I’m kind of feeling sorry for Rob Anderson today.
The newly-elected chairman of the Utah Republican Party has walked into a crap storm – to put it mildly.
Yes, he knew when he challenged sitting chair James Evans and vice-chair Phil Wright, who were both running for chairman before the 4,000 state delegates in convention two weeks ago, that the party was in debt, not paying its bills.
But when Anderson walked into state party HQ in a swanky part of downtown (across the street from the Lion House and the Alta Club), Anderson found bills sitting in Evans desk that were due four years ago – when Evans walked into party headquarters as the newly-elected state chairman.
Really?
The state GOP has been stiffing folks who did work for them for more than four years?!
As Trump might Tweet: Very sad.
To at least get some cash flowing, Anderson will “strongly encourage” the 1,000 3rd U.S. House District delegates to pay $20 a piece to vote in the June 17 special convention to fill resigning Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s seat.
If they all show up and pay, that’s $20,000.
Anderson also suggested the working press pay $25 each to cover the convention at Timpview High School.
I’ll gladly pay.
With at least 15 Republicans on the convention ballot this knockdown, drag-out cage fight could be better than Thunderdome.
We can only hope.
The downside, each candidate gets six minutes to address the delegates – that’s an hour and a half of speeches like: “Please vote for me. I will cut off my finger to kill SB54. I will crawl over broken glass to support Donald Trump. Blah, Blah, Blah.
“Oh, and I love guns. Any guns.”
Maybe after the June 17 convention Anderson can pay the May rent on the HQ lease – which he also found had not been paid when he showed up his first day in office.
I’m told that Count My Vote leaders would like to meet with Anderson to see exactly where he stands on SB54 – whether he will continue the appeal before the 10th Circuit Court, whether he will push GOP legislators to kill the signature route to a party’s primary ballot.
While everyone would like a politically smart, aggressive GOP state chairman, Anderson only won the chairmanship with around 53 percent of the delegate vote – beating Wright after Evans was eliminated in the first round of electronic voting.
That is no mandate – especially with the red meat eating archconservative members of the GOP State Central Committee still pushing the party toward the wacko cliff edge.
You can guess that the “mainstream,” SB54-supporting wing of the Utah GOP (which UPD polling by Dan Jones finds is where most party members are standing) will not be writing Anderson checks until the state GOP stops its anti-SB54 crusade, once and for all.
If the Utah Democratic Party had a bunch of money, was united with a moderate voice of reason, this could be a real opportunity – especially with Trump’s craziness leading into the 2018 mid-term elections.
But the Democrats, who are holding their party leadership election convention on June 17, are looking to get Bernie Sanders-progressives elected.
The broke, disorganized Utah Republican Party can be thankful for that.
And while the new Utah United Party – looking to fill the “mainstream” hole in the political middle – sees an opening, third parties have never done well in Utah.
How long does Anderson – who is also trying to hold down his airline pilot’s job – have to get the Utah GOP power train back on the tracks and moving?
Will archconservatives in the Central Committee try to undercut him?
Will the GOP 3rd District convention take my personal check, or will I have to pay cash?
Enquiring minds want to know.
Stay tuned.
