Salt Lake Tribune, September 9, 2010
Thomas Burr

Linnea Barney was a lifelong Republican and after years on the state school board thought she had retired in 2004 from politics and public service. Then Richard Davis called.

Davis, the head of the Utah Democratic Party, urged Barney to jump into a state Senate race as a Democrat against incumbent Margaret Dayton, whom Barney considers to be on the far right fringe of the Republican Party.

Barney switched her party registration and tossed her hat into the ring. The education activist isn’t overly optimistic she can topple Dayton, but she believes voters should have a choice when they enter the polling booth in November.

“That really is the main reason,” Barney says. “It’s really not right to see candidates run unopposed year after year.”

The Utah County Democratic Party — which may seem an oxymoron in one of the most conservative pockets in America — is doing its best this election cycle to ensure voters have that choice. The party is fielding 16 candidates, including challengers in every legislative race but two.

The hurdle to get elected as a Democrat in Utah County, though, seems impossibly high. GOP presidential candidate John McCain pulled 122,224 votes in the county in 2008, compared to only 29,567 for then-Sen. Barack Obama. There is not a single Democrat in elected partisan office in the county —and there hasn’t been one for more than a decade.

But Davis insists the candidates he’s fielding are far more than sacrificial lambs, a political term often applied to challengers with no chance for victory.

“We don’t use that terminology,” Davis says. “We see them as ones who can win in this election cycle or people who are building, who may not be able to win this year but can create a foundation to win in the next race.”

One of the latter is Don Jarvis, a former professor at Brigham Young University who ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for the state House. Jarvis says he believes he has a better chance this time around, now that incumbent Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, has announced his retirement to go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Jarvis credits Davis with urging people to run for office and says win or not, the important thing is to make sure Democrats are represented on the ballot.

“Basketball teams are won largely in the recruiting season, and the political parties need to do the same type of recruiting,” Jarvis says.

Even Taylor Oldroyd, the chairman of the Utah County Republican Party, applauds Davis and the Democrats for running a big slate of candidates.

“Competition brings out the best in all the candidates. When voters have choice, voters do more research. I don’t have a problem with a choice in candidates,” Oldroyd says.

But the GOP chairman doesn’t expect any Democratic wins this November.

“Voters want more than just a choice,” he said. “They want to know that the person reflects their concern about what’s going on in this country, that the candidate is committed to fighting to protect their liberties.”

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