Political Apathy

So last night we held our annual county convention for the Republican Party here in Cache County. Now you need to understand a couple things about Utah politics.

First, it is completely grass roots. Every two years in local precincts we meet and elect precinct officers, county and state delegates. These delegates then go to their respective conventions (either county or state) and elect people to run for office or every other year they elect who will lead their county or state party. What makes it grass roots is that if a candidate gets over 60% of the delegates to vote for them at convention they do not have a primary contest and can move onto the general election without opposition. So if you want to run for a political office, you better get your supporters to show up in mass at their respective precincts and have them get elected as delegates. But here lies the 2nd thing you need to know about Utah politics

In most of the State the Republican Party dominates the scene. Now you might wonder why this would be a problem for a die hard Republican like myself. Well it makes for very boring conventions and even worse, a general apathy amongst voters.

Take last night for example. Out of 500 delegates, only 150 showed up. That's right, and we were electing officers for the county party. Also there was no competition for the offices (which worked out nice for me as I am the new Vice Chair of the Party). So I have a goal to increase our attendance and excitement for the political process. Somehow we need to let people know that we need people to be interested in serving. Its good for our candidates to have opposition at times even within their party. Here in Cache County if you win at convention you are almost assured the win in November. But someday, that may not be case. We need to get more people my age interested in politics and especially Republican politics.

With that said, I am honored to serve my county. I do have aspirations to serve in other political offices in the future, but for now, my goal is to build up the party faithful and prepare ourselves for the next go around of elections. And probably most importantly to show people that politics can be fun!