Utah political parties struggle over ideology, leadership

In off-election year conventions, political parties choose their officers and take care of party business. Results from the recent Republican convention and the anticipated outcome of the upcoming Democratic convention are raising eyebrows. Whenever we see raised eyebrows, we are obliged to comment.

Utah Republicans chose as their vice chairman and secretary two arch-conservatives who were viewed by many mainstream Republicans as party dissidents, often at odds with party leadership and even filing litigation against party leaders. Now they are the party leaders. Convention delegates also rebelled against top GOP legislators and the clear wishes of the LDS Church by passing a resolution to repeal HB116, the immigration reform legislation. Is the Utah Republican Party falling apart?

Pignanelli: "Damn your principles! Stick to your party." — Benjamin Disraeli

The Utah Republican Party is analogous to Microsoft: a dominant operating system customers inherit or select because of a comfort level — everyone else is also using it. Both entities consistently attempt innovation in order to break into new markets. Their success is undeniable, but open-sourcing is now bringing external and internal problems. The software giant and the GOP are plagued with well-disguised bugs, viruses and trojans from within intent on reformatting or destroying the entire operation.

Utah Republican Chairman Thomas Wright deserves the respect he is receiving from most corners of Utah politics, especially for his use of technology to promote party development. Yet he now has the unique challenge of dealing with two officers that are more focused on structural and ideological purity than the primary goal of a political party: electing candidates. (Tom: welcome to the long-term problem of Utah Democrats.)

Add this dynamic to the current struggle over immigration, and it is easy to predict that local Republicans are in for a long internal wrestling match.

Webb: I'm a Republican state delegate, and I lost on most of my convention votes. However, had more delegates stuck around for the HB116 vote (almost 600 had gone home five hours into the convention), the resolution would have been defeated. Of all 3,500 delegates (not all attended the convention), fewer than 25 percent voted to repeal HB116. Thus, no politician need feel a mandate exists to repeal the immigration law. I believe the LDS Church's position on immigration clearly influenced the HB116 vote. Otherwise, the resolution would have passed by an even greater margin.