If Utah Republican Party leaders decide that they, not voters, decide who can and who cannot be a Republican, the leaders will be going against the wishes of 90 percent of their own rank-and-file party members, a new UtahPolicy.com poll shows.
Some hard-core archconservative members of the party’s State Central Committee have discussed such a rule change, but so far no vote has been taken on the matter.
Currently, when a citizen registers to vote, he or she can decide on their own which political party in Utah they wish to belong to.
And voters can change party membership at will, under certain conditions set by state law.
For years the state GOP has had a rule that says only official party members can vote in party caucuses and in the closed Republican Party primaries.
Rightwing party leaders have talked about kicking out of the state GOP candidates who take the SB54-allowed signature-gathering route to the party’s primary ballot.
And the only “win” the anti-SB54 crowd has seen in their various court battles was an opinion by a federal court judge that, in fact, the party has the authority to decide its own membership requirements.
That leads to the possibility that party leaders could, in fact, kick out an SB54 signature-gathering candidate or any other party member who does not abide by party rules – including some kind of “purity test” by party leaders requiring adherence to the platform, or other loyalty tests.
Jones finds:
Of those who self-identified to the pollster that they are members of the Utah GOP, 90 percent “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose giving party leaders the authority to decide who can or cannot belong to the party.
Seventy-two percent “strongly” oppose giving party leaders sole power over membership.
Only 7 percent want party leaders, not voters, to decide who can be in the party.
And 5 percent don’t know.
While Jones also finds that among all voters:
90 percent oppose the GOP having the power of party membership.
6 percent favor it.
And 5 percent don’t know.
While the question of who can or can’t be a Republican in Utah would rest with state delegates or State Central Committee members (who have the power to change party rules), the issue could well affect Democrats or political independents, too.
Either group not in the GOP could be kept out – denied the chance to join the party – if Republican leaders so decided.
For example, a registered Democrat could have to wait some time frame to become a Republican, as could an “unaffiliated” voter.
Jones finds that Democrats are against giving GOP leaders that power, 84-4 percent.
While independents – who now can register as a Republican on primary Election Day and get a GOP ballot – also oppose giving Republican Party leaders that power, 88-6 percent.
Already, in several county GOP organizations – like Davis and Weber counties – GOP bosses have decided that an SB54 signature-gathering candidate will face tougher delegate convention nomination thresholds than do convention-only candidates.
In the case of former state party vice-chairman Phill Wright, in his state House District 19 challenge to Rep. Ray Ward, Wright only had to get 30 percent of the Davis County GOP delegate vote to get into a primary, instead of the normal 40 percent.
Even though Wright, the closet leader of the State Central Committee’s anti-SB54 group, got into the primary with just over 30 percent of the delegate vote, the signature-gathering Ward (who also got 69 percent of the delegate vote) crushed Wright in the June primary by two-to-one, eliminating Wright and winning the GOP nomination.
In Weber County, two convention-only candidates were officially endorsed by party leaders, even though they finished second to signature-gathering candidates in the county convention.
Those two endorsed candidates also lost in the Republican Party primary.
So, one can see where some party leaders are headed: Action taken against SB54 signature-gathering candidates.
Could the next step be kicking out of the party a candidate or rank-and-file voter who doesn’t follow the internal rules of the party or doesn’t approve of the party’s platform planks?
If so, such action would be against the desires of 90 percent of rank-and-file Utah Republican Party members.
Jones polled 615 voters statewide from May 15-25. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
