Political parties should adopt good principles

What exactly is the purpose of a political party? The short version goes something like this: to create an organization that selects its candidates to be placed on a public ballot and assist those candidates in winning elections by volunteering time or giving money to campaigns or the party.

Candidates are usually selected by several processes in other parts of the United States, using mostly the primary system. But here in Utah, most political parties have nominating conventions. The primary system works well in most other states because the number of major party registered voters is about equal. This means that anyone who is registered with a specific party like Democrat or Republican simply places their name on the ballot and starts campaigning for votes. The primary election is held and the field is cut down to either an overall winner by obtaining a specific percentage of the vote, or a runoff election is held before the general election to determine who gets placed as the party representative on the general election ballot.

Our Utah convention system essentially fulfills the same purpose of the primary elections. Should Utah change from a delegate/convention system to a straight open primary? It would probably not work well in this state. Outside of Salt Lake County the clear majority of voters are Republican and since Democrats in Utah usually do not need primaries to select their candidates, this could open the door to some meddling.

So who should be running these political parties? Just as we have separation of powers between the three branches of the government — executive, legislative and judicial — with various sub categories, we also should have separation of powers between elected officials and the political party they represent. Additionally elected officials who are irresponsive, or are convicted of crimes, should have their party affiliation stripped and not be allowed to run for public office again under the banner of that party.

I also feel strongly that elected officials and staff — including legislative, executive or judicial at all levels of government — should not be allowed to seek party leadership positions. These positions like chairman, vice chairman, secretary, treasurer, national committeeman and committeewoman, etc., should be reserved to rank and file members of the party so as to involve as many people in the process, and to remove any question of special dealing for a specific person or branch of government.

I would hope the major parties adopt these principles and create a more transparent process in electing our party leaderships.

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Mark E. Towner is the chairman of the Utah GOP Audit Committee and member of the Utah GOP State Central Committee.