1980s. In my life, Utah had a Democratic governor for five consecutive terms (Cal Rampton and Scott Matheson), a well-respected Democratic senator (Frank Moss) and an excellent Democratic congressman (Wayne Owens) recognized as a leader in Utah, the United States and other parts of the world.

So what has changed? What has the Utah Democratic Party done (or not done) to allow Utah to become recognized as one of the most Republican states in the nation? My apologies to Congressman Jim Matheson in that statement.

Lamonte John

Burke, Va.