Many races unwinnable for Utah Democrats

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 21, 2008 | by Bob Bernick Jr. Deseret Morning News

If the success of a political party were measured by how many candidates it fields in a major election, the Utah Democratic Party is back. As strong as ever.

Unfortunately for Utah Democrats, that is not the measure. Winning is.

Still, kudos to Democratic Party leaders and the dozens of candidates that stepped forward this year.

All federal and statewide races have a Democrat.

All but one of the 15 state Senate races have a Democrat.

Of the 75 state House races this year, all but six have a Democrat.

That's much better than 2006, when 19 House districts did not have a Democratic contender.

Republicans should take pride in the fact that they have candidates in every state Senate and House district. But considering that Utah is one of the most red states in the nation, it has become expected of the majority party to have a full slate of candidates -- considering that most current offices have a Republican incumbent to begin with.

Democratic Party chairman Wayne Holland promised when he took over in 2005 that he would rebuild the minority party. Using funds provided by the Democratic National Committee, he hired several new full-time employees, including people assigned to rebuild local party affiliates and recruit candidates.

The Utah County Democratic Party has really come through, filling candidate slots in most of the legislative races there.

There hasn't been a Democrat elected to the Legislature from Utah County in more than a decade.

And Democrats across the state are showing more enthusiasm this year -- with record turnouts seen in the Feb. 5 presidential primary here.

In fact, there are a lot of Republicans challenging not only incumbent Democrats in legislative races, but challenging their own party incumbents as well.

While state Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, has no Democratic opponent this year, next door neighbor in the Senate, Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, has two Republican opponents and two Democratic opponents. In his last re-election four years ago, Bramble had no GOP opponent and only one Democrat.

Bramble, known as one of the loudest of senators, has had various problems over the years. He had to issue a public apology in 2004 after insulting an environmental organization in a speech before a hazardous waste group and was roundly criticized for the way he chaired a task force. So his personality, as well as his politics, may encourage challengers.

But beyond personal quirks, one reason so many candidates filed for legislative races this year is because of the public's general dissatisfaction with lawmakers -- especially over private school vouchers.

Conservative GOP legislators closed ranks in 2007 and voted out (by one vote in the House) one of the nation's broadest-reaching private school voucher laws. It would have given up to $3,000 per year taxpayer-funded vouchers to parents who send their child to private schools.

Opponents, like the Utah Education Association, the state's largest teacher union, the PTA and the state Democratic Party went to work. They gathered more than enough signatures to put the issue before voters last November. And by a 63 percent majority, Utahns voted the new law down.

Only slightly cowered, GOP legislative leaders promised there would be no voucher bills in the 2008 Legislature, which ended earlier this month. And vouchers were not debated. But they were often the elephant in the room (excuse the GOP pun) in any number of other debates.

And GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., up for re-election himself this year, and Republican legislative caucuses bent over backwards to give teachers and public education a lot of new money this year.

Holland promises that if more Democrats aren't elected to the Legislature this year, private school vouchers will be back time and again -- and could be adopted by a future, conservative-GOP- controlled House and Senate.

Vouchers are now clearly part of a number of 2008 legislative races.

One example: In Washington County, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, is trying to step up to the state Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George. But Urquhart is being challenged by Republican Carmen Snow, who was one of the leaders of Utahns For Public Schools, the PIC that was formed to fight against the voucher law in last November's election. Urquhart was one of the sponsors of the voucher bill.

Senate District 29 takes in most of Washington County, excluding a few towns in the growing county's east side. In the whole county, vouchers failed: 14,519 against, 13,875 for.

That disconnect -- voters asked to support the GOP legislative candidate who voted for vouchers, which his own voters rejected -- will be played out in many legislative races this year.

The debates may become even more interesting this campaign season, as a number of conservative incumbents were not humbled by the voucher rejection by citizens. Indeed, conversations I had with a number of them during the 45-day general session show they believe voters were hoodwinked by the expensive anti-voucher campaign and were just too naive to vote correctly -- which, of course, would have been in favor of vouchers.