How to Sound Smart About Utah Politics – March 25, 2014

Dabakis resigns. Utah GOP considering a lawsuit over “Count My Vote” compromise.

 

Countdown:

  • 31 days until the Utah State Republican and Democratic conventions
  • 91 days until Utah’s 2014 primary elections
  • 224 days to the 2014 midterm elections
  • 307 days to the start of the 2015 Utah Legislature
  • 587 days to the 2015 elections
  • 652 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
  • 958 days to the 2016 presidential election

Today’s Utah political news highlights:

  • Utah Democratic Party chairman Jim Dabakis announces his resignation [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune, Daily Herald].
  • Utah Republicans are mulling a lawsuit over the provision in the “Count My Vote” compromise requiring political parties have open primaries [Utah Policy].
  • A number of legislators are running unopposed or without significant competition in 2014 [Tribune].
  • Some Utah school board races are seeing an unusually large number of candidates this year [Tribune].
  • A Utah County woman was turned away from filing for a House District as an unaffiliated candidate because she didn’t meet the requirements to be on the ballot [Daily Herald].
  • Mia Love has the inside track in Utah’s 4th Congressional District race [Standard-Examiner].
  • Utah’s new law allowing the use of cannabis extract to treat seizures could end up helping multiple sclerosis sufferers as well [Tribune].
  • The Salt Lake City Council will hold a public hearing about proposed zoning changes along the Sugar House Streetcar line [Tribune].
  • The Utah Board of Regents is considering a 4-percent tuition hike next year [Deseret News].

On this day in history:

  • 1643 – Maryland was founded by English colonists.
  • 1807 – Britain abolished its slave trade.
  • 1894 – Jacob Sechler Coxey and his “army” of unemployed men began their march from Ohio to Washington.
  • 1911 – A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City killed 145 workers.
  • 1965 – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
  • 1994 – American troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
  • 1996 – An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen group began at a ranch in Montana.