Demos hoping voucher gift will keep on giving

PROVO — The Western States Presidential Primary proved once again that Utah County is a political red zone.

Really, really red.

Last week, Utah Valley voters flocked to the polls to cast ballots in the presidential primaries. Nearly 87 percent chose to vote as Republicans. The Democratic primary drew a meager 8,448 of the more than 62,000 Utah Valley residents who cast ballots.

In another year, that might have thrown a scare into the growing number of moderates who have announced they will run as Democrats this fall in a well-coordinated offensive aimed at the Republican stranglehold on Utah County's seats in the state Legislature.

Scared? No. Plenty humble, sure. How could a Democrat be anything but humble in a county where a Democrat hasn't won since 1994?

But scared? Not this year. Not in The Year After the Great Voucher Vote.

You remember vouchers. In a referendum last November, an avalanche of votes negated the 2007 Legislature's decision to provide school vouchers.

The voucher defeat was, believe it or not, more impressive than Utah's love affair with Mitt Romney, which was astounding. Romney captured 90 percent of the votes in Utah's Republican primary. Add in all the votes cast in the Democratic primary and Romney earned 62 percent of all ballots cast by Utahns last week.

But the rush to join Mitt Mania or otherwise participate in a presidential primary didn't motivate Utahns like vouchers.

In November, more than 523,000 Utahns voted yea or nay on vouchers. Last week, 409,000 Utahns voted in the presidential primary.

And of that larger group, 62 percent rejected vouchers, giving notice to the Legislature that they want better pay for teachers and more money for public schools.

The New Utah County Democrats, led by BYU political science professor Richard Davis, are rounding up a slate of candidates who are socially conservative and politically moderate to run against the Republicans whose votes for vouchers were repudiated by their constituents.

The liberal wing of the party doesn't like the move to the middle, and it isn't a single-issue campaign, but Davis wanted candidates who could win support among Republicans and draw from the silent Utah County middle.