Western States Primary Focus of SLC Symposium

None by Lara Jones

Huntsmans Says Support is Growing

(KCPW News) According to Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., who earlier this year signed legislation calling for a presidential primary in Utah the first Tuesday in February, more western states are showing support for a Western Super Tuesday:

"We're getting good support. We have New Mexico, Arizona, and, of course, our state that are together. I hope that we're able to pull in a couple more - Montana, for example, Idaho, maybe one other beyond that."

Getting more western states to support the idea will be the governor's goal tomorrow during a day-long Western Presidential Primary Election symposium in Salt Lake City. Presidential primaries held earlier in the year, like those in Iowa and New Hampshire, make later ones in the West virtually irrelevant in a presidential election cycle. A Western Super Tuesday could bring more political clout to the region, not to mention visits from presidential candidates. Huntsman says Friday's symposium will also dig into why a Western states primary makes sense now:

"This region - for economic reasons, for demographic reasons - is really the emerging region of the United States and therefore needs to be taken more important politically, therefore the importance of this early Western states primary, and I think that's why it is capturing a lot of momentum and good attention, so far."

Organized by the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Utah, The Western Policy Research Network, and the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, Friday's symposium at the Marriott City Center is sponsored by both the Utah Republican and Democratic Parties, among others.

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