2010 Utah GOP Nominating Convention Report

State Delegate Ben Borchet was unable to attend this year’s Nominating Convention and asked that as an Elected Alternate if I would serve in his place.

Parking lot

I arrived with a friend at one of the parking facilities the Convention had provided for us. The attendant asked me what event we were parking for. I replied “the Convention”. “Which one”, he asked. “The Utah Republican Party Nominating Convention,” I replied.

He looked down at me and saw my copy of the U.S. Constitution in my shirt pocket and said “Ah! I should have known! You’ve got a Constitution with you, you’re not a Democrat!”, then let us in.

I don’t know this man, nor his political affiliation, but it’s somewhat telling when people associate the Constitution with the GOP and not with the Democrats. Interesting.

Credentials

After some initial adventures straightening out

I voted for Mike Lee in all three rounds of balloting for Senator (though Tim Bridgewater is an awesome candidate). We’ll need to dig deeper into Lee’s ties to Energy Solutions to see if we can recommend him in the primary. Lee and Bridgewater move on to the primary; Bennett was fired.

I voted against Herbert because of his insistence on forcing Diebold voting machines upon us, and refusing to comment on why we bought them from states that had deemed them “illegal” because of their security issues. Not that my vote mattered, he got 60%+ in the first round of balloting and will move on to the final election (skipping a primary). My old boss SuperDell Schanze didn’t even show up — he got 13 votes (mine was not one of them).

Bishop was the only “real” candidate for Congressman; his sole opposition was more of a “I don’t like Bishop, you should vote for the Democrat that runs against him” kind of guy. I voted for Bishop, who got 60%+ and will move on to the final election without a primary.

There were some platform, constitution, and resolution items that we considered. If you’d like, I can report on those when I have my notes in front of me.