Utah County Demos rally

PROVO — What's white and blue and red all over?

Utah County, which is overwhelmingly white and where, in an irony that should be delicious to University of Utah football fans, the support for Brigham Young University blue is dwarfed by the allegiance to Republican red.

The reddest of America's red counties is a hostile environment for Democratic candidates, who haven't won a race here in years but who this year seem to have something in common that they hope will change the equation.

Six of the seven candidates ratified Tuesday night at the Utah County Democratic convention are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and most are BYU grads — and they want voters to know it.

"I'm the stereotypical Utah Mormon," said Adam Ford, a charismatic BYU alum with a law degree from Duke University and a strong belief that he can oust Republican Howard Stephenson in Utah Senate District 11.

Could a raft of LDS candidates in a predominantly LDS county keep Republicans from tuning out as soon as they learn Ford and the others are running with a blue D after their names?

"I hope so," said Kenneth Peay, who retired in December as a commander with the Utah Highway Patrol. Peay is running against entrenched Republican Becky Lockhart in House District 64, which includes parts of Benjamin, Lake Shore, Springville, Spanish Fork and Provo.

Of course, if voters are willing to listen, winning their votes is something else again. Ford, who said his litmus test for decision-making is whether a proposal brings Utah closer to "a Zion community," has faith he can convince Republicans to join him.

"If they understand that Howard Stephenson is a registered lobbyist who took money from Envirocare and then sponsored the bill to double toxic-waste storage in Utah, they'll agree with me that lobbyists should lobby and legislators should legislate," Ford said.

The cast of candidates appears as strong as any group the Democrats have presented in several years, and about 120 party members cheered — sometimes raucously — what party leaders repeatedly described as courageous heroes.

"Tonight we put the GOP on notice their day of one-party rule is at a close," said Elizabeth Ann Rice-MacFarlane, an 8th-grade U.S. history teacher at Oak Canyon Junior High in Lindon. Rice-MacFarlane is running in House District 27, a seat held by John Dougall, R-American Fork.

The other candidates are: