Republicans sound off

Salt Lake County Republican conventions have of late been lively affairs, with huge floor fights over rules, booing of incumbent officeholders and even the summoning of law enforcement.

But no one was arrested Saturday.

The closest the uncommonly amicable GOP delegates even came to disorder was at the very end, when debating a motion to allow non-incumbent congressional candidates — including outspoken dissident and Senate candidate Mike Ridgway and sometime Republican and 3rd District candidate Merrill Cook — to speak at the end of the session. Despite a few shouts of protest from the crowd, the motion was voted down by a large majority.

With nearly half of the 1,500 county delegates being new, the Salt Lake County meeting in the E Center was almost boring compared to past showdowns, which had decidedly more conservative delegates.

Salt Lake delegates turned out to be more moderate this year, deciding to keep several incumbent legislators who were challenged from the right of their party.

Most notably, Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, soundly defeated Milton Witt, the former Salt Lake County GOP vice chairman who resigned to take on one of his own incumbents. (See related story on A1.)

Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, also defeated her challenger.

Delegates also pushed almost a dozen candidates directly into the general election, most notably Dirk Anjewierden IV, who is running for the Senate District 4 seat vacated by Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Murray. He will now face Rep. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake, who is looking to replace Arent in the Senate in a district that four years ago saw both candidates top the $100,000 spending plateau.

Several legislative races turned on the issue of education — how to fund it, how to control it.

In Senate District 9 in southeastern Salt Lake County, Wayne Niederhauser told his delegates, "I'm a conservative and for school choice. I support vouchers; it just makes sense."

Niederhauser survived the five-way race with former House member Bryson Garbett, those two now going to a June 27 primary to see who wins the party nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Al Mansell, R-Sandy.

Bucking the county trend of being good to incumbents, Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, who has introduced some controversial bills the past two years, was forced into a primary with GOP challenger Jim Bird.

Wallace said the Utah Education Association was "very active" in her district mass meetings, getting a number of pro-teacher delegates elected. She said that although she is "very supportive of education," they opposed her because of her support of a measure by Rep. Dave Cox, R-Lehi, that would allow patrons to carve up large school districts.