The State of Utah has recently seen two popular incumbents dumped at their party conventions without the public having a vote. Governor Walker was wise, experienced, and beloved. Senator Bennett was a ranking Senator who was respected and effective.
Utah's unique caucus system tends to attract few people, with strong political opinions. Delegates are elected at neighborhood caucuses (meetings), who then go to the party conventions which choose who goes on the ballot which the public gets to vote on. This system is easily manipulated by a few people, usually the top of the party. Although the Republicans saw that control swept up by a surprise Tea Party invasion in 2010.
For example, about 50 delegates from the neighborhood caucuses choose a candidate for the House of Representatives of Utah. Not all the delegates are ever simply citizens better informed and more dedicated than the average voter. Many of the delegates are party officers or incumbents or former office holders appointed to be delegates by the party leaders and not even elected by the caucuses. Incumbents at the top of the parties have already been phoning former delegates to determine who they will support in 2012
and accordingly encourage them to turn out again for the caucuses next spring--or not. And for the few weeks between being elected a delegate at a caucus and the vote in conventions, the delegates are wined and dined and lobbied by the politicians!
This is not the place to support individual candidates or pursue the possibilities for cronyism or corruption in the existing system. This is about reforming the system to give the voters more choices, more say. Particularly in Utah with its veto proof super Republican majority in the legislature and another strong Democratic voting block in Salt Lake City, most elections are over when the caucus delegates at the party convention chooses its candidate. But that candidate may not be in step with the people.
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