Race goes to who has 'stacked' caucus

As we settle into the holiday season, all seems quiet on the political front. But don't be fooled. Utah's biggest political year in more than a decade is on the horizon, and lots of political magma is bubbling just below the surface.

For the six major Republican gubernatorial candidates fighting for the party nomination, there is no time for rest and relaxation.

They are locked in a difficult and fascinating battle involving hand-to-hand political combat at the grass-roots level. They are attempting to win favor and support among a select group of GOP political activists scattered around the state. It is a daunting phase of the campaign, because it is one-on-one, face-to-face, retail politics that require organizational prowess and enormous time commitments.

Utah's nominating process gives a great deal of power to political activists, in particular those who will attend the roughly 1,500 party precinct caucuses in neighborhoods across the state on March 23. Attendees will elect around 3,500 delegates to attend the May 8 state convention, and many more to county conventions.

Those state delegates are all-important, because they determine the fate of the gubernatorial candidates. They will vote to keep one or two candidates going and will dump the rest. If one candidate gets 60 percent or more of the convention vote, that person becomes the party's nominee. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters square off in a June primary election.

So the first goal of Marty Stephens, Fred Lampropoulos, Gary Herbert, Nolan Karras, Jim Hansen and Jon Huntsman is to get delegates elected at the March 23 caucuses who are supportive of them, or at least persuadable, so they can win enough votes to emerge from the convention.

This is not easy. It is a tremendous test of tenacity, grass-roots organizational skill, communications ability and willingness to work awfully hard.

Success at the neighborhood caucus level requires two approaches. First, you need to communicate in person, by telephone, and through mail and e-mail, with every person you think might attend the 1,500 party caucuses around the state, paying particular attention to the party leaders and elected officials who will be automatic delegates, and also to those who have been delegates in the past, because some of them will surely be delegates again.