Harmsen joins race for GOP chairman

A third big name is joining the race for state Republican Party chairman — former Salt Lake County Council member Steve Harmsen.

Harmsen, 67, says that so far he is the "only impartial" candidate in the race, saying that Dave Hansen, who consults for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Tim Bridgewater, who is close to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., "will just represent one tribe or the other" in running Utah's largest political party.

Harmsen, who served in a countywide council seat in the early 2000s, has a long history as a candidate, officeholder and participant within the Utah GOP. His political career started as a young Salt Lake City commissioner back in the 1970s.

Harmsen said he'll run this year for chairman as he did in 2007 — "from the maverick point of view."

(In 2007 Harmsen lost the race to now-retiring GOP Chairman Stan Lockhart, a Micron lobbyist. GOP delegates will pick new party leaders in a June convention.)

The party has become too much "about the ambition of some people and the corrupting influence of (campaign) contributions," he said.

"I want to represent the delegates. And my plan, as it was in 2007, is to use the Internet, the computer, to get delegates involved more than just for four hours every year at the state convention," said Harmsen, who runs a variety of businesses.

"The Utah Republican Party needs to join the 21st century. And we can make what worked 100 years ago — when delegates really did bring their neighbors' and precinct's representation to the party — back again."

He is not a registered lobbyist, nor, he says, does he have close ties to any current GOP officeholder.

For too long, says Harmsen, top incumbent GOP incumbents have "handpicked" the party chairman, thus having a friend running the party when those incumbents sought re-election.

Those chairmen "promote the preservation of power, and that doesn't sow the seeds for effective change," said Harmsen.

From less-than-satisfactory election results to unhappy rank-and-file party members, Harmsen said the Utah Republican Party is sending out an SOS.

"If we are gong to 'save our ship' — SOS — it can't be just the 'same old stuff.' We have to look at how we can reinvigorate ourselves — and we do that by getting our delegates and the grass-roots involved" in party decisions and party operations.

One ongoing complaint among some GOP faithful is the use of automatic delegates, said Harmsen. That is the policy of giving sitting GOP officeholders, like legislators and county officials, delegate/voting rights without those individuals having to be elected from their home precincts at neighborhood mass meetings.