Expect the battle over SB54 and Count My Vote to continue as recent Republican Party county leadership elections have not brought a new, more moderate, crop of chairs and state Central Committee members, a review by UtahPolicy shows.
In fact, some of the most vocal anti-SB54 Salt Lake County Central Committee members are back in office.
The state Central Committee – with about 180 elected members – is the body that basically runs the state party, while the 4,000 state delegates make overall policy once a year in their state convention.
You can see here the 47 new Salt Lake County CC Republicans electedSaturday in the county convention.
The county chair and vice chair are automatic CC appointees – giving Salt Lake County by far the largest CC delegation of the 29 county organizations at 49 members out of the 180 – or 27 percent.
Some of the most vehement opponents of SB54, Rep. Fred Cox, R-West Valley; former U.S. Senate candidate Cherilyn Eagar; and party activists Michelle Mumford and Dan Burton, were elected or re-elected to the state CC in the Salt Lake County GOP Convention.
Suzanne Mulet, the current county vice chair, was elected chair.
Mulet is also against SB54 and CMV; she helped organize the Keep Our Caucus Political Issue Committee, formed as an opposition to the Count My Vote citizen initiative petition of 2013-2014.
There was some hope from the more moderate wing of the Utah Republican Party that the county convention elections this spring would bring in a new, more-moderate/flexible group of CC members.
And then instead of the state party top officials, including Chairman James Evans, taking a hard line on SB54, a compromise could be worked out in the 2015 state GOP convention on Aug. 15.
It now appears that won’t be the case – although some action must be taken in the state GOP convention to abide by SB54.
UtahPolicy could not reach Mulet for comment on Monday or Tuesday on her election and what she wants to accomplish for the county party over the next two years.
County Republicans made impressive strides in the 2014 elections, winning three seats from the Democrats in the Utah House.
Mulet gives some of her ideas and background on her following Internet pages: Here is Mulet’s Linkin page; and here is her campaign Facebook information.
