The Utah Republican special congressional primary of August 15 was won by John Curtis, Mayor of Provo, Utah. However, he was not the party’s endorsed choice. On June 17, the Republican Party had held an endorsements convention which chose former state legislator Chris Herrod.
Curtis got on the primary ballot by petition. The Utah Republican Party has been fighting for several years to make it impossible for candidates to get on the primary ballot by petition; the party only wants candidates on its primary ballot who had substantial support at an endorsements convention.
Curtis, the primary winner, is considered to be less conservative than Herrod. The Utah Republican primary was limited to voters who are registered Republicans.
There is a debate among the Oklahoma LP as to continuing to keep the primary open to Independents or not. At present it seems that feeling is running against, in large measure based on the notion that the voters registered as Libertarian would pick a more ideologically sound nominee. This discounts the idea that more participation in the primary equates to more votes in November in a race where ballot access is on the line as well as the fact that the smaller the number of voters the greater the possibility of an unusual result.
It seems to be a moot point, because there are so few contested Libertarian primaries (except Libertarian presidential primaries always have lots of candidates).
At this time we have three announced candidates for next year’s gubernatorial race.
The OKLP has had contested primaries in four of the six elections that we’ve been on the ballot for(no primary in 1988, and in ’84 we nominated by convention after being put on the ballot by court order). We’ve arranged these primaries as a political strategy, but that is not the case with the current gubernatorial candidates.