Here’s some good news for the Utah Republican Party: The party is out of debt, owes no attorneys’ fees and has around $25,000 in the bank.
At the end of a six-hour state party Central Committee on Saturday, new chair Derek Brown got a standing ovation from the 140-or-so new SCC members.
And that was probably justified.
Brown has certainly turned around the struggling finances of the party of 650,000 rank-and-file Utah Republicans.
“We have paid off the debt of $137,746.35,” Brown told UtahPolicy.com Saturday night.
“We have between $20,000 and $30,000 in the bank” – he doesn’t know for sure because he keeps on depositing donation checks and didn’t have an updated total.
And Entrata’s Dave Bateman – a new member of the SCC from Utah County – has kept his promise and absolved the state party of any of the more than $200,000 in attorney fees he stepped up to pay last year.
It certainly is a new day, financially and in other respects, for the state’s majority party.
The last debt check went to – of all things – the Washington County Republican Party.
Seems several years ago, the county party sent the state party $26,000, which went through various accounts and was supposed to be returned to the county party.
But the state GOP spent it on ongoing debt/expenses and never gave it back.
Saturday, Brown called the Washington County GOP officers up to the podium and gave them a check for $26,000.
Other good news for those who watch state party internal affairs: A new seven-member Constitution and Bylaws Committee was elected. None of the new members belong to the group of dissident hard-liners known as the “Gang of 51.”
That means the CBC won’t be causing Brown et al. any problems as the party moves forward and tries to put past battles behind it.
One item that still must be resolved: Readers of UtahPolicy.com will recall that many members of the old SCC, Gang of 51ers or not, got angry at former chair Rob Anderson for refusing to submit to the state elections office a bylaw change that Anderson said was “illegal.”
That bylaw is still on the books. There was a bylaw amendment proposed Saturday that would have repealed that bylaw, but all dozen or so proposed bylaw/constitutional changes were sent to the new CBC, which Brown says will review all proposals and then come back later with recommendations on what to do with them.
That “illegal” bylaw was specifically drafted by the Gang of 51ers to force Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the state’s election officer, into a legal box – with the hope that the anti-SB54 zealots could find a way to sue in federal court again.
Anderson refused to send it up to Cox, who said he wouldn’t enforce any “illegal” party bylaw anyway.
So, at least for now, that bylaw won’t be enforced, won’t be sent to the Utah Elections Office, and the new CBC will decide how best to get the party out of the current bylaw conundrum.
“This was really a good meeting,” former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, a new SCC member, told UtahPolicy.com as the meeting was breaking up around 4 p.m.
“A good day,” Hughes added.
Brown agrees, adding that the meeting would have been shorter – the old Gang of 51 SCC meetings would drag on all day with yelling and rude interruptions common – but so many folks wanted to run for special committees that voting took longer than expected.
“Everything went well,” said Brown. “We talked about our long-term goals.” There were no hard feelings, even as the voting dragged on.
“We’re on our way with a lot of energy.”
As UtahPolicy.com has reported previously, Brown’s goal is to raise $1 million for the 2020 election cycle.
And retiring the debt is a big part of that.
“People are more willing to give” to the party “to get Republicans elected than to pay off debt,” said Brown.
“Now we are debt free and moving forward. That litigation (over SB54, which the GOP lost at every level) is behind us. Personally, I’m very happy.”
