David Rodeback's BlogLocal Politics and Culture, National Politics,
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Saturday, May 8, 2010Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's Off to [Convention] We Go . . .We can't be late! First things first. Happy birthday to blogger Jon Rodeback of Capitol Circus. (His day job is at the Heritage Foundation.) He happens to be my brother. The time as I write this is what my neighbor and mayor calls oh-dark-thirty. I'm about to leave to catch public transit to the Utah State Republican Nominating Convention, where we state delegates will either pick the Republican nominees for some significant races, or at least narrow the field and send the voters in our party a primary election. If you want to follow the convention without actually being there, KSL will be broadcasting from noon to 4:00 p.m. from the convention (1160 AM, 102.7 FM), and I will be tweeting periodically at @LocalCommentary. You can watch the Twitter feed on my blog's main page, if you wish, without becoming a follower. The high-profile votes will be races for US Senate, US House of Representatives (2nd District), and Utah Governor (a mid-term election). See the candidates here. In one or more ballots, each race will produce either a single nominee, if any candidate can get 60 percent of the vote, or a primary election between the top two candidates, if no candidate gets 60 percent on the last ballot. There will also be some procedural votes, including an attempt by some delegates to revoke the credentials of a number of delegates, because of different readings of the Utah Republican Party constitution and bylaws. Going in, I'm inclined to say, they were fairly and openly elected by established procedures; there is an ambiguity in the rules; let them vote. Otherwise, Utah County and some other counties will be under-represented. I frankly don't know whether this move is the work simply of holier-than-thou interpreters of the written word who have difficulty seeing the potential for interpretations other than their own, or of some candidate's partisans, who have calculated that there will be an advantage if some delegates from certain counties are disqualified. No one I know is suggesting the latter, but one does contemplate all the possibilities. (Well, I does; I isn't sure about some of them other folks.) I understand there will also be a resolution to censure Senator Bob Bennett. Whether or not I vote for him on any ballot -- I likely will not -- I won't be supporting this resolution. It's ungracious, misguided, and unsportsmanlike. I have long believed Utah State Republican conventions to be considerably to the right of my own politics, not to mention the voting populace at large. It's probably still true. It's gonna be interesting.
Copyright 2010 by David Rodeback. |
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