Aside from salt and religion, not too much comes out of Salt Lake City -- well, unless you're a Mormon. And most of what I know about being a Mormon I learned from The Book Of Mormon -- the musical. I can't say that lifestyle is for me.
But I don't think that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members are stupid by any means. They may be horny (Utah leads the nation in pornographic purchases) but they are pretty savvy as a whole. They number 15 million members world-wide. Yet if they are the motivating factor in this latest scheme to become more relevant in the political world, they may have crested with Mitt Romney and now are walking back from that experiment.
According to The Hill:
In 2016, an unusual state could snatch the coveted first-primary spot away from New Hampshire if its legislature gets its way: Utah
The Utah state House voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favor of a bill that would allow the state to hold its presidential primary a week before any other state in the nation, via an entirely online system, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
This is quite interesting on a number of levels. First, the primary is to be totally online. Yep, no open polls. Only internet voting. That's pretty progressive if you ask me. The state is 68% Mormon. I just never thought of all of those folks as being so progressive. Actually, the opposite might have been my first thought. I see now that I was wrong. You learn something new every day.
Yet here comes the confusing part. The state wants to up its profile as being politically meaningful. By pushing to become the first state in the nation to hold a primary, a spot normally held by New Hampshire, Utah very well might become more relevant. It could happen. But there's something else that could happen too if they choose to make this move. They'll have to face the wrath of Reince Priebus and the entire RNC.
Currently the state sends 40 delegates to the GOP nominating convention.
If Utah goes through with the change, its 40 GOP delegates to the national convention will be cut down to just nine.
Nine voices for a state that could have 40. That's roughly a 3/4 cut. Does that make them more or less relevant and meaningful or just another small voice at the convention?
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