Rivalries flare at Utah conventions

A group of dissatisfied Republican Party members were slapped down by more traditional delegates in Saturday's state GOP convention when Joe Cannon was re-elected chairman, Vice Chairman Frank Guliuzza was booted out and delegates voted down a number of party rule changes that the "vocal minority" wanted.

Guliuzza told delegates that he had fought for them over the past two years, trying to get good-old-boy leaders in the party to pay more attention to "the grass-roots" members.

But in the end, former U.S. Rep. Enid Greene — coming out of political seclusion after basically being driven from office in 1996 by a fund-raising/financial scandal she blames on her ex-husband Joe Waldholtz — defeated Guliuzza on a second vice chair ballot, 53-46 percent.

It seemed Saturday that convention delegates had turned in their attitude to incumbent GOP officeholders. A faction in the party that seeks what it considers reforms in how the party nominates candidates and picks its own convention delegates saw their party rule changes defeated. And resolutions condemning some actions by GOP officeholders were not even debated.

In fact, while Sen. Orrin Hatch and Gov. Mike Leavitt were booed in the 2000 convention by a bunch of unhappy Republicans, on Saturday Hatch was cheered.

'Real Republicans'

The only serious boos came against Drew Chamberlain — who challenged Cannon for chairman — when Chamberlain laid into Cannon, claiming he ran a dictatorial party leadership, wouldn't stand up for "Republican principles" and even used his party post to try to get special favors for Geneva Steel from the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Cannon, chairman of the now-shut-down Orem steel firm, said comments made against him by Chamberlain — and complaints lodged in the convention by other dissatisfied GOP delegates — were "brutal, mindless rhetoric."

"I never asked the state to bail out Geneva Steel. I never used my party position with the Legislature," said Cannon.

The carping, he said, comes "from a small group who are very bitter (people) who never win elections" for the Utah Republican Party. "I'm not even sure they are real Republicans. They seem to hate the Utah Republican Party."

'Mixed blessings'