For years, the far right in Utah has complained about the “elitists” and “wealthy few” who seek to “buy Utah’s elections” by supporting the Count My Vote initiative.
So it’s hard not to escape the irony – maybe the hypocrisy – of the caucus/convention diehards being bankrolled by one rich guy. By paying off the Republican Party’s massive legal debt (for ill-advised lawsuits against SB54), and supporting the right-wing effort to undermine Count My Vote, wealthy businessman Dave Bateman has the far right bought and paid for.
So much for the “little guys” fighting the elitists. Now the elitist has subsumed the little guys.
Hey, it’s a free country. Anyone can use their money any way they please. Plenty of rich people on all sides of the political spectrum use their wealth to influence politics. That’s the American way.
But it’s hypocritical for one side to criticize the other when both are doing the same thing.
What’s more, the caucus convention process was never the poor guy’s path to a party nomination. Wealthy candidates always have a big advantage in any nomination process, including the caucus/convention system.
Witness Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2012 spending nearly $5 million on just the caucus/convention portion of the election process. No little guy could compete with that, and Hatch easily won. Count My Vote doesn’t concentrate power in the hands of elitists. It actually devolves power to the masses of voters, instead of leaving control with party insiders.
I will certainly admit that, if we’re keeping track, Count my vote has many more supportive “elitists” than the one “elitist” supporting the caucus/convention system. A veritable who’s who of Utah business and civic leaders, including most of the high-tech community, supports voters taking control of the Utah election process.
