His fence-mending won't hurt, but Leavitt has broad support

Gov. Mike Leavitt traveled to southern Utah this week, rebuilding some bridges he clearly believes were weak among the GOP stalwarts in red-rock country.

And while Leavitt probably does need to do some fence-mending as he approaches the June 27 Republican primary, the shear weight of his popularity, combined with the massive numbers of Wasatch Front voters, show his problems with rural Republicans won't be a determining factor later this month.

In fact, one of the reasons Leavitt is even in a primary may not be right-wing elements in the party as a whole, but rural Utah GOP elected county commissioners, treasurers, attorneys, clerks and recorders.

Under Utah Republican Party rules, every countywide elected GOP officeholder is automatically a state delegate. State party executive director Scott Simpson says those number around 300. He couldn't say exactly how many showed up at the May 6 convention to vote on GOP candidates — a gathering that forced Leavitt into a primary with relatively unknown Holladay advertising executive Glen Davis.

Party chairman Rob Bishop and Simpson had the computer punch-card ballots coded so that after the convention they could determine geographic support for the candidates. The ballots were secret — GOP leaders don't know which exact delegate voted for whom. But they do know how the county delegations voted as a whole.

And, says Bishop, Leavitt was swept away by votes from rural Utah delegates. His guess is that many of those "no" votes against Leavitt came from Republican Party officeholders — true insiders who not only oppose Leavitt on rural land issues and gun control but would have plenty of access to their fellow county GOP delegates on convention day and just before.

The anti-Leavitt, rural delegate vote is only one example of where a relatively small group of people can have an impact (if only briefly) on statewide partisan politics.

A new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates shows that across the spectrum, with only a little geographical and philosophical variance, Leavitt has support up and down the state.

So the anti-Leavitt vote at the state GOP convention is an aberration, when you compare the poll with Bishop's county-by-county breakout.

For example, Jones found that among those who said they are "very conservative," Leavitt has an 82 percent approval rating. Very high. And the "very conservatives" should be considered the right-wing of the state party.

Among those who said they always "vote strong Republican," Leavitt has an 84 percent job approval rating.