Mad elephants! GOP delegates took out anger on incumbents

SALT LAKE CITY — Just how unhappy, or angry, or upset, were the nearly 3,500 state GOP delegates this past Saturday?

They didn't just kick 18-year incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett from office. Many of them enjoyed doing it.

A walk through the Salt Palace Convention Center floor after Bennett was eliminated in the second round of voting found a number of delegates jumping up and down with joy.

"We got Bennett out! He's out!" yelled one delegated dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans.

They also dumped longtime state Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne. And they forced into a primary two other well-known representatives, former state House Speaker Mel Brown, R-Kamas, and Becky Edwards, R-Bountiful.

While it was always assumed that GOP Gov. Gary Herbert would win the party nomination Saturday, even 29 percent of the delegates voted for his opponents, candidates they may not have known very well.

While Mitt Romney, who nominated Bennett, was mobbed by well-wishers when he stood in front of Bennett's convention booth signing autographs and posing for pictures, there was a smattering of boos when Romney walked on the stage with Bennett.

And, later in the program, there was only polite applause when various speakers said that Romney should be the GOP presidential nominee in 2012, or would unseat President Barack Obama in two years.

Indeed, a pre-convention poll of GOP delegates for the Deseret News and KSL-TV found that only 55 percent of delegates favored Romney in a mock presidential race in 2012. And Romney got 90 percent of the 2008 presidential primary vote in Utah.

Finally, enough delegates stuck around in the hall after the last round of voting for resolution and platform amendment votes.

That's an oddity in itself.

Usually, so many delegates leave after the final vote that the convention must be adjourned for lack of a quorum.

But clearly, delegates wanted to vote on platform amendments and resolutions, one vote that approved a tough anti-illegal immigration platform change and a resolution that condemned not only the Democrats' national health care reform bill, but a bill co-sponsored by Bennett.

One pro-Bennett delegate, who had hung around after Bennett had been eliminated in an earlier vote (after making a statement to the press, a tearful Bennett then left the Salt Palace), asked the delegates not to approve that anti-Bennett resolution.

He said that not only was it in bad taste, but that it set a poor precedent. In the future, mean-spirited delegates could introduce an anti-incumbent resolution just to harm that incumbent's chances in the convention, not because it was an important, or appropriate, policy issue for the state Republican Party to stand on.

But the man was shouted at as he made his remarks, and warned by the convention chair to be careful of what he said as he criticized other delegates' motives.

The anti-Bennett health care bill resolution passed with cheers from many delegates.

e-mail: bbjr@desnews.com