I recently participated in a panel discussion among Utah political party leaders on KCPW's "Midday Metro." Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson hosted the program.

During our discussion, Mayor Anderson asked Deanna Taylor of the Desert Greens about the impact Ralph Nader's Green Party presidential bid arguably had on Al Gore's Democratic Party presidential bid. Did Nader spoil the race for Gore and elect George W. Bush?

Many Greens believe that spoiling Democrats like Gore is preferable to electing Democrats like Gore.

Similarly, a growing number of center-right voters believe that punishing Republicans at the polls this year is preferable to giving more power to "the war, big-spending, and homeland spy party."

In her recent article subtitled "America may be ready for a new political party," former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan opined:

The problem is that the parties in Washington, and the people on the ground in America, are polarized. There is an increasing and profound distance between the rulers of both parties and the people--between the elites and the grunts, between those in power and those who put them there.

Even the Republican-run organization Utah GrassRoots has been critical of elected Republicans.

And let's not forget the recent Republican misdeeds in Salt Lake County, and that over a recent ten-year period the Republican-controlled Utah legislature led the nation in growing state government.

I toiled for several years within the Republican Party to work for change. I now know that the Republican Party is where liberty goes to die.

At the end of the past session of the Utah Legislature, I announced that as a result of Republican legislators losing the Fair Representation Challenge I issued to both incumbent parties last summer, I would encourage Libertarian candidates in swing districts to spoil the Republican candidate.

Exacting a political cost for cheating the people of Utah out of fair elections is why I'm encouraging those Libertarian candidates running in swing districts to spoil the Republican candidate. Cheating at elections is a rotten thing to do.

But in addition to sending that message to the leadership of the Utah Republican Party, I encourage center-right voters to express their outrage at the Republican leadership's betrayal of center-right values. Campaigning on a platform of reducing the role of government and then increasing government's role is also a rotten thing to do.

And voting Libertarian sends the message that you prefer smaller government, fewer taxes, and more freedom ... not just words to that effect.

Utah's political class knows how to run spoiler-free elections, but has resisted their use for all Utah voters.

So no matter how successful Libertarian candidates are, the rigged, winner-take-all electoral scheme perpetuated by the incumbent parties ensure that our spoiler strategy won't switch partisan control of the Utah Legislature this year.

But given this rotten state of affairs, a small shake up could freshen things a bit.

Yours in liberty,

Rob Latham, Chair

Libertarian Party of Utah