Lobbyist is GOP chief
Lockhart, husband of Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, is a well-known lobbyist for a micro-chip production firm who yearly showers state lawmakers with Jazz tickets and other freebies.
But it was Lockhart's party work (he is a former chairman of the Utah County GOP) and promises to fund-raise like mad that got him a first-ballot victory over former Salt Lake County Councilman Steve Harmsen and Salt Lake businessman Aaron Bludworth.
Current party vice chairman Todd Weiler won his own two-year term as GOP vice chairman, also in a highly contested race.
The convention also saw U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, go into detailed explanations on why he supports the current immigration reform bill in the Senate — which brought some catcalls from the conservative delegates, as well as applause by others.
And Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff broke down and cried as he spoke to delegates late in the afternoon about supporting U.S. troops at war.
Harmsen, Bludworth and their supporters slammed Lockhart for being a lobbyist, saying now is not the time to pick a party leader who is indebted to special interest groups.
"We need to have independent leaders with no special interests," said Bludworth.
But delegates liked what they heard from Lockhart — who historically, as an individual, is one of the highest spenders in entertaining Utah's 104 part-time legislators each year. (A number of lawmakers supported Lockhart's run for party chairman.)
One of Lockhart's nominators said Lockhart had personally raised more than $1 million in recent years for GOP candidates and the state and county parties. Lockhart said he'd do the same as chairman.
Money seemed to be on the minds of a number of speakers, as outgoing chairwoman Enid Greene received several rounds of applause as she said she and a group of other Republicans (most of whom were legislators giving money from their bulging campaign accounts) raised nearly $200,000 over the past few months. That allowed Utah's majority party to pay off $150,000 in debt and end Greene's short tenure as chairwoman with $40,000 in the bank.
Greene said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who did not attend Saturday's convention, and conservative stalwart Robert Lichfield from St. George between them raised the last $20,000.
Greene and many delegates believed it would take several ballots to finally elect a new chairman and were surprised by Lockhart's win on the first ballot.
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