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SB 54 Survey Questions
Dear Fellow Republican,
As you know, the Utah Republican Party has some important
decisions before us relating to the passage of Senate Bill 54
in the 2014 Utah Legislative session. In order to assess the
opinions and wishes of Utah Republicans, I am asking that
you complete this survey in response to SB 54 and the changes
our party will have to make to comply with its
requirements. There has been considerable discussion amongst
Party members over a number of proposed ideas related
to party membership, candidate support, etc. Some of these ideas
have made headlines; others have not been so widely
disseminated. For this survey, we have not eliminated any of
these ideas because as a Party, we're committed to public
debate on all ideas and through that process we end up with good
solutions, even if the process is sometimes a little
messy.
Please complete this survey and return it to the Party in the
self-addressed stamped envelope as quickly as possible. We
are compiling this information for our May 30th State Central
Committee meeting. Thank you in advance for your
responses and support of the Utah Republican Party.
Sincerely,
James M. Evans
Chairman
Utah Republican Party
Choosing a Path (Question 1)
SB 54 mandates that candidates be selected in a primary contest
in order to appear on the general election ballot. It
allows political parties to choose one of two ways to have their
candidates appear on the ballot:
Qualified Political Party Route (QPP) This route allows a member
of the Republican Party to run for partisan public
office either through the caucus/convention system, or by
gathering signatures of Republican and unaffiliated voters in
that district, or they can choose to utilize both options. If
the candidate is successful in either effort they will appear on
the
primary ballot. The QPP route mandates at the very least that we
open our primary to unaffiliated voters, although voters
registered in other political parties may be barred from voting
in the UTGOP primary.
Registered Political Party Route (RPP) This route allows a
member of the Republican Party to run for partisan public
office only through a direct primary by gathering the required
number of signatures. The RPP route allows the Party to
have a closed primary.
1.) Which path should the Utah Republican Party choose?
A.) Qualified Political Party (QPP)
B.) Registered Political Party (RPP)
C.) Not sure
(over please)
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Legal Challenge (Question 2)
SB 54 was a compromise reached by the Utah legislature and Count
My Vote. The Utah Republican Party was not a party
to the compromise, and we filed a legal challenge in federal
court on the grounds that SB 54 violated our constitutional
rights. The Utah Republican Party's position has always been
that we are a private organization and the state does not
have the constitutional authority to reach in and mandate the
specifics of how we select our nominees for various elected
offices who represent our political platform on the general
election ballot. With this in mind, the prudent approach is to
obtain constitutional clarity and legal certainty on this
matter. Under the current schedule, the court is not expected
to
decide the ultimate questions in the case itself until January
2016. The judge denied the Party's motion for a preliminary
injunction, in part, because we had not yet selected one of the
paths (QPP or RPP). If the Party chooses the QPP route, it
will then ask the court to impose a stay on the provision of SB
54 that mandates an open primary.
Should the Utah Republican Party continue its legal challenge
against SB 54?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
Party Membership (Questions 3 - 5)
Under SB54, candidates are not prohibited from serving as
officers in other political parties. We can remedy this by
changing our Party membership requirements so that candidates
may not hold office in another political party.
3.) Should a Republican candidate be prohibited from being a
member or an officer in another registered political party?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
For many years, the Utah Republican Party has required
candidates to sign a platform disclosure statement indicating
whether they support the Party platform. The platform is a
document that lists the Party's beliefs and principles
including
limited government, free markets and family values. To view the
Utah Republican Party platform, please visit:
www.utgop.org/about.asp#five
Candidates may also identify any part of the platform with which
they disagree, and suggest changes. Under SB 54, there
is no requirement for candidates who gather signatures to sign a
platform disclosure statement. We can address this by
requiring candidates to sign a disclosure statement as a
condition of UTGOP membership.
4.) Should all Republican candidates, regardless of whether they
go through the caucus convention system or collect
signatures, be required to sign a platform disclosure
statement?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
At least one county party organization currently requires
candidates who plan to run as a Republican to meet with the
county Party in order to be qualified to run as a
Republican.
5.) Should Republican candidates be required to meet with the
Republican Party in order to officially run as a Republican?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
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If you answered yes, please identify in the comments section
below what should be discussed in that meeting
and who should conduct it.
Candidate Support (Questions 6 - 11)
In this section, we are asking you to help us determine whether
we should offer resources only to candidates who go
through the caucus convention system, or if we should also offer
resources to candidates who gather signatures through
the petition route. In addition, we are seeking your feedback as
to whether the Party should endorse candidates in primary
races or remain neutral.
6.) Should the candidates who only go through the caucus
convention process have access to the Partys resources?
These resources include the Partys e-mail list, its discounted
postage rate, data tools and Party volunteers.
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
7.) Should candidates who go through the caucus convention
system and gather signatures through the petition route
have access to the party's resources? These resources include
the Partys e-mail list, its discounted postage rate, data
tools and Party volunteers.
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
8.) Should candidates who only gather signatures through the
petition route have access to the party's resources? These
resources include the Partys e-mail list, its discounted postage
rate, data tools and Party volunteers.
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
9.) Should the Party endorse candidates during the primary?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
If you answered "yes" to the previous question, please answer
questions 10 - 11. If you answered "no" to the
previous question, please skip to question 12.
10.) If the Republican Party chooses to endorse candidates in
the primary, who should the endorsement be available to?
A.) Candidates who only go through the caucus convention
system
B.) Candidates who go through the caucus convention system and
gather petition
signatures
C.) Candidates who only gather signatures through the petition
route.
D.) Not sure
(over please)
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11.) If the Party chooses to endorse candidates, should we:
A.) Limit the endorsement to one candidate per race
B.) Make endorsements available to more than one candidate per
race
Caucus Convention Threshold (Questions 12 - 13)
In this section, we are asking you to help us determine if we
should change our convention threshold. Prior to
SB 54, if a candidate received at least 60 % of the convention
vote, they became the Party's nominee on the
general election ballot, without running in the primary. Under
SB 54 if the Party selects the QPP route
candidates may choose to run at the Partys convention or gather
signatures to earn a place on the primary
ballot. By changing the convention threshold more candidates may
choose to run at the Partys convention to
earn a place on the primary ballot.
12.) Should the Party change the convention threshold to allow
more convention candidates to proceed to the primary
ballot?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
13.) If you answered yes to question 12 what is the minimum
percentage of the delegate vote should a candidate receive
at convention to earn a place on the primary ballot?
A.) At least 20%
B.) At least 25%
C.) At least 30%
D.) At least 35%
Plurality (Question 14)
Under SB54, a Republican candidate could become the Party
nominee with only a plurality of the vote. For example, the
eventual Republican nominee may receive as little 10 % or 15 %
of the vote if many Republican candidates run in the
primary.
14.) Should the legislature amend SB54 and require that a
candidate secure a majority vote in order to become the
nominee?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
Open Primaries (Question 15)
SB 54 opens the Republican primaries to unaffiliated voters for
QPP. For your reference, there are roughly 600,000
registered Republicans and 500,000 registered unaffiliated
voters. Some people argue that this will boost voter
participation by allowing unaffiliated voters to be a part of
the process, while others argue that this will make it more
difficult for candidates to reach this wider audience, and allow
non-republicans to choose the Partys nominees.
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15.) Should the Republican Party open its primary to
unaffiliated voters as well as registered Republicans?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
Candidate Fees (Question 16)
16.) Should the Republican Party charge its candidates a fee to
help defray the costs of complying with SB-54?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Not sure
Loss of Membership (Question 17)
17.) If a Republican candidate chooses only to gather signatures
through the petition route, avoiding the caucuses and
convention, should that candidate lose their membership in the
Utah Republican Party?
A.) Yes
B.) No
Political Ideology (Question 18)
18.) How would you describe your political ideology?
A.) Very Conservative
B.) Conservative
C.) Moderate
D.) Liberal
E.) Very Liberal
Gender (Question 19)
19.) What is your gender?
A.) Female
B.) Male
Age (Question 20)
20.) What is your age group?
A.) Between 18 - 30
B.) Between 31 - 43
C.) Between 44 - 56
D.) Between 57 - 69
E.) 69 +
(over please)
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Paid for by the Utah Republican Party www.utgop.org
Additional Comments (Question 21)
21.) If there are any questions or issues that you feel have not
already been addressed in this survey, please let us know.
We would appreciate any additional feedback and insight as we
continue to contemplate these potential changes.
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