Deseret News, October 24, 2010
Richard Davis

OPINION

I remember visiting Russia when it was under communism and being amazed at a local grocery store. There was one item available on the shelves in each food category. Shoppers had no choice. I remember thinking how sad that was.

We all like choices — from groceries to elections. Yet in Utah County elections that choice-less situation has been the rule for many years now. This is not healthy for voters. Let me explain why:

Voters don't decide elections.

For many years, the only real voters in Utah County have been a small group of Republican delegates. Several hundred delegates to the Republican convention are wooed by Republican candidates. These candidates lobby delegates by visiting their homes, answering their questions, and generally courting them for their vote

That sounds great for those several hundred Utah County Republican delegates, but the last time I looked there were about 250,000 voters in Utah County, not several hundred. What about the rest of us? Why shouldn't candidates be talking to us as well?

They don't talk to us because we don't have a two-party system. In the vast majority of cases, by the time the convention is over the Republican nominee is the presumptive elected official. In most other states, candidates actually woo voters in the general election to get their vote. They knock on doors, they hold local meetings, and walk their districts. For a long time, Republicans haven't done that here. Frankly, they've taken voters for granted.

How do we create a two-party system? Can a political system where several hundred people decide who will become an elected official for hundreds of thousands be described as a representative democracy? How do we change it?

We have to stop voting straight Republican and take a good look at all the candidates, including local Democrats.

Local Democratic candidates are just as pro-family values, just as committed to moral standards. Indeed, it is ironic that the Republican legislators who accuse Democrats of being immoral were led by a House majority leader who, as a married man, had a hot-tub encounter with an underage teen and by a Senate leader who was arrested for a DUI.

And Utah County Democrats are fiscal conservatives who, like other citizens, don't want to raise taxes on people who already are struggling to make ends meet in this deep economic recession. For example, the county commission would be in safe hands with Lane Henderson and Ted Barratt, both former mayors who repeatedly balanced budgets in their cities and have the executive experience to guide Utah County.

Choice is necessary, not only in consumer goods but also elections. In the past two elections, Utah County voters have finally had choices for state legislative races. This year, the vast majority of voters can choose between two or more candidates for state Legislature. The Democrats who are running are serious candidates with significant experience.

However, voters need to understand a new two-party system is very fragile. The very existence of a choice is not automatic, as we've seen in Utah County. If good Democratic candidates continue to lose because voters don't give them a chance to prove themselves, it will be harder to encourage good people to run again in the future and voters will be back to the no-choice situation. Republican Party leaders and legislators would love for that to happen. But voters would be the losers.

That's why even Republican voters should vote for some Democrats in Utah County in order to make sure Republican legislators aren't neglectful of average voters. One-party dominance is as harmful to Republicans as it is to Democrats and independent voters. As voters, let's decide to end one-party dominance and build a two-party system beneficial to us all.

Richard Davis is chair of the Utah County Democratic Party.