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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, May 27-30, 2017 The Park Record A-18 GOP chair to drop lawsuit The new chair says the suit is a financial burden POWER TOMORROW. SAVE TODAY. LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — The newly elected chair of the Utah GOP has vowed to move past a contentious lawsuit that’s left the party deep in debt — a step in a moderate direction that he said Tuesday could heal divisions in the party. Rob Anderson said he’s been contacted by people interested in donating to the party again, three days after party delegates ousted the chair who oversaw the dogged pursuit of the case that helped put the state GOP some $400,000 in debt. “I saw the party was going down a path of reduced significance or influence, and a lot of that was based on some financial worries,” Anderson said. Ending the lawsuit that challenged a law changing how candidates are nominated could open the way for more moderate candidates to get onto the ballot, said Jeremy Pope, co-director for the Center of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University “The ability to go to primaries is going to change politics in Utah to some degree,” Pope said. Still, if Anderson’s election is a step toward the political middle, it’s a small one, said Utah State University political scientist Damon Cann. The vote likely signals a pragmatic willingness to cut legal losses and stop the financial hemorrhaging, Cann said. The lawsuit marked a challenge to a 2014 law that allowed political hopefuls to bypass the party’s caucus and convention system and get on the ballot by gathering signatures instead. Critics say the caucus and convention system favors more conservative, extreme candidates who cater to the small subset of voters who attend conventions. But party leaders countered that the more intimate caucus setting allows candidates to be more closely vetted and gives those without deep pockets a fairer shot at competing with well-funded or wealthy candidates. In the lawsuit, the party argued that the law unconstitutionally dictated to the GOP how they should pick their candidates. A federal judge ruled against the party, but it took the case to a federal appeals court in Denver. Republican delegates now appear to be weary of the ongoing legal battle that’s pitted the party against itself in addition to racking up legal bills. “Two years ago, I think, had I given that message I might have been booed offstage,” Anderson said. “There’s been a change of heart.” While Anderson said he’s not necessarily a fan of the law, he said it’s time to change tactics. The party could push the Legislature to change it or simply focus on keeping the caucus system strong by bringing in new voters. He’s also ready to focus on other things, like ensuring the party isn’t losing ground. Utah has long been overwhelmingly Republican, but Anderson pointed to the surge of interest in last year’s presidential bid of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as an example of Democrats making inroads. “I think we could be so much stronger,” he said. “You can’t sit on your laurels.” are no longer on the books. Weber County Attorney Chris Allred has said the injunction helped police combat graffiti and gang crime. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, though, says the injunction went too far and their lawsuit is still relevant because Allred has said he wants to bring it back. “This case represents an important test of how much power cities and counties have to restrict people’s individual liberties, and whether they will be held accountable when they go too far,” ACLU lawyers wrote in court documents. Under the injunction issued in 2010, police created a list of Ogden Trece members using their database of evidence. Prosecutors wrote the rules that made it illegal for those people to meet in public and carry guns or graffiti tools. The measure approved by a judge also set an 11 p.m. curfew that applied to a 25-square-mile area that encompassed most of the city. About 50 people were convicted of violating it before it was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court in 2013. The justices ruled on a technicality rather than weighing in on whether the police powers were constitutional. Gang injunctions are also used in California and elsewhere, but Ogden’s was unusual because it covered an entire city. The suit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of Leland McCubbin and Daniel Lucero. McCubbin says he was convicted of a misdemeanor for violating the injunction even though he left the gang two years before it was issued. Lucero says he was never in the gang, but police were convinced he was a member and he was convicted of violating the rules. Gang injunction challenged Discovering solar power is like taking work off to go skiing, you’ll be glad you did it. Save up to 40% on your electrical bill and make a positive impact on the environment. SCHEDULE YOUR FREE SOLAR CONSULTATION TODAY. 435.731.8424 | ONTOPSE.COM Two men say they were falsely eyed as gang members LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — Utah prosecutors will ask a judge on Wednesday to toss a lawsuit from two men who claim they were falsely labeled as gang members under a now-defunct injunction that they say violated their rights by making it a crime for members of a gang to be seen together in public. Prosecutors say the case should be dismissed because the rules aimed at the Ogden Trece gang SAY GOODBYE TO JOINT PAIN... PERMANENTLY! 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