Utah has a fairly recent and cozy relationship with Republican presidential frontrunner, Mr. Mitt Romney. Despite his apparent “change of heart” on issues such as abortion, universal healthcare and individual mandate,  bailouts, gun law, etc. (Do I really need to write the whole list?!) Romney will forever be in the minds of Utahns, the mastermind who brought the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City.  He also happens to be Mormon and therefore enjoys probably the largest support base of Republicans here in Utah.  Romney is so consciously aware of this fact that he even tried to get the Utah Primary moved to claim an early defeat against the only other Mormon in the race, Jon Huntsman, who Romney was ahead of in the Utah polls, by a landslide.

Agenda

Current Constitution

Proposed Amended Constitution

A recent poll conducted by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University shows that independent voters in Utah see the Tea Party less favorably with support dropping to 24% (Utah Data Ponts). Support for the Tea Party has increased amongst “strong Republicans” to about 82% (Utah Data Ponts).

This could lead to a very interesting election in 2012. With the strong Republicans most likely to be elected as delegates to next years 2012 Republican State Convention. They will be the voters that Senator Orrin Hatch and Congressman Jason Chaffetz (presuming he challenges Hatch) attempt to court as they mount a run for the United States Senate. They will have to appeal to a base that is becoming less aligned with mainstream Utahns. Already Senator Hatch has made a dash for the extremes of the right and Congressman Chaffetz has already began to chide Hatch for being too soft on illegal Immigration (Salt Lake Tribune). Wait didn’t we see him do that already to former Congressman Cannon (NY Sun)?

With the two candidates out to prove who is more Conservative in an environment that seems to be getting tired of extremist this could make a successful run from a moderate Democrat like Congressman Jim Matheson who has already said that He is considering a run for the US Senate (Salt Lake Tribune).

Wouldn’t that be great to elect someone who is more interested in representing the state of Utah as whole and not just the Republican delegates?

If you have been following the latest news here in Utah, you have probably heard about the Romney campaign asking Utah to move the Republican Primary to an earlier date. The reasoning behind this, according to the Romney campaign, is moving the primary to an earlier date will make Utah a substantial factor in the Republicans’ choice of nominee. Currently, Lt. Governor Bell, a Romney supporter, seems to support moving the primary because he “would love to see Utah matter and not be a fly-over state and have a real impact on the election” (Salt Lake Tribune).