Was it just a bunch of conservative, radio talk-show reactionaries or was Saturday's state Republican Convention a change in grass-roots GOP politics?
"The delegates were sending a message. But I don't know if anyone was listening," longtime GOP activist Alex Hurtado said."This has never happened before," former Republican state legislator Donna Dahl said. "We're saying that on some issues, some of our (GOP) leaders are out of touch with the rank and file. They've gone astray."
Saturday, about 500 of 2,500 state Republican delegates attending a four-hour organizing convention in the Salt Palace passed several resolutions criticizing legislative actions by Republican officeholders.
Specifically, the delegates opposed U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch's child health-care bill and state Rep. Jerry Adair's bill requiring the state to start using "smart cards" as drivers' licenses.
The issues are very different in whom they affect. But they are similar in that both extend the power and reach of government, Hurtado and Dahl say. At the convention Dahl introduced the anti-child health-care resolution. Hurtado spoke in favor of the anti-smart card resolution.
Hurtado and Dahl see Saturday's actions as unique and possibly far-reaching. "You had the element of the radio talk-show guys there, yes. But I know most of the delegates there. These were mainstream Republicans," Hurtado said.
But newly installed state GOP Chairman Rob Bishop isn't so sure Saturday's meeting reflects a sea change in GOP politics in Utah.
"This hasn't happened before," Bishop said. "Does it mean some rank-and-file Republicans are frustrated and upset? Yes. Does it mean our (congressional) delegate and state representatives are out of touch? No.
"My guess is, out of all the issues out there if you polled the (state) delegates and our elected (Republican) officials, they would agree on 95 percent of them," Bishop said.
But, Saturday's action is still disquieting to Bishop, a former speaker of the Utah House.
"The job of our political party is to elect Republicans to office. It is not to debate or create (issue) position papers."
What Bishop is saying, in short, is that Saturday's actions helped no one, changed few minds and may have done more harm than good.
"As a party, our delegates do have to have some way to communicate with the party leaders and our officeholders. That communication is very important. I don't know if resolutions in a convention setting is the best way to do that. I'm dedicated to finding a better way. I don't know now what that may be."
Dissent may be acceptable, even admirable. But is public discord constructive?
That's the very point Hurtado makes when he says the Republican Party used to act differently. Saturday broke that mold, Hurtado says.
The state Republican Party used to operate "like a Mormon church group," says the feisty Hurtado, who has been active locally and nationally in GOP politics for 30 years. "The party leaders and officeholders would give a `conference' talk and we'd all listen and do what we were told. That certainly didn't happen Saturday."
And such acquiescence may not happen in the future, either.
Dahl says a new generation of "conservative, active" Republicans are talking and organizing. There are plans to "re-energize" a conservative newspaper, Grassroots, which was started in the late 1980s following an anti-tax revolt fueled by large tax increases passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature and former GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter.
"There is a feeling out there that some (Republican) officeholders are doing things that they weren't elected to do, especially with Senator Hatch and this child health-insurance bill," said Dahl, who in professional life serves as a deputy director of the Utah State Fairpark.
"We as Republicans want less taxation, fewer regulations and especially a balanced federal budget. We want government off our backs. That is our philosophy," Hurtado said.
But some Republicans are doing other things.
While Hatch has long been an advocate of lower taxation and a sponsor of the federal balanced-budget amendment for 18 years, his recent actions are being called into question. A national conservative magazine recently published an article calling Hatch the "latter-day liberal," a label Hatch severely resents.
The Hatch/Kennedy bill would raise the federal tax on cigarettes by 43 cents a pack to get money for health-care insurance for the children of poor, working families.
"Here was a convention whose delegates are mostly Mormons who hate smoking and tobacco," Hurtado said. "You'd think these people would say, `Tax the h--- out of tobacco companies.' But no, they vote overwhelmingly against a bill that would raise tobacco taxes because they don't want the federal government in child health care. It was a strong, philosophical message. But I really wonder if Senator Hatch or the party leaders were listening."
Bishop says he was. "But I don't know if the vote would have been different if all 2,500 delegates were there. My sense is, if Senator Hatch had addressed the convention before the (resolution) vote, the resolution wouldn't have passed. But it makes no sense to debate a complicated issue for five minutes (the convention's time limit per resolution) and then take a vote on something as big as this. There has to be a better way to do this, and I'll find one."