Voters, not delegates, should choose candidates

Perhaps the most critical political decisions of 2010 will take place Saturday.

And most Utahns have nothing to say about them.

Both the state Republican and Democratic party conventions meet in the Salt Palace. The 3,500 GOP delegates and the 2,500 Democratic delegates will vote on candidates seeking state and federal partisan-elected offices.

The really big race, of course, is between U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett and seven challengers. But U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, could be forced into a Democratic primary in his 2nd Congressional District, as well.

Bennett, who is being challenged from his party's right, is being criticized as being too moderate. Only in Utah could a federal politician like Bennett be considered too moderate.

A Deseret News poll of both parties' delegates and registered voters shows that GOP delegates are more conservative than Republican voters; Democratic delegates more liberal than any other class of voters.

The survey, also sponsored by KSL-TV, the Utah Foundation and the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, highlights what local political observers have pointed out for years: In order to win your party's nomination in convention, you probably have to be at the extreme end of the political scale. And in a real two-party system — where no one party totally dominates the other — that can lead to gridlock.

Such is happening in the U.S. Congress. And we've seen that in other state legislatures, as well.

But in Utah, that extremism is seen differently — the Legislature, dominated by Republicans, is moving more and more to the right. That's because Republicans hold two-thirds majorities, and Democrats can't stop debate, can't stop amendments to the Utah Constitution, can't stop anything. Utah legislative Democrats are not the party of "no." They are the party of "it doesn't matter."

A decade ago, the conservatives' control of the Legislature was blunted by a strong moderate GOP caucus in the House. But over time, those moderates have been replaced by conservatives. Moderate GOP governors like Mike Leavitt, Olene Walker and Jon Huntsman Jr. acted as a counterweight to the Legislature.

But in Saturday's convention, GOP Gov. Gary Herbert, a noted conservative, will likely win his party's nomination for this year's gubernatorial election. Ultimately, no moderate Republican decided to challenge him this year. And we could well see Bennett voted out of office by the GOP delegates.

Since all of the Republican candidates standing against Bennett profess more conservatism than the incumbent — and since Utah has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1970 — if Bennett falls, Utah will send a more conservative senator to Congress.