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(UT Demo Chair) Candidates favor paid position
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Race
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| Contributor | User 215 |
| Last Edited | User 215 May 06, 2005 07:32am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Salt Lake Tribune |
| News Date | Friday, May 6, 2005 01:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the reddest of the red states, Democrats hold few political positions and largely get vanquished at the polls. They are outnumbered, outspent and essentially left out in GOP-dominated governments.
Even so, eight people are vying to lead the Utah Democratic Party, promising gains in the short term and relevance in the long term. Democratic delegates will huddle Saturday to choose new party leadership after current Chairman Donald Dunn, an aggressive and press-savvy leader, declined to run for a second two-year stint.
The candidates running for chairman range from a liberal left-winger to a conservative outsider, but insiders say whomever delegates choose will need to be able to keep the minority party afloat.
Asked what the party needs, former state Chairman Mike Zuhl joked, "a savior."
He's only half-joking, though.
"They need someone who has the capacity to work with the different factions of the party, who can raise money, who can attract good quality candidates, who can inject in the party faithful that we can make progress," Zuhl said. "No one thinks fortunes turn around in a year or two years. But we're making some progress. We're becoming relevant."
Dunn - who made the party more visible through frequent news conferences, including one where he dressed as a clown - says that everyone knows there is much work to do to keep advancing the party's political fortunes. But, he added, "The fact that there are eight people running shows there's a lot of excitement in the party."
The candidates for the chairmanship are: Craig Axford, Wayne Holland Jr., Leon Johnson, Jan Lovett, Mike Marty, Thayne Trevenen, Tracy Van Wagoner and Nancy Jane Woodside.
Party insiders predict that four candidates - Axford, Holland, Lovett and Woodside - are heading the field. |
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