What a mess Utah Republican Party has made

Utah voters: Welcome to the political world of Stan Lockhart, Curt Bramble and, for those living in Happy Valley, the Utah County Republican Party.

When GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., after briefly trying to find someone on his own to be the new chairman of the Utah Republican Party last year, decided to "wash his hands" of picking the new party leader, I'm told he was warned that letting GOP legislators pick the man (or woman) could prove troublesome.

But Huntsman decided to stay out of it.

And so Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem; Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo; House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy; and other legislative luminaries decided on local lobbyist Stan Lockhart, whose wife is state Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo. (State GOP delegates pick party leaders, but they usually follow the advice of their top elected officials.)

Known as part of the GOP Utah County clique, Stan Lockhart is well known to many legislators. For years as the Micron lobbyist, he had provided more Jazz tickets to lawmakers than any other lobbyist. A Deseret News calculation by investigative reporter Lee Davidson found that Stan Lockhart has given legislators nearly $60,000 in Jazz tickets over the years.

Stan Lockhart is best buddies with Bramble — their families go on trips together, including a jaunt to Italy last summer. (Bramble, in an as-yet-unpublished lobbyist-giving study by Davidson, leads all legislators in taking $1,447 in lobbyist gifts during the first quarter of this year, which includes the 2008 Legislature. Bramble says he paid his own way to Italy, taking no gifts from Lockhart or another well-known lobbyist who went on the trip.)

I'm told that a few other GOP supporters warned Lockhart that he would have to be his own man as party chairman, and that the "Bram-harts" — as the couples are collectively known — would not be running the Utah Republican Party like their own little fraternity.

But someone didn't get the memo.

The 2008 legislative elections — where Lockhart is expected to deliver the normal GOP landslides — haven't started well for the party insiders.

You see, the Republican Party is supposed to be neutral in intra-party races — at least on the face of it. Of course, like many cliques, the real party organizations are not that objective.

But this spring, Lockhart really blew it when he sanctioned a political fundraiser for what is now called the Fab Five — four Utah County House Republicans and one southern Salt Lake County House member, who are up for re-election this year.

The problem: Lockhart's state GOP sent out the fundraising letters under the state GOP mailing privilege, while the state party is supposed to be neutral. And four of those five House Republicans are being challenged this year by fellow Republicans.

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