Salt Lake County Republican Party Vice Chairwoman Maureen Casper has resigned her post and two new interim party officials have been named, county Chairman John Rosenthal said Wednesday.
A group of dissatisfied county Republicans had complained earlier this year that Casper's party office violated party bylaws because she also was a paid staffer for U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch's presidential and senatorial campaigns.
Hatch is being challenged for his Senate seat within his party by fellow Republicans Greg Hawkins, Frank Guliuzza and Bart Thomas. The bylaws say a party officer can't take sides in intraparty races, and the group said Casper's paid job with Hatch clearly put her in his camp. They asked her resign or give up her job.
Instead, Casper said she'd take a leave of absence from her party post until after Republicans picked their Senate candidate, either in convention or primary. And at a raucous central committee meeting several weeks ago, a resolution praising Casper for her party work barely passed.
But, says Rosenthal, Casper now feels it is better to just resign as vice chairwoman.
At a Tuesday night county party executive meeting, Bruce Jones, the acting treasurer, was named interim vice chairman. Paul Williams was named interim treasurer.
Rosenthal anticipates that within a month — but after the April 29 Salt Lake County Nominating Convention — Jones and Williams will be permanently appointed to those offices in the next central committee meeting.
"I hope this will satisfy some of these (dissatisfied Republican Party members) for a while. We tried to do what is right," Rosenthal said Wednesday.
However, there still is some concern. The Salt Lake County Republican Party does not make public the names of its county delegates. And that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for people not elected county delegates at their mass meetings to find out if there is a delegate vacancy in their precinct, to which they perhaps could be appointed by party leaders. Every two years dozens of county and state delegate slots, not filled in the mass meetings, are filled through an appointment process.
Rosenthal said the names of county delegates are given to county GOP candidates, so they can contact the delegates and ask for their support at the county convention. But to get the names, addresses and phone numbers, the candidates must sign a letter saying they won't give delegate information to anyone else and they will use the names only in connection with their campaigning.
"Almost forever" the names have not been given to the media or other noncandidates because the lists may be misused for personal or business gain, Rosenthal said.
"It's hard enough to get people to serve" as a county party delegate, Rosenthal said, without having the delegates bothered at home by noncandidates for this or that purpose.
The state Republican Party does make its list of state delegates picked at the same mass meetings public, said state party Executive Director Scott Simpson.
Meanwhile, county party Secretary Alan Dayton has, at the request of Rosenthal and his executive committee, decided not to resign his party post. Dayton is an aide to Salt Lake County Commissioner Brent Overson. And a county party bylaw says you can't work in a local government political job and be a party officer. But Dayton and Rosenthal say the rule doesn't apply to Dayton because he is a merit employee who does not report directly to Overson, but to Overson's top aide.
If Dayton had gone, and Casper's position been deemed vacant, Rosenthal could have faced being the only official party officer as the party prepares for its main job in 2000, the April 29 county convention in the Salt Palace. At the convention a platform will be adopted and dozens of GOP candidates voted on for legislative and county offices.
That has been avoided with Casper's resignation, the two interim appointments and Dayton staying at his party post.