The Emery County Democrat Party met at the Emery County Courthouse to conduct an organizing convention. Emery County Democratic Party chairman Gary Petty called this organizing convention to order and welcomed all of those in attendance. Former Commissioner Gary Kofford led the pledge of allegiance followed by former Commissioner Bevin Wilson offering a prayer and a blessing on the meeting.
Wilson announced that he has been appointed to the Governors Economic Development Council Board. He said, “I don’t come with solutions, but I’m happy to listen to what local governments are working on and will attempt to find support for what they are doing. We need to be supportive of our local economies to preserve what we have and provide more jobs.”
This Organizing Convention was held to elect a party chairman, vice chairman, secretary and treasurer. Wilson proposed that the rules should be suspended and put the existing leadership back in office by acclamation. That proposal was accepted unanimously.
Chairman, Petty, mentioned the Emery County Democratic Party bylaws will need to be changed as a result of Senate Bill 54 being passed.
State Democrat Party Chairman Peter Corroon explained the compromise held after the last legislative session, so we’ll still have the caucus convention system and a person will also be able to get directly on the ballot by getting signatures. For a House seat the candidate would need 1,000 signatures and 2,000 signatures for a Senate seat. It is possible for a candidate to get on the ballot by getting the required number of signatures for the office. This will affect the Republican Party more than it will the Democratic Party.
T.J. Ellerbach Political Director for the party said, The County party will need to make changes to their bylaws, after the state party bylaws are approved at the Democrat Party State Convention. The County office affected by this gathering of signatures rule change is the County Commission race, as outlined in Senate Bill 54. Anyone can file for office and gather signatures regardless of party affiliation and get on the Primary Ballot.
Corroon said the Democratic Party will let anyone come and vote in our Primary Election. The Republican Party limits their Primary Election to only registered Republicans. We are considering raising our threshold to a higher percentage so that more people will get on the ballot. Our convention this year will be June 13, at Park City High School. On June 12 we will have training for anyone that wants to be a candidate or learn how to operate a County Party.
Emily Hollingshead, a candidate for the Democratic Party position of Vice-Chairman spoke to the group saying. I first came to Emery County with Scott Howell, as his campaign manager. I have been working in Democratic Party politics for about 30 years. Emily started in 1988 while a student at Utah State University in Logan as the college Democrat vice chair. In 2002 Emily campaigned for Jim Matheson, and became a volunteer in Iron County. Jim Matheson recruited her to run for the State Senate District 28 covering five counties from Cedar City. She expected 19 percent and got 32 percent of the vote. Then she had the opportunity to work at the state legislature in communications and other state campaigns that the Democrats won.
Emily said I do not subscribe to the idea that the Democrats cannot win in rural Utah. I believe the Democrats can win if they have a plan and a little bit of energy. If I’m elected as vice-chairman, I will help the rural counties to elect Democrats. The message we give rural Utah is not the same message. We give on the Wasatch front. Their issues are different. I do not like how unbalanced our state is and would like to see more Democrats elected.
Peter Corroon said it’s great to be back. I was in Emery County on a project to learn about the economy to see the power plant, and a number of things you were kind to me when I ran for governor in 2010. Like Emily, I don’t want the party to be the Salt Lake County Party. To get some better representation we need to start at the grassroots with the county parties. You know your communities better and you know who might be a good candidate to run for office.
Last year we had a grant-matching program to send out mailers or something that would help the party. This is not for candidates. This is for party building.
We encourage people to use the vote by mail ballots. We think it’s important to have people sign up for a vote by mail ballot. When a person gets a vote by mail ballot they are 70 percent more likely to actually vote. Voters that go to the polls are only 50 percent likely to vote. The advantage of getting the ballot in the mail is that you get the ballot in advance and have time to study the constitutional amendments. You can drop off the vote by mail ballot at a voting location or turn in the vote by mail ballot to be destroyed and vote on the voting machine if you so choose.
I would like to get rid of straight party voting where you select the party box and all the party candidates are then voted for. People should know who the candidates are and know whom they’re voting for. We as the Democratic Party need to define ourselves. Too often our opponents have defined us. Democrats need to stand up and say we are the party of the middle class that supports a good education system, healthcare for our citizens, support good jobs and good wages for our citizens. Most people in Utah believe in our principles and values unfortunately, others have defined us, instead of defining ourselves. We do not have to tie ourselves to the federal party. We will say this is who we are in Utah. We are coming up with a media communications plan that will help us define ourselves.
The Democratic Party has the lowest representation that it has had in a long time and I believe the pendulum will swing back. The Republican Party is starting to fight amongst themselves. I believe the citizens will realize there’s another option out there that represents who they are. The Democratic Party supports healthcare good wages and education for all of our citizens.
We’re going to try to do a better job of communications to the Hispanic population and to the Latter-day Saint population. T.J. Ellerbach expects to have a very high voter turnout in the election year of 2016. We expect to make gains with our strong candidates.
Gary Petty said we have lost our major contributors which where unions and union members as a result of the loss of power plants and coal mining jobs. The politics of Washington has hurt us a lot in this county. The meeting was then adjourned after a few other questions and comments by the members.
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