Denmark Has Nothing On Utah
Something is rotten in the State of Utah and it appears a sitting governor is right in the middle of it.
Now for a bit of local Utah intrigue.
This is Utah specific, so of interest to my fellow Utahns but for everybody else, it illustrates how corrupt party processes can be - even within a supposed “red” state.
Most readers know I was the Chairman of the Summit County GOP for a time – we decided to move out of the county after I was elected and had to resign before my term was up – but before I did, I attended many state level GOP meetings as well as the GOP state organizing convention, so I have a pretty good sense of how things work.
At this year’s organizing convention, Phil Lyman, a true conservative and patriot, was nominated to run as the GOP nominee by majority delegate vote at the convention. At the last convention, Cox survived a strong challenge from Greg Hughes, a libertarian leaning conservative (full disclosure, I voted for Hughes).
Utah law has a provision that anyone collecting enough signatures on a petition can get on a ballot. Cox marshalled his forces and secured a spot on the Republican primary ballot. Lyman sued, alleging that since nomination is an internal party process, that law should not apply. According to the Deseret News on August 14:
“Utah’s Supreme Court denied Lyman’s request to annul the primary results with Durant writing, “Mr. Lyman cites no authority to support his assertion that a political party’s internal rules override state election law.”
The Court also denied Lyman’s request to order Henderson’s Office to release the signatures saying Lyman had not yet exhausted other remedies and may still pursue the matter in a lower court.”
So, Cox and his allies went outside the party to get on the GOP primary ballot and marshalled enough support to beat Lyman, the GOP choice, by over 37,000 votes. Since we can’t see the signatures on the petition, my guess is that it wasn’t just Republicans voting in this primary. As I have noted before, Salt Lake and Washington counties in Utah have become bluer and more “establishmenty” by the year.
I first heard about another little bit of skullduggery when Debbie and I walked up to the Delta Center to attend Tucker Carlson’s event last Saturday night. We stopped to chat with a group of great people staffing a table for State Representative Phil Lyman, a write-in candidate for governor, opposing the sitting governor, Spencer Cox. We greeted them with our affirmation we would be voting for Lyman and were immediately told that we needed to make sure we clearly wrote in “Phil Lyman” on the ballot. My wife asked why, and we were told that there was another Lyman running for governor and if we wanted to assure our vote was counted for Phil, that’s what we had to do.
It is interesting that Cox drew mentions from both Carlson and Glenn Beck during the event, Carlson’s question was this: “With a state so known for families, conservativism, and service to God, how in the Wide World of Sports could the state elect somebody like Cox?!”
Beck put a humorous spin on it when he said he saw people chanting, “No Cox! No Cox! No Cox!” – I’ll leave the rest to the reader’s imagination…
But back to the intrigue…
Today I was made aware of something posted by the Lyman write-in campaign:
Did the Cox Campaign Recruit and Pay Richard Lyman?
On Tuesday, September 3, approximately two hours before the filing deadline of 5pm, I was contacted by two individuals who provided information that Richard Lyman was recruited and paid by the Cox campaign to put his name on the ballot as a write-in for governor.
Richard Lyman joined the gubernatorial race that same afternoon with Carol Lyman as his running mate.
Richard told one of these individuals that the Cox campaign had contacted him and offered to pay him $1,000 and a steak dinner to file for governor. Richard proceeded to explain that they had set up an account and were donating to him to run.
I was provided the following text messages.
I am grateful for the courage and for the desire to let the truth be told. I hope that the voters see this for what it is — another in a series of deceptions and coverups by the Cox campaign to interfere with the will of the people. This filing, by not one but two Lymans, at the absolute last minute, for $1,000 and a steak dinner, is politics at its worst. We should be able to expect better.
For now, we remind our supporters to spread the word to write “Phil Lyman” when writing in, to ensure that their intent is clear.
Of course, people are looking into this and at this point, your humble citizen journalist cannot personally confirm – but I wouldn’t put it past the Cox regime.
Back in 2021 I wrote:
“Our media outlets here in Utah differ little from the national media when it comes to publishing fake news and misinformation - and their targets are the same - conservative, constitutionally grounded Republicans.
Conventional wisdom would seem to indicate that in an overwhelming "one-party" Republican state, internecine warfare would not be an issue, but from a functional perspective, Utah has three political parties - the Establishment progressive leaning GOP who are the entrenched power elite, the conservative wing of the GOP - the calloused handed insurgents from the farms and ranches, and the Democrats, the woke progressive left who are mostly centered in the larger urban areas, the quirky ski towns and around the university campuses.
The fact is that we have as great a challenge here with the pseudo-Republicans in the GOP, the Romney branch of the Party, as we do nationally with the registered Democrats.”
It is no secret that I have no love for Spencer Cox – in fact, I find him reprehensible. He vetoed a bill passed through Utah’s House and Senate protecting women’s sports from competition with transgender women (biological males). Thank goodness the Utah legislature had the spine to override the veto.
I do not think this comes as a surprise, Cox is a quisling politician who broke down in tears in 2016 when, as Lt. Governor, he apologized to Utah’s LGBTQ community at a vigil for the PULSE nightclub shooting, which while horrific, was not motivated by hatred of the LGBTQ community.
Stay tuned. I will post more as I get more information. With the election on the doorstep, chances are things will move pretty fast.
Spencer's "Disagree Better" is soy based. "If you think tough men are dangerous wait till you see what weak men are capable of," said Jordan Peterson. Cox is desperate to retain power. He disguises his cowardice with compassion. Mike you really nailed it when he talked about the three parties of our state.
That "No Cox" chant was pretty robust!!