GOP primary to get ax?

Unhappy with a new law that allows "unaffiliated" voters to register as Republicans at the polls on primary election day, a die-hard group of GOP delegates wants the state party constitution changed.

The group wants to require all state office nominees to be picked in the state convention, effectively ending GOP primaries for major Utah offices.

The hard political result would be that 3,500 state GOP delegates would pick which Republican candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House appear on the general election ballot. And considering Utah is one of the most Republican states in the nation, most likely those top GOP candidates would be odds-on favorites to be voted into office in the general election.

"I would be very surprised if this (party constitutional amendment) passes" in the Aug. 23 state GOP convention, said Joe Cannon, state Republican Party chairman.

Perhaps it won't, say Nancy Lord and Mike Ridgway, the Salt Lake County GOP activists who propose the change.

But the pair say a growing number of Republican rank-and-file members — and even local party leaders — are tired of state legislators and party leaders working to thwart what many party loyalists want: a truly closed party primary where only registered Republican voters can pick party nominees.

Voting is important, says Lord.

"It's not too much to ask voters to decide three weeks before a primary (the old party affiliation registration deadline) if they want to register as a Republican and participate in the Republican primary," she said.

'Unaffiliated' voters

The 2003 Legislature passed HB255 by Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful. Allen, a leader in the so-called moderate GOP caucus in the 75-member House, says her bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Basically, the new law says that for the 2004, 2006 and 2008 primaries, any registered voter who has not formally signed up as a member of any party (an unaffiliated voter) can register in any party at the polls on primary day. Only the Utah Republican Party has decided to hold closed primaries. So the new law is a way to allow unaffiliated voters, who make up between 70 percent and 80 percent of voters statewide, to vote in the next three GOP primary elections.

Allen, Cannon and other GOP leaders worry that turning away such numbers of voters could lead to an anti-GOP backlash. And Republican candidates could suffer at the polls come the November final election where all registered voters can cast ballots.