Jeff Burningham makes candid pitch to GOP convention delegates

Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Burningham of Provo described his candidacy as Utah's only hope for a political outsider's voice in the upcoming election to replace outgoing Gov. Gary Herbert.

PROVO – Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Burningham got down and dirty in a candid virtual cottage meeting April 18 that may be his final pitch to delegates prior to the upcoming Republican state convention.

“Let’s face it,” Burningham said with infectious enthusiasm, “this is the only campaign in the running to replace Gov. Gary Herbert with a chance of beating the establishment candidates … If you want your next governor to be a political outsider who will get things done, like President Trump has done in Washington, I’m your man.”

Without naming names, the Provo entrepreneur was obviously referring to the presumptive frontrunners in the governor’s race: Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and former Utah GOP party chairman Thomas Wright.

All three of those candidates have already sidestepped the risk of not being selected by convention delegates as one of two potential party nominees by collecting 28,000 voter signatures to qualify for a place on the June 30 primary ballot. Burningham is taking a riskier course by relying on 1,000 GOP convention delegates to put him on the same ballot.

“I want every delegate to hear me,” Burningham said while sharing the teleconferencing spotlight with running mate Sen. Dan McCay of Riverton. “And please spread the word – tell every other delegate what I’m about to say. Dan and I have more than $2 million in our campaign account right now.

“It’s a sad commentary on the state of politics in this county that you need that kind of money to run for office. It’s a bummer. But the reality is that nobody can effectively campaign to beat Jon Huntsman and Spencer Cox if they don’t have a couple of million dollars to spend.

“So – if we survive the nominating convention – we can win this election, “ Burningham emphasized. “And we’re the only conservative candidates who can.”

Utah has not had a Democratic governor since 1985. The candidates who have filed to compete in the Democratic Primary are political unknowns who have received virtually no publicity. The reality is that the GOP nominating convention being conducted online April 25 will determine if two additional candidates will join Cox, Huntsman and Wright on the Republican primary ballot. The outcome of the Republican primary on June 30, which will be conducted almost exclusively through by-mail voting, will likely determine who will be the next governor of Utah.

“When things are going well, it’s easy to be a leader,” Burningham said, in an apparent swipe at rival Huntsman, who resigned as governor in 2009, just as Utah and the rest of the country plunged into an economic recession due to the collapse of the real estate housing market.

“I learned from growing two successful, money-making businesses in our last two economic recessions that success is defined by what you do in a crisis,” Burningham added. “If leadership is defined by what you do in the hard times … that makes me the best-qualified candidate to lead Utah’s economic recovery from this Coronavirus outbreak.”

The most recent polling in the governor’s race puts two candidates – Cox and Huntsman – far ahead of Burningham and the rest of the field. According to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics survey conducted Mar. 23-28, Huntsman has an approval rating of 26 percent to Cox’s rating of 24 percent. All the other candidates in the race (Burningham, Jan Garbett, Greg Hughes, Aimee Winder Newton and Wright) registered only in single digits in that polling.

But political insiders say the fine print of those survey results have to be considered. First of all, that poll is nearly a month old and was conducted prior to the time that any of the trailing candidates had done any virtual outreach to voters. Secondly, pollster Scott Rasmussen surveyed 326 Utahns who said they were likely to vote in the GOP primary on June 30. That means that the polling doesn’t necessarily reflect the likely more conservative opinions of the 1,000 delegates already selected to participate in the GOP nominating convention on April 25. Finally, Rasmussen’s polling also revealed that one-third of likely Utah voters were still undecided about who they would support in the governor’s race.

“Despite the ongoing health crisis and the resulting economic disruption,” Burningham concluded, “this election still matters. If you’re a delegate, I’m asking for your vote because the three establishment politicians in this race are already on the primary ballot. They don’t need your vote at the nominating convention. But the only way that my voice — a political outsider’s voice – will be heard in this election is if you vote for me at the convention.”

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