Ridgway strikes out at GOP officers

Mike Ridgway, a Salt Lake County Republican Party Central Committee member, struck back Friday against party officers who are trying to remove him from his positions as precinct chairman, county delegate and state delegate.

Ridgway held a news conference in which he outlined in detail a long list of grievances against party leadership going back to 1998, including alleged voting fraud, palace coups, secret cabals, conspiracies to squelch dissent and make party members march in lock-step with leaders, stacking delegates and other accusations.

"We intend to expose the virus that has infiltrated the party," he said.

GOP county chairwoman Tiani Coleman two weeks ago summoned Ridgway to a hearing next week in which the party's executive committee will decide whether to strip him of his leadership positions.

Coleman said the charges were in response to "allegations of repeated awful behavior" by Ridgway. Among the allegations are charges that Ridgway "fostered a tense, frustrating, and even hostile and abusive atmosphere," "physically cornered party members" and "tried to thwart party operations."

One charge states that Ridgway admitted to having a goal of weakening the party to make it easier for third parties to succeed in Utah. The list also cites Ridgway's use of the media to represent the party "in a defamatory public manner."

Ridgway, who was reprimanded by party leadership in 2002, has said the latest charges are primarily related to his vocal opposition to the party's support of Ellis Ivory as a replacement for Nancy Workman in the county mayoral spot on November's ballot, but Coleman said the charges have been brewing for some time and were not related to that circumstance.

Ridgway has set up a Web site in response to the charges, the first page of which features extensive scriptural quotations including, prominently, the following from Psalms 38:12:

"They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long."

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