Utah County Demos try a new tack: YouTube

PROVO — A Republican and a Democrat go into a Utah County Internet cafe. They ask the barista for bagels, pop open their laptops and access the shop's wireless Internet service.

The Republican logs onto the Utah County GOP Web site, but she can't make an online contribution, can't find any video and discovers some links are dead.

Meanwhile, the Democrat pulls up her party's relaunched Web site and clicks on a link that sends her to a videotaped welcome message on YouTube. She also can make a secure online donation.

The difference? The Republican Party dominates Utah County without snazzy Web graphics, while the new leadership team guiding the county Democrats is willing to try new things to chip away at that dominance.

The Democrats want to look energetic and cutting-edge in a county where they are outnumbered 11-1 — 111,368 registered Republicans and 9,746 registered Democrats.

One way to do that is to use YouTube, so Utah County Democratic Party chairman Richard Davis sent an e-mail to reporters Monday with a link to a videotaped press release on YouTube (www.youtube.com).

"We're the Democrats, and we're on the move," Davis said at the end of the video. During an interview Monday, he said, "We thought (YouTube) might be a novel way to get journalists to pay attention."

Mission accomplished. Now that www.utahcountydems.com is launched, it's time for the next trick: convince Utah County voters the party can field candidates who are electable here even if they have a capital D next to their names.

"There's this assumption there are no Democrats in Utah County," Davis said. "We want people to know that's not the case — there are nearly 10,000 of us — and we're working to provide viable candidates so people know there is more than one option to vote for. We're working to get candidates who voters want to elect, to have serve, to make public policy because they share their values on education, health care, transportation and growth that preserves our quality of life in Utah and Utah County."

Over at Republican headquarters, county party chairwoman Marian Monnahan said the local GOP isn't doing anything quite as hip posting to YouTube at www.utahgop.org.

"Nope, not at the moment," she said. "We're in the middle of doing other things. It might be an interesting thing to try. They're trying to make inroads, so that's probably where the difference comes in. We're just plugging along and doing our thing."

That appears to be a fairly safe bet in a county where only 1.6 percent of registered voters are Democrats.

And a reason the Democrats turned to the Web.