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Show County Republican Convention Well Attended Apr. 4 In Escalante ESCALANTE - Red, white and blue banners and placards with larger-than-life portraits of candidates covered the Escalante Community Center lawn last Thursday as the Garfield . County Republican Party opened its nominating convention. Twenty-seven candidates for federal, state and county elective elec-tive offices converged on the historic site with posters, stick--ers and displays. Every imaginable imagi-nable gimmick from T-shirts to an old fashioned train whistle was used to attract attention to each candidate's name. The County Convention opened with the hopefuls for Utah's Second Congressional District seat presenting their' cases to the Teen Age Republicans. The 12 repeated their credentials creden-tials to the state delegates of Garfield after Chairman Bill Cox opened the main convention. conven-tion. The candidates who seemed to know the most about Southern Utah arrived early and were waiting to greet everyone at the door. Almost half the prospective representatives dashed in late, explaining that they had no idea that it was so far to Escalante. It will be decided at the State GOP Convention next month whose name will appear on the primary ballot for federal and state offices. State delegates from Garfield County who will travel north to the state convention include: Nile (Rick) Sawyer, (Hatch); Wally Dodds, Tom Hatch, and Earl Roe, (Panguitch); Lowell Mecham, (Tropic); Les Barker, (Henrieville); Kowan Ott, (Caimonville); Lenza Wilson, I and Stephen Steed, (Escalante); and Elaine Roundy and Bill Cox, (Boulder). One hundred percent of the county voting delegates turned out to select two primary candidates candi-dates for each of the county offices. Chairman Cox explained to the assembly that the Garfield Bylaws were adopted two years ago when the Utah State Republicans went to a "60 percent per-cent rule". Local Republicans determined that the state standard stan-dard allowed just over one-half of the convention delegates to assure a candidate of an election win in Republican dominated areas. In Garfield it would mean that less than 19 delegates could decide who would serve in a county office the next four years. The newly adopted Garfield County bylaws state, "... If three or more candidates run for a single sin-gle office the candidate with the least votes shall be eliminated and balloting will continue until two candidates remain. These two shall be declared the party's nominees to run in the Primary Election." The intention was to give the voters the chance to make the final choice. As the lengthy meeting drew to a close, Garfield County Commissioner Maloy Dodds made a motion asking for the formation of a new bylaws committee com-mittee to study the reinstitution of the "70 percent rule", for all candidates, or bringing the local bylaws into line with the State Party's 60 percent selection. The commissioner also requested that the committee change the manner of selecting state delegates. He said he would like to see the delegates selected at the county convention. conven-tion. Currently the Precinct Chairman of each community serves as the state delegate. If the Chair does not wish to serve then the voters at each caucus may select another neighbor to represent them. Dodd's motion carried, and Cox directed that a bylaws committee com-mittee be formed to evaluate the motion immediately following the upcoming election. He also asked each precinct chairman to . appoint a committee member to serve from every community. The group will present their recommendations rec-ommendations at the next County Convention. Anyone wishing more information may contact their precinct chairman or call any GOP officer. Thirty dedicated county delegates dele-gates waited through the convention con-vention to cast their votes, only to discover that one candidate for assessor was not present. He therefore was not nominated. The county delegates and their precincts are: William Doughty and Carolyn Doughty (Hatch); Wally Dodds, Tom Hatch, Judy P. Henrie, Maloy Dodds, Danny Perkins, Ted Chidester, and Tom Simkins (Panguitch 1); Earl Roe, Camille Moore, Clark Howard, Jon Torgerson, Than Cooper, and Elaine Baldwin (Panguitch 2); Martin Ramsay, Greg Pollock, Clare Ramsay, Wes Clarke, and Stan Mecham (Tropic); Shirley Barker (Henrieville); Joe Thompson (Cannonville); Lenza Wilson, Stephen Steed, Patty Murphy, Pauline Lott, Marjie Spencer, and Richard Crawford; Jeanne Harshman (Boulder); and Tim Westwood (Antimony). |