One of the most conservative and influential voices in internal Republican Party politics will be officially silent in next month's state GOP convention. For the first time in eight years, Gayle Ruzicka is not a state delegate.
She was "taken out" by Utah Public Employees Association executive director Nancy Sechrest in the most basic of political gatherings, a neighborhood party caucus (often called mass meetings).Sechrest readily admits that she brought her supporters to the Highland, Utah County, meeting last month. The supporting group included her 18-year-old daughter and four teenage friends who had just registered to vote, as well as a number of public education teachers.
"This is how the game is played. I applaud her (Sechrest)," said Ruzicka, who added that her Utah Eagle Forum and her husband Don's conservative party group, the Republican Assembly, "will still be well represented in the state convention."
Gayle Ruzicka is an alternate state delegate. And if one of the six delegates from her precinct doesn't show up at the May 8-9 convention, Ruzicka may become a delegate. Don Ruzicka is automatically a state delegate because of another party position he holds.
But if she doesn't get that delegate credential, she can't speak on the floor of the convention or vote for candidates - two things Ruzicka has done since moving to Utah in 1991 and opening the Utah chapter of the conservative, family-advocate Eagle Forum.
At recent conventions Ruzicka has risen to move amendments to the state party platform, bring up resolutions or speak in favor or in opposition to such actions. In the 1997 convention she supported resolutions that took a slap at several of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch's federal programs.
Not only has Ruzicka been a mainstay at the state GOP convention, in 1992 and 1996 she was also picked as a delegate to the National Republican Convention.
"Nancy came to the (mass meeting) giving her supporters three instructions: who to support for precinct chair, to vote for her for state delegate and vote against me," said Ruzicka.
But she adds that Sechrest's main opponent "is really (state Sen.) Howard Stephenson - whom I and my group support."
In the 1998 Legislature, Stephenson introduced a bill that would prohibit governments and school districts from collecting political action committee donations for any group. The UPEA and the Utah Education Association's PACs - two of the largest in the state - survive on payroll deduction contributions from members. Stop those and the political activities of the unions would be crippled.
Sechrest got Stephenson's bill amended in a Senate committee to exclude her union, but the UEA remained in the bill. The bill passed the Senate, but never came up for a vote in the House before adjournment.
Stephenson, long a critic of the UEA, is up for election this year and is opposed by two Republicans and a Democrat. Highland is part of Stephenson's district, which spills over from Draper into northern Utah County. At the state convention, Stephenson will face his two GOP opponents. If any of the three get 60 percent of the Senate district's delegate vote, they're the party nominee. If neither of the top two vote-getters achieve 60 percent, they face each other in a June primary election; the third-place finisher is eliminated.
Sechrest said officially the UPEA has not endorsed or opposed any candidates yet and won't until late April but admits "you know where I am" on Stephenson's re-election.
The Sechrest victory is a bit of payback. "From 1980 until two years ago I was always a delegate" to the state Republican Party, says Sechrest. Then Gayle Ruzicka stacked a precinct meeting with Eagle Forum-types and Sechrest wasn't elected delegate. "I just did the same thing" back to her, Sechrest says.
"I've been waiting two years until my daughter and her friends turned 18" and could vote and participate in mass meetings, joked Sechrest.