Want popularity? Be a GOP delegate

Webb: If you want to be a really popular person next year, become one of the 3,500 delegates to the state Republican convention. You'll get more personal visits, letters, brochures, position papers, videos, newsletters, phone calls and e-mail messages than you can possibly imagine. From important people, no less.

You'll get invited to innumerable breakfasts, lunches, picnics, ice cream socials, roundtables and any other events candidates can come up with to get together with you.

Democratic delegates will also be popular, but not nearly as popular as the Republicans.

Among those who will be chasing you will be such luminaries as Jim Hansen, Jon Huntsman Jr., Nolan Karras, Marty Stephens, Fred Lampropoulous and Gary Herbert. If you're in the 2nd Congressional District you'll also be wined and dined by John Swallow, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Dunn. Various other candidates may also seek your support.

You will be able to call any of these people at almost any time and get them on the phone. Ask how they feel about any minor issue and they'll respond.

Besides all the attention from candidates, the banks and credit unions will be fighting over you, along with the Realtors, local government leaders, the Utah Education Association and right wing of the Republican Party. All these groups will be seeking delegates to support their favored candidates at the convention.

For the GOP gubernatorial candidates in this wide-open race, the Utah campaign process is nothing short of brutal. Between now and election day in the fall of 2004, they have to essentially run five very different campaigns, each of which require specific strategies and skills.

• Between now and early next spring, when the party neighborhood caucuses will be held, the candidates and interest groups that want to influence the election must travel up and down the state, recruiting and visiting opinion leaders, current delegates, party activists and grass-roots supporters. They must work as hard as they possibly can to organize neighborhood caucus precincts, getting supporters to attend the caucus meetings so they can get themselves or like-minded persons elected as delegates. With so many interest groups and candidates attempting to organize at the grass-roots level, it is likely that interesting coalitions will arise.

• After the neighborhood caucuses, attention will immediately turn to the 3,500 newly elected delegates. Candidates will again travel the state, meeting with as many delegates as possible, one-on-one, eye-to-eye, trying to win their support.