Taxpayer group backs Lampropoulos

Fred Lampropoulos the next governor of Utah?

If it were up to a select group of Utah businessmen, politicos and policy wonks, Lampropoulos would be the Republican nominee, according to a straw poll conducted at Friday's Utah Taxes Now Conference sponsored by the Utah Taxpayers Association.

Too bad for Lampropoulos, a businessman millionaire, that the vast majority of the attendees aren't Republican delegates and won't be voting on who will face off in the GOP primary.

Lampropoulos should probably not get too giddy about the results. Nor should the also-rans lose any sleep over the vote results. Jon Huntsman Jr., former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, state Sen. Parley Hellewell and Gary Benson did not make it past the first round of voting that followed the preferential ballot format used at the convention.

Attendees paid money to go to the event, and there was nothing to prohibit candidates from stacking the votes with supporters to boost their performance in the poll.

Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, says that didn't happen.

"If there had been a concerted effort by one candidate, we would have noticed that," he said. "And we absolutely did not see that."

In fact, it was largely the same crowd of accountants, attorneys and business leaders who have attended every conference the association has sponsored for the past 26 years.

"We have our regulars who attend every year," Jerman said.

The straw poll came during a debate between all eight Republican candidates (three candidates sent surrogates) on Utah tax policy.

The problem was that most candidates share pretty much the same conservative Republican view: Curb government spending and cut taxes. The differences were over how much.

"And I don't mean small tax cuts . . . but major ones," said Hellewell, who garnered 4 votes out of 110 cast in the first round of voting in the straw poll.

Benson, an admitted million-to-one longshot, said he hasn't ever seen an agency of government that didn't have at least 20 percent fat. He got two votes.

Hansen has been arguing that greater exploitation of Utah's natural resources could boost royalties to the state and address the education and transportation funding problems. He got 12 votes, as did Huntsman, who by most accounts is actually leading among GOP delegates with a week to go until state convention.

Dropping out next was current House Speaker Marty Stephens, followed in the next round of voting by Gov. Olene Walker.

If the straw poll should reflect how delegates actually vote, Lampropoulos would garner just over 57 percent of the vote — just short of the 60 percent needed to avoid a primary. His opponent would be Nolan Karras, a former House speaker and member of the Board of Regents.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com