As expected, GOP U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and Jason Chaffetz coasted to easy victories Saturday in the state Republican Convention, and so are locks to win re-election later this year.
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Mia Love also won the 4th Congressional District Republican nomination – as anticipated – and so avoids a party primary.
All four conservative Republicans have Democrat challengers.
But only Doug Owens in the 4th District is given much of a chance – and if he can’t raise a lot of money Love’s chances of becoming the first GOP African-American female in the U.S. House’s history is looking pretty good.
The four needed to get at least 60 percent of their delegates’ votes to eliminate their internal GOP opponents and win their nominations outright.
All did: Bishop got 80.74 percent; Stewart got 67.79 percent; Chaffetz got 87.17 percent; and Love got 78.44 percent.
You can read all of the convention results at the state party’s web site – http://utgop.org/index.asp.
GOP Attorney General Sean Reyes, in office three months after disgraced AG John Swallow resigned, had no Republican opposition and so was nominated by acclamation.
Multi-county legislative district candidates were also voted on in the convention – a dozen won by acclamation because they didn’t have any intra-party opposition.
One incumbent was defeated – Rep. Jerry Anderson, R-Price – and one incumbent was forced into a primary – Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City.
You can read about those races in this story.
Winning their contested races Saturday were the following candidates:
— Scott Sandall, House District 1, 78 percent of the vote.
— Bill Labrum, House District 69, 54 percent.
— Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Heber City, House 54, 67 percent.
— Rep. Mel Brown, R-Kamas, House 53, 63 percent.
— Scott Chew, House 55, 72 percent.
— Sen. Dan Thatcher, R-West Valley City, Senate District 12, 71 percent.
— Ann Millner, Senate District 18, 61 percent.
— Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, 70 percent.
The above candidates avoid a primary and are the Republican Party nominees in their districts.
Love and the three incumbent U.S. House members brought cheers to the packed convention as, individually, they bashed Democratic President Barack Obama and called for Republicans to take over control of the U.S. Senate in the 2014 elections.
It is almost assured that Republicans will keep control of the U.S. House.
Congressional redistricting done by the 50 state Legislatures in 2011 following the 2010 U.S. Census placed so many of the 435 U.S. House seats solidly in either the Republican or Democratic hands, the minority Democrats just don’t have enough swing races to gain control of the House.
Even the incumbents Bishop, Stewart and Chaffetz admit that Congress is dysfunctional.
Only about 9 percent of Americans like the job Congress is doing.
Of course, the GOP-controlled House blames the Democratic-controlled Senate and vice versa.
Bishop, Stewart and Chaffetz in their convention speeches touted their power in the Republican House.
While Love said she would bring true conservative ideals to that body.
Even though there was not a major statewide office up this year – no U.S. Senate or governor’s race – turnout among the 4,000 state GOP delegates was good.
A final tally by state GOP chairman James Evans and his convention officers found that there were 3,796 delegates credentialed, or better than 93 percent attendance.
