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Utah County Republican Convention Report
 Credentialing candidates (click to enlarge) |
I spent Saturday morning at the Utah County Republican Convention (photos) at Payson High School. The whole thing starts pretty early. At 7:30 there was a Central Committee meeting that was short and to the point: adopt the rules for the convention. That meeting was followed by Senate District and then Legislative District caucus meetings. There was no real business for in my Senate District meeting (District 14), so Senator Valentine answered questions.
In Legislative District 58, there were two candidates, Jim Ferrin the incumbent and Steve Sandstrom. I’m a big fan of Jim, but we will be having a primary. Jim only got 49% of the vote and Steve got 51%. I was disappointed with that vote. Steve’s a good man, but I’m uncomfortable with his position on school choice and his position on community broadband (he voted against it on the Orem City Council).
The convention proper was called to order by Raylene Ireland at 10am. We were treated to tunes from a Payson High School pipeband. Utah County is the reddest county in the reddest state in the nation, so the county convention is ground zero for conservative activism. 96% of county delegates were in attendance. There were introductions, delegate certifications, and other business that took more than 30 minutes.
If you haven’t been to convention, you have to realize that nominations are more involved than when we elected a class presidents in school. The nominator and the second make little speeches. Then the nominated person accepts with a little speech. They limit the whole thing to three minutes and are quite strict. There were 13 candidates for county wide office, so the nominations took some time.
The speeches are mostly cheerleading, but do give a feel for the candidates. Candidate speeches at convention can make a difference in the outcome.
 Stan Lockhart helps Shirrel Young (click to enlarge) |
Shirrel D. Young was one of the more interesting speeches. He’s almost 90—would be by the time he took office—and gave an informal speech offering himself as a candidate. He talked about his grandchildren, transportation, and eldercare. I enjoyed it.
 Jeff Buhmann (click to enlarge) |
While we were waiting for the balloting, we heard from Federal office candidates. Brian Jenkins was the only Hatch challenger that came to speak. He’s young and it took a while for him to warm up, but once he did. He gave a good, conservative speech that garnered applause from the audience. He said “It’s not entirely Senator Hatch’s fault that government has gotten so large..” and got a good laugh. Orrin made sure he mentioned that he’d been riding on Air Force One with the President. He also mentioned that he’ll be chairman of the Senate Finance committee if he’s re-elected. Clearly playing the incumbent card—not that I can blame him.
At this point, the results of the first balloting were received:
- Commission Seat A went to a second ballot.
- Commission Seat B went to Steve White with 62%.
- In the race for County Attorney, Jeff Buhman received 69% totally kicking incumbent Kay Bryson’s butt who only received 12%.
 Chris and Claudia Cannon (click to enlarge) |
In the third congressional race, John Jacobs spoke first. He said “I’m running because we need more business people and fewer lawyers and career politicians in Congress.” Chris Cannon was in the background applauding enthusiastically—clearly he considers himself a businessman first.” John said the usual things about “promising to make a difference.” Those are easy promises to make when you’re not the incumbent. I think Jacob’s is a good man and I certainly don’t think the world would end if he won, but I don’t think he’s saying much to help me understand why he’d to a better job than Chris is doing. Do I agree with everything Cannon does? No. But I think he’s working hard and that he’s honest about the reality of the problems we face. Too many other’s go for the good sound bite instead of talking about the issues.
Event: There will be a debate between the Third District Congressional candidates on May 6 @ 7pm at the Noni Building in Riverpark Drive in Provo.
More results:
- In Treasurer race: Robert Kirk got 71.5%
- The Clerk position went to primary. I support Bryan Thompson in this race.
- Commission Seat A went to a primary. I support Jerry Grover in this race.
Posted by windley on April 29, 2006 03:18 PM
Comments
Wasn't there some controversy involving Bryson?
Ferrin coming to a primary is indeed a surprise, though he has become somewhat of a special-interest group candidate with some liberal positions on some issues like education.
Posted by: MadisonBrown at May 1, 2006 06:22 PM