Some interesting names are popping up on the list of Salt Lake County Republicans who want to be on the Utah Republican Party’s State Central Committee – and thus lead the healing of the internal strife over SB54.
You’ll recognize some of the big-names running for the Central Committee from the state’s largest county Republican Party: Like former House Speaker Greg Hughes, former state party chair Stan Lockhart, former state party chair James Evans, current state Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, and state Sen. Kurt Cullimore, R-Draper.
Sixty-two folks are running for the state Central Committee slots at the April 13 county convention at Cottonwood High School.
As of last weekend, of the 29 slots that Salt Lake County holds in at-large Central Committee members, 19 current members are running for re-election.
Ten current members have not signed up to run in Saturday’s county GOP convention.
That means at least a third of the county’s state Central Committee delegation will be new. And if convention delegates don’t re-elect current members, there could be even more new faces on the Central Committee from the county.
As you may well know, the so-called “Gang of 51” (and their supporters) in the 187-member Utah Republican Central Committee have basically bankrupted the state party over lawsuits (all failed) against the 2014 compromise law (SB54) that allows a party candidate to gather signatures to get on the party’s primary ballot, or go the traditional delegate/convention route, or take both routes at the same time.
The Gang of 51 hates the signature route; they want only the old delegate/convention route.
Now GOP Gov. Gary Herbert and Republican leaders in the state House and Senate, among others, are seeking new SCC members who will try to heal the SB54 rift, bring back traditional big-money party donors and otherwise refocus the party on electing good Republicans to office.
UtahPolicy.com has obtained a list of the Gang of 51, plus a few that some GOP leaders believe are sympathizers to the original gang. (The name Gang of 51 comes from a letter signed by 51 Central Committee members calling for a special meeting where much of the mischief over SB54 began in 2017.)
Using that list, UtahPolicy.com has determined there are five current members of the Central Committee from Salt Lake County who are Gang of 51 followers/activists – a clear minority among the 62 people who have signed up to run Saturday for those 29 Central Committee slots in the county.
Republicans in Salt Lake County were especially hard hit in the 2018 elections – losing nearly all of the county government posts (outside of the council), two Utah House seats, one Senate seat, and of course, the 4th Congressional District with Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams upset of incumbent GOP Rep. Mia Love.
Besides the big names listed above who want to be on the relatively-unknown and undistinguishable Central Committee, there are some folks associated with those big names that want into the Central Committee (and are well known to GOP power insiders):
- Greg Hartley, chief of staff to Hughes and now to House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville.
- Sam Klemm, former staffer to former U.S. Rep. Howard Nielson, and current policy advisor to Richard Snelgrove, who is a Salt Lake County councilman, former state and county party chair, and currently is running for re-election to the Central Committee.
- Former state Rep. Rich Cunningham.
- Matt Lusty, director of communications, Utah House of Representatives, campaign manager to various GOP candidates.
- Joe Demma, 2010 campaign manager for Herbert’s re-election, 2012 county council candidate.
- Cindie Quintana, former director of communications, Utah State Republican Party.
- David Young, who ran unsuccessfully for a Midvale House seat last year.
- Fred Johnson who lost a West Valley City House seat last year.
- Chase Everton, former state party political director.
- Michael Jolley, who works for U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
In addition, there are at least five Utah GOP legislators who are running for re-election to the Central Committee.
Now, not all of these folks listed above may be opponents of the party’s lawsuits over SB54 – they may not be opponents of the Gang of 51, State Central Committee members who have tried to run roughshod (and sometimes succeeded) over the committee.
The above may simply want to do what Herbert and others want – stop the internal Central Committee bitter fights over SB54.
For example, Hughes – one of the more well-known House speakers before he retired in December, and who may run for governor next year, voted in favor of SB54 back in 2014. But in the 2017 state GOP convention, then-chair Evans gave Hughes a special award for his support of the caucus/delegate/convention system.
But it is clear from the large list of Salt Lake County Republicans who want on the state party’s Central Committee that at least there is renewed interest in who will be running the state party over the next two years.
