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Show Republicans Defend Arms Rights At State Convention Twelve Garfield County Republican Repub-lican state delegates attended the party's state convention in Salt Lake City June 5 where 1,200 Republicans resoundingly passed two resolutions giving strong mandates to the state's Republican leaders. Also attending were two TARS (Teenage Republicans) from Garfield County. The party's faithful made it clear to the state's Representatives and Senators in Washington D.C that they will not tolerate compromise on defense of the Second Amendment Amend-ment and urged them to take whatever steps are necessary to fully protect individuals' rights to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the amendment. Gov. Leavitt was specifically instructed not to call a special session of the Utah legislature this year for the purpose of enacting laws that might infringe on the right of self defense, thus avoiding even the possibility of discussion of the matter. In a unanimous gesture, the group of Republicans singled out Rep. Chris Cannon for "his endless hours of hard work, his courage, and his defense of the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and sound moral principles." The convention also re-elected Rob Bishop as party chairman. A significant change in party rules reduced the percentage required for victory at the state nominating convention. Any candidate who receives 60 percent or more of the votes cast at any point in the balloting process at the state nominating convention becomes the party's candidate without the need to run in a primary election. The percentage was reduced from 70 percent. Attending the Salt lake City convention from Garfield County were delegates Bill Cox, county chairman and his wife Ada, county secretary; Maloy Dodds, Clare Ramsay, Earl and Evalyn Roe, Lee and Julianne Mullenaux, Jim and Erma Clarke and Jim and Neucille Yardley. TARS Vice Chair Marshall Thompson and TARS State Delegate Dele-gate Lace Walker, both Cannon-ville, Cannon-ville, and Bill and Ada Cox were guests at the home of Lt. Gov. Olene Walker the night before the convention where political issues of southern Utah were discussed. The TARS officers greeted delegates dele-gates to the conventions and distributed distri-buted credentials. Marshall Thompson Thomp-son also served as a page and was in charge of electronically sorting the ballots before they were counted. The Garfield County youth attended the TARS conventions in the afternoon where Lace Walker was recognized as the youngest attending official delegate in the state. |