Want popularity? Be a GOP delegate

Webb: If you want to be a really popular person next year, become one of the 3,500 delegates to the state Republican convention. You'll get more personal visits, letters, brochures, position papers, videos, newsletters, phone calls and e-mail messages than you can possibly imagine. From important people, no less.

You'll get invited to innumerable breakfasts, lunches, picnics, ice cream socials, roundtables and any other events candidates can come up with to get together with you.

Democratic delegates will also be popular, but not nearly as popular as the Republicans.

Among those who will be chasing you will be such luminaries as Jim Hansen, Jon Huntsman Jr., Nolan Karras, Marty Stephens, Fred Lampropoulous and Gary Herbert. If you're in the 2nd Congressional District you'll also be wined and dined by John Swallow, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Dunn. Various other candidates may also seek your support.

You will be able to call any of these people at almost any time and get them on the phone. Ask how they feel about any minor issue and they'll respond.

Besides all the attention from candidates, the banks and credit unions will be fighting over you, along with the Realtors, local government leaders, the Utah Education Association and right wing of the Republican Party. All these groups will be seeking delegates to support their favored candidates at the convention.

For the GOP gubernatorial candidates in this wide-open race, the Utah campaign process is nothing short of brutal. Between now and election day in the fall of 2004, they have to essentially run five very different campaigns, each of which require specific strategies and skills.

Between now and early next spring, when the party neighborhood caucuses will be held, the candidates and interest groups that want to influence the election must travel up and down the state, recruiting and visiting opinion leaders, current delegates, party activists and grass-roots supporters. They must work as hard as they possibly can to organize neighborhood caucus precincts, getting supporters to attend the caucus meetings so they can get themselves or like-minded persons elected as delegates. With so many interest groups and candidates attempting to organize at the grass-roots level, it is likely that interesting coalitions will arise.

After the neighborhood caucuses, attention will immediately turn to the 3,500 newly elected delegates. Candidates will again travel the state, meeting with as many delegates as possible, one-on-one, eye-to-eye, trying to win their support.

The state convention itself is an enormous project, requiring the expertise of a skilled events planner who knows how to create a terrific booth and put on a great show.

The two GOP candidates who emerge from the convention then will face off in a primary election, where they will attempt to appeal more broadly to Republican voters.

The primary election winner, exhausted and possibly short of money, then will square off against the Democratic nominee, presumably Scott Matheson Jr. The focus will then be on all voters.

It is a grueling marathon, requiring enormous amounts of stamina and money. It makes me exhausted just to think of it. The eventual winner will certainly deserve the hard-fought victory.

By the way, Ted, when do I get my dinner at La Caille?

Wilson: LaVarr, I didn't know La Caille served burgers. But enough of that. It took a president intervening into Utah affairs to get you a free meal. Now, I am an expert on free meals. Remember, I was mayor of Salt Lake City before elected officials turned down such treats. (Thank goodness!)

LaVarr is certainly right about the excitement of being a delegate to one of the state's major conventions. The Republican Party has more exciting conventions because political opportunity is much more limited in a majority party. Therefore, when an open race occurs, more Republican candidates will be chasing the electoral rainbow. And that is a weakness for a party. In scratching for the nomination at a convention and in a likely primary election, Republicans can be counted on to cut each other up while a prominent Democrat like Scott Matheson Jr. can sit back, harbor resources, and then emerge without a lot of dings in his armor for the final election.

But then the Democrat faces the daunting task of running in a state where the clear majority of voters are Republican or Republican- leaning independents. However, for the first time in a long time, I feel I am doing more than just wishful thinking when I suggest that Scott Matheson Jr. is going to be amazingly competitive against any Republican surviving the Republican grist mill.

And why are the pundits leaving one of the state's great women, Lt. Gov. and soon to be Gov. Olene Walker out of the chase? We know this woman and everyone agrees she is excellent. No one could have handled the ego-disturbing job of lieutenant governor better.

So, here's another bet for LaVarr. I predict that Olene Walker will become governor sometime after the first of November after the Democrats in the U.S. Senate have gone after President Bush via EPA nominee Michael Leavitt. Leavitt will be confirmed and Olene Walker will have a very successful run as governor and will be feeling her oats in time to file for governor in her own right next year.

Some say she's too old. But no one says Orrin Hatch is too old for another term. Why are women always disqualified for reasons a man isn't? So, good friend LaVarr, if Olene Walker doesn't file for governor next year, I will personally take you and your lovely wife to La Caille for the meal of your life. Let tens of thousands of Deseret Morning News readers be witness.

In the meantime, when are you ready to run over to McDonald's for a quick lunch, I'll buy you a Happy Meal.

Democrat Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake mayor, directs the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and is a political consultant. E-mail: tednews@hotmail.com. Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lavarrwebb@msn.com

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