Outspoken Republican under fire
Central committee member Mike Ridgway was part of a group who publicly criticized the removal of Workman's name after a doctor certified her as disabled. The scandal-plagued mayor was trailing badly in polls, and her removal from the ballot allowed the party to replace her with Ellis Ivory, who narrowly lost to Democrat Peter Corroon.
But party officials say the allegations are at least six months old, dating to before the Workman ballot controversy began. Party chairwoman Tiani Coleman said the allegations against Ridgway were first brought to the party in May. At that point, the executive committee placed them on the agenda for the November meeting, which was held Thursday.
It was at Thursday's meeting that the committee voted to hold a disciplinary hearing. The party will not reveal the allegations because of confidentiality policies. The allegations will be outlined in a letter Ridgway is expected to receive in the next few days.
But though Ridgway said he doesn't believe the allegations stem directly from the mayor's race, he believes the controversy was just the latest in a string of actions that have made him unpopular in the party and that specific elements of the party want to see him gone.
"We've taken some controversial positions in the past," Ridgway said. "We've called on the party to do the right thing."
He listed a series of controversies he has been involved in, including his opposition in 2002 to the removal of several party officers for their support of Democratic County Councilman Randy Horiuchi.
"We just have kind of a long-standing legacy of success in reforming the process, which makes the people whose power base is undercut by those reforms angry," he said. "I knew full well when I decided to speak publicly (on the Workman controversy) that that would probably result in my removal from all positions in the party. People said, 'Mike, are you sure you want to do this? Don't you want to live to see another day?' I said, 'I don't care. This is wrong, and I have to distance myself from this unethical action on the part of the Salt Lake County Republican Party.' "
Coleman said the hearing could result in Ridgway's removal. She said the executive committee could conceivably vote for some other consequence, like reprimand, but because Ridgway has been reprimanded in the past, she suspects Ridgway will be removed if he is found guilty.
And Ridgway also suspects he will be removed.
The executive committee, he said, is "packed with people very hostile to following the rules and therefore hostile to people who want to see us follow the rules."
The hearing will be held Dec. 9. Party rules say the hearing will be private unless Ridgway and the executive committee agree to opening it. Coleman said that if Ridgway wants the meeting to be open, she doubts the party would be opposed.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com
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