ShareReport: Politicians may cater to caucus delegates
The Associated PressUtah's unique caucus system could push candidates and elected officials to cater policies to a small group of delegates instead of the general populous, a research group suggests in a new report.
The Utah Foundation also said in their study it would be interesting to see the impact on voter turn-out if there were more primary elections, the Deseret News reported.
The non-profit, non-partisan group is not making any recommendations about changing the system, but instead wants to generate discussion about the way candidates are chosen in Utah.
Only six other states use a convention system for choosing candidates, including Connecticut, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota and Virginia. But those states either allow candidates to petition for a primary if they lose in convention or don't include statewide and federal races in the conventions.
Under Utah's convention system, a candidate avoids a primary if they receive 60 percent of the delegate votes. If nobody receives 60 percent, only the top two candidates participate in a primary.
There are 3,500 Republican delegates and 2,500 Democratic delegates for statewide races and only a few hundred for congressional and legislative races.
"We really are the only state in the country with a system that gives as much power to the delegates as Utah does," foundation president Steve Kroes said.
Utah's caucus system led to the defeat of former Sen. Robert Bennett, who finished third at the 2010 Republican state convention. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, won the subsequent primary against Tim Bridgewater and easily won the general election.
In conjunction with the study, the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah will host a debate in December between the chairmen of the state's major parties.
While the caucus system has received a lot of attention in recent years, Kroes said he doesn't expect changes by next year's elections.
"If anybody picks up the challenge of trying to reform this system, nobody expects it would be done so quickly it would change the system for 2012," he said.
State Republican Chairman Thomas Wright said the current system works fine because it rewards those who participate in the political process.
"The problem we have in Utah is not the caucus-convention system. The problem is low participation," Wright said. "Let's spend all this time and energy educating people about the system and encouraging them to participate."
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Online: http://www.utahfoundation.org/reports/?p793
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com