Utah GOP bucks national trend

Across the nation, Republicans are in trouble, with a new poll showing 50 percent of Americans say they are now Democrats while only 35 percent identify themselves as Republicans.

But not in Utah.

Here, Republicans have steadily maintained about half of the adult populace, a string of public opinion polls for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV shows. Democrats hover around 15 percent to 20 percent of the voters, a switch from national political trends.

Across the U.S., however, the unpopularity of the Iraq War and President Bush's personal job disapproval ratings have turned the once-majority party of Ronald Reagan into a minority party which lost control of the U.S. House and Senate in the 2006 elections.

Even though local polling shows Utahns have not abandoned the GOP, Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Utah Republican Party, said: "We are concerned here. We're worried about the 2008 elections. We have to put forward our conservative package — not so much on the moral issues but on fiscally conservative issues. We need to bring our people back."

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has a new survey out that shows Democrats now make up half of all Americans. Republicans have dropped to 35 percent. In 2002, the center's polls showed the parties evenly split — 43 percent said they were Democrats and 43 percent said they were Republicans.

But despite Hartley's concerns, Utah Republicans have not lost ground, according to surveys Dan Jones & Associates conducted for the newspaper and TV station.

The only weak spot for the Utah GOP is Salt Lake County. And while the percentage of Republicans vs. Democrats hasn't changed much in the county, political independents have increased significantly from 2002 to 2007.

In March 2002, county residents identified their political leanings this way: 39 percent Republican, 22 percent Democrat and 19 percent independent.

By March 2007, those numbers were 38 percent Republican, 21 percent Democrat and 35 percent independent.

Statewide, Jones' polls shows that while those who say they are Republican or Democrat hasn't changed much, the number of political independents has gone from 17 percent of adults in 2002 to 29 percent in 2007.

Todd Taylor , executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said he's not surprised that Utahns have not switched their party labels. But he believes some Utahns are voting more for his party.

"In the 2006 elections we went from getting 40 percent of the vote" in the congressional races "to getting 45 percent, a significant increase," he said.

Hartley said he's glad Jones' polls don't show that people "have taken the bitter pill" of actually switching from the Republican to Democratic parties.