SALT LAKE CITY - Utah credit unions finally have some good newsto cheer about this month in the race for the state's governorafter helping engineer a successful grassroots lobbying campaign toturn back the Republican candidacy of House Speaker Marty Stephens,a CU antagonist. "A very good picture was presented," is how LeagueChairman Steve Christensen put it in describing the outcome of thepreferential primary balloting which took place May 8 at thestate's GOP Convention attended by 3,500 delegates. Stephens, aformer vice president of Zions Bank and who at one time wasdepicted as a hatchetman for Harrris J. Simmons, the bank'schairman whose family has long tried to wage a national anti-CUvendetta, came in fifth in the convention voting. The two topwinners - both considered to have tacitly favorable views about CUgrowth and who face a June 22 GOP primary runoff - are: JonHuntsman Jr., the scion of a wealthy Salt Lake family and formerU.S. ambassador to Singapore, and Nolan Karras, chairman of theState Board of Regents and a key aide in bringing the U.S. Olympicsto Utah in 2002. In the voting, Huntsman won 51% while Karras got49% with a 60% margin required to avoid a runoff. While bothHuntsman and Karras spoke briefly on their views regarding CUs atprivate League committee meetings in April, the League's chairman,Steve Christensen, said their "philosophies" regarding CUs would beexplored in new meetings between now and the June 22 primary.Christensen, who also is president of Tooele FCU, did not elaborateon what topics might be explored, but heading the list would likelybe the candidates' attitude on the persistent banker-led campaignto impose taxes on both state and federal CUs in the 2005 session.Also on the list would be field-of-membership expansion, thepending federal district court suit here challenging NCUA FOMrulings, and the outlook for improving conditions forstate-chartered CUs on business loans. Christensen said themeetings with Huntsman and Karras would be held to "hear more indepth" on the issues impacting CUs. In the meantime, Christensensaid the outcome of the May 8 voting and Stephens' defeat wasclearly a plus for CUs and evidence of the ability of CUs to musteran effective campaign to buttonhole GOP delegates. Just prior tothe voting, the League had sent out letters to a broad "swath" ofthe delegates encouraging them to vote against Stephens because ofhis close identification with the banker-led, anti-CU cause. It wasgratifying, said Christensen, "that credit unions and theirsupporters weighed in" on the primary race. The Tooele CU executivereiterated the League's view that its campaign against Stephens was"nothing personal" but that his views were inimical to theinterests of the Utah public. "We have nothing derogatory to saypersonally about Stephens but he is not a credit union advocate,"concluded Christensen. During his term as speaker, Stephens hadpromoted the 2003 bill to tax CUs. Christensen said "Utah is thereal winner" in the voting having made upstanding choices on boththe GOP and Democratic sides in the May 8 conventions. Because Utahis a strongly GOP state, most of the political attention wasfocused on the GOP race but the June 22 winner will face theDemocrat nominee, Scott Matheson Jr. Christensen said the Leaguewill also seek the views of Matheson on CU issues. Defeated in theconvention balloting was the state's now lame-duck GOP governor,Olene Walker, who had appeared at a League meeting pledging to helprestore the dual federal/state system in Utah damaged by the bankanti-CU tax attacks. Those attacks had triggered a dozenconversions to federal charter and the loss of millions in incometo the state. Walker, the former lieutenant governor, assumed thejob last year following President Bush's appointment of Gov.Michael Leavitt as head of the Environmental Protection agency.-

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