Utah GOP a bit right of peers

Kevin Garn considers himself a reasonable conservative. Not some wacko, out-there right-winger. And the majority leader of the Utah House doesn't like to see Utah Republicans labeled fanatics.

But even Garn admits that when he goes to national conventions for state lawmakers, he gets the feeling his colleagues in the Utah Capitol are on the conservative side.

"Yeah. I see that," he says with a grin.

Now a Deseret News/KSL national and statewide survey quantifies Garn's view and what some others may have intuitively believed: Utah Republicans are a bit to the right of national Republicans. On some so-called moral issues like abortion and gay rights, they are much more conservative.

A survey taken as part of this newspaper's "Who Are We?" project — a series of stories leading up to the Olympics aimed at examining Utahns and how they are perceived by themselves and by other Americans — shows that on five of nine key issues facing the country and Utah, members of the Republican Party here take a more conservative stance than Republicans nationwide. On the other questions, Utah Republicans were closely aligned with national sentiments of their party faithful.

"I agree that Utah Republicans are more conservative than national Republicans," said former U.S. Rep. Merrill Cook, who has had a rocky relationship with some state GOP leaders. "A lot of those issues (where Utah Republicans are more conservative) are social and moral. I think we are less so on fiscal matters."

And Cook said Utah's congressional delegation is more conservative than most other states' representatives and senators. "That's a reflection of their Republican base."

But one thing some national Republican leaders don't understand, he said, is that Salt Lake City and parts of the county "are much more moderate, or even liberal, than the rest of Utah." National leaders who may question how a 2nd District representative votes, for example, mistakenly tend to lump all of Utah into the conservative camp, he said.

"Utahns are viewed as being more conservative than the rest of the nation, extremely family-oriented," Cook said. "One of the reasons, I think, the Olympic scandal was such a shock to other Americans is the perception that Utahns have strong moral values. At least, those are the feelings of national Republicans."

The Dan Jones & Associates nationwide and state poll has a couple of interesting quirks.

For example, Utah Republicans are actually more liberal than national Republicans on the issue of prayer in public schools, which national Republicans favor more.