In politics, you’re either on-message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… On the Dotted Line.
As we flipped the calendar over from 2021 to 2022 we also moved into a mid-term election year and Utah’s most high-profile race will be Senator Mike Lee vs. the field.
Now, incumbents always have a massive advantage in any race but the three main challengers bring some element of intrigue to this one.
Will former state legislator, Becky Edwards, or former Herbert deputy chief, Ally Isom, be able to give Lee a run for his money in a primary or will they split any anti-Lee vote? And if Lee does win the Republican nomination, how does he match up with Independent Evan McMullin? We’ll watch as that all unfolds.
For now, the business at hand is getting on the primary ballot. And for Isom, Edwards, and Lee that means gathering 28-thousand signatures each from across the state over the next couple of months. It’s a daunting task because each signature must come from a registered Republican and each of those can sign for only one candidate.
From a communication standpoint, I’m relieved to see all three candidates collecting signatures. It saves us all from the pandering that comes when one candidate goes convention-only and tries to win votes by reminding delegates that his or her fate is in their hands alone.
Collecting signatures is the right thing to do and as Lee’s 2016 campaign manager put it, not collecting signatures would amount to “political malpractice.”
Having gone through two gubernatorial elections and gathered signatures in each, I have some strong feelings about the process.
First: having an alternate path to the ballot through signatures is one of the best changes to Utah politics in decades. There are times we need to delegate our votes, but deciding who is on a primary ballot isn’t one of them. It takes a special kind of dedication to attend your caucus meeting on a cold winter night and run as a delegate, which means forfeiting the most beautiful spring Saturday a couple of months later. My hat’s off to those who are willing to do it but that group doesn’t usually have a political agenda that aligns with the average Utah Republican voter.
Second: The threshold is too high. Gathering 28-thousand signatures takes a real effort and, usually, money. But you can’t count on those 28-thousand being sufficient because some people will sign multiple petitions, some will not actually qualify because they aren’t registered party members and some signatures won’t match. So you have to shoot for at least 32-thousand to be safe. Especially if you end up close your opponents may challenge enough signatures to have you fall short of the total.
Look, when candidates ask for a signature they really are only asking a voter if they deem them legitimate enough that they’d like to hear more from them. A signature is not a vote. Unfortunately, the current law treats it like one.
The point is to help more legitimate candidates get in the mix so the number of required signatures should be lower and you should be able to sign multiple petitions. That would make life easier for the state elections office and for candidates.
I’ll take it a step further and say that one thing we should have learned from the pandemic is that doing things remotely is appreciated and sometimes necessary. Electronic signatures should be acceptable.
If people could sign a petition online, sign multiple petitions, and a more reasonable number of signatures was required overall… candidates could spend more talking about where they stand on the issues and we’d all be better off.
That’s it for this week.
I’d love to hear what you think. Have your say in the comment section and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel on YouTube.
You can also reach out to me via the social media platform of your choice.
As always, you can find more On Message videos, in-depth Utah political stories, and analysis, plus podcasts and more at utahpoliticalundergound.com.
