Reader comments
What a mess Utah Republican Party has made

Bob,

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

From all of us grassroots Utah Republicans who wish we could snap our fingers and make this nightmare go away.

Wow, what a nice story to summarize everything in one fell swoop. Nice resource piece to say it all in a nutshell. Every Republican should read this article. Thank you.

If the federal government is suing Mike Morley, then Mike must have done something right. the federal government, when contracting services, has a monopolistic advantage in all industries.

One Party Rule Brings One Party Arrogance--Vote the Scroundrels Out!

You cannot have a closed mind to everything, resist change, fool yourself into a false sense of moral superiority, and run a government at the same time.

It will always end up self-serving.

I literally feel sick after reading this. These leaders act as if this were some kind of game. It smacks of the same bullying and clique-building you see in junior high, only the consequences affect the rights and laws of Utah citizens. Of course you see the dilemma of simply voting them out is that this arrogant clique controls who you get to vote for and unless you are willing to vote democrat (heavan forbid) they win. Good luck Utah County.

To the Morley lover, what a poor sense of logic you have. Don't play on the anti-Fed angle, deal with the issue.

First, Morley has not been charged with a crime. Innocence takes on a new meaning now.

Second, Molrey invested money in a fund run by his counsin, and when things collapsed the last thing his cousin did was take money from other clients, and give it to Morley. The Feds say that he should give the $3million back since his counsin had no authority to give it to Morley.

Third, who cares about one and two. The issue here is that Morley and his cronies rigged a debate, harrassed and threatened the challenger and ultimately ensured that certain things could not be talked about. Read First Amendment Right of free speech gone.

Morley did this with the blessing of the same Utah County GOP clan run by the Lockharts-Brambles.

Back to the clique, I am glad all of this is happening with the Lockharts-Brambles. I really am!

They want to run for higher office. Becky for Governor and Bramble for US Congress or Senate. we now know CLEARLY they are not fit for those offices. Period!

I applaud this article, but I also am alarmed that those in the Democratic Party will take this as a "now we can do anything we want with immunity" mandate. We all ned to realize that honest men and women exist in both parties and evil men and women exist in both parties, too. I am sure that we can find the same type of shenannigans all over the place.

I've had enough of Bramble and Lockhart and the corruption of some of these politicians. I'm a Republican but I'm voting for the Conservative Democrats running against them to send them a message that Utahns won't tollerate this. I'm not sure who is running against Lockhart but RaDene Hatfield is running against Bramble. She has my vote. I hope other Republicans will join me in sending a message that we expect more from our party.

Thanks for spelling it out for all to see.
Time to reclaim our freedoms! Snapping fingers won't do it. The answer is a restoration of the founding principals. Vote principal over politics. Check into the 50 or so Constitution Party Candidates running for office this cycle.

A Republican Head doesn't decide on the issues. Delegates do. There are grassroots efforts all around the nation to change the Republican Party back to it's conservative foundation. It will take about a decade or two to overthrow all these clowns and seize control of the party. Just be patient and next year be sure to register as a republican and get voted in as a delegate. Delegates decide and delegates can change everything.

We need a two-party system to keep legislators honest on both sides. Keep our Republican Party strong and vote Democrat or moderate Republican against these right wing extremists. Utah County leadership is bringing all of us down.

This is exactly the type of thing that happens when one party gets so much power. The Lockharts and the Brambles are deeply entrenched in these nepotistic and exclusionary practices because of the sense of entitlement that has become commonplace amongst Utah Republicans. Having pretty much unlimited political power causes people to become seemingly invulnerable. This is exactly the reason that we need to elect more Democrats in Utah - to balance out the power structure here.

A one-party system is what the 3rd Reich pulled off.

For some peculiar reason, the same system suits many Utahns to a tee.

I know all these folks and at the end of the day, they haven't done anything wrong. Whether it looks wrong or not no one strayed for the rules and bylaws that outline the process.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Meanwhile, accepting gifts continues to be legal.

This makes the case for moving to a system that gives less control to the political parties to chose which candidates appear on the ballot.
One big motivation here is to eliminate the opposition before the voters even have their say. It nakes no sense to me that candidates pay a filing fee to the state to run for office and then have to be subject to this corruption in order to make it to the primary election. Many HONEST candidates never even appear on the ballot, so why did they pay the state a filing fee?
Since the taxpayers pay for our primary elections EVERY candidate who files should be on the primary ballot. The parties could still have their conventions and they would still have some influence (maybe a lot) over who the voters chose, but they wouldn't have absolute control of the ballot through super delegates, denying access to lists, party funded mailers, and corrupt rules that favor the insiders.
Thanks Bob, for giving the public a rare look into party politics and an understanding of why many good Utahn's don't want to sink to the level of those they should be able to look up to.

The Republicans do have Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, speak no ill of another Republican. Well, it seems they will protect Morley with this one, but where were they when Lorie Fowlke did her nastiness on Rep. Mike Thompson? He went to the party about the Eleventh Commandment and was told there was nothing that could be done. Could is possible, no, no, no, could it possibly be that Lorie Fowlke is a relative of Rep. Becky Lockhart, also related to Rep. John Dougall, who is related to Speaker Greg Curtis, etc., etc., etc. We have nothing except Republican incest here.

In this case, I say thank you to Bob Bernick for helping to expose this obvious favoritism that needs to end. I am a Republican, but this is disgusting. Too much power exists in the two families mentioned in this article.

Bart,
First, if a political party chooses its candidate at the convention, then there is no primary and no taxpayer money wasted on a primary election. Your reasoning for why everyone who files should be in a primary doesn't make sense.

Second, the fee for filing is $10. Even a homeless person could round up $10 if he wanted to file.

Third, almost anyone can be on the ballot in the general election. Just file as Independent. Of course, if you want to file as a Republican, then it makes perfect sense that you go through their nomination process to take advantage of having their endorsement on the ballot in the election.

Fourth, political parties are private enterprises formed by volunteers. They can set up their rules however they'd like, and if you don't like them you can 1) join another party, 2) start another party, or 3) try to change the party's rules through its own processes.

I agree that Stan and the Utah County Party have made some mistakes, and it will be up to the volunteer members of the party to decide whether these mistakes are reason enough to boot people out of party offices for it.