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Show Utah's Primaries By ALICE EAST Many things took place in the 1968 state legislature. One of major importance was the move to promote party responsibility the closed primary law. The closed primary makes it necessary to decide party preference and register as either a Democrat or a Rpublican. Its main objective is to eliminate the favorite position of the Utah voters, the Independent, .and make the primary election a nominating tool. We ,in Utah, love our "Independent" voter status with true fidelity. To openly admit that you are either Republican or Democrat is to apparently ap-parently show that you are insecure and feel it necessary to use a political party as a "significant" group in your life. Or so it seems. Consider This Actually, the reasons for wanting a closed primary are simple. Take a hypothetical situation that could occur in the 1968 election. Suppose that Governor Rampton seeks reelection and that Phil Hansen also decides to run for the Governor's chair. Due to some miracle, Phil Hansen is not defeated in the convention and they go into a primary contest. Enter the Republicans. They want a victory in 1968. Their candidates for Governor are (again hypothetically) Hughes Brockbank and Franklin Gunnell. Rather than decide on a nominee for their party, they vote Democratic in the primary for Phil Hansen. The Democrats knew how to play the game, too, so they raid the Republicans and vote for Franklin Gunnell. The results are that Phil Hansen defeats Cal Rampton and Franklin Gunnell defeats Hughes Brockbank. The logic behind the raiding was simple. For the Republicans crossing cross-ing party lines to vote Democratic meant they wou'd face a weaker candidate in the election. Where it may have been difficult for them to defeat the incumbent, Cal Rampton, the road is easier opposing Phil Hansen. The Democrats also, felt that Rampton could take care of himself him-self in the primary and wanted the weaker of the two Republicans to oppose him in the election. The result is that the Republicans chose the Democratic candidate and vice-versa. End of hypothetical situation. Why Change? What's so wrong with that? The answer is simple. The primary election is part of the nomination process. The nominating convention narrows the choice of candidates to two for each office and then the party memebership in general makes the final nomination for that party. The Republicans have no right to decide who the Democratic nominee will be anymore than the Democrats have a right to decide who the Republican candidate will be. Primaries are a nominating tool, not a general popularity popu-larity poll for the electorate en masse. As many things were done in the 1965 legislature, many things were undone in the 1967 legislature. The closed primary was one of them. The move towards party responsibility became a move away from it and towards party irresponsibility. So, in the 1968 election, the voter can preserve his secret identity with the party of his choice, shout his independence, inde-pendence, and vote either Democratic or Republican in the primary as the whim strikes. Unfortunately, for the time being, the primary election in Utah will either be a strategy weapon or a popularity poll rather than the nominating tool it was designed to be. |