The 2008 Deseret General Election was the 20th quadrennial general election. There were notable changes with this election compared with other elections of the Republic of Deseret. The collapse of the Zion Curtain and the disintegration of the Union of American Republics the previous year brought a flood of issues for the new state to address both in the quickly called constitutional convention and the general election. Once the government had gotten it's feet together, the old People's and Liberal parties agreed to unite into a single joint party of People's Liberal. A once suppressed far right party known as the Deseret Nationalists emerged and exploded in popularity for disgruntled party officials and the expanded general voting population of nearly ten million, a third of the total state's population.
The government would be established under an English model thanks to the large heritage groups with anglo origins that hoped for speedy diplomatic recognition as an independent state if a british like model of governance would be adopted as the political system. While those on the DN argued for something "Uniquely Deseretian", the agreement was reached to establish the position of Prime Minister, Dual tickets for a political party and grant 3 members from the capital.
At the Deseret National party nomination, two main front runners for the position appeared as attractive candidates:
William "Mitt" Romney
Orrin Hatch
The Hatch supporters decided to caucus with the Romney delegates to the convention and formally nominated Romney as the official DN nominee for Prime Minister on the second balloting by a narrow majority.
Hatch was placed on the ballot as the joint nominee with Romney for the Dual Ticket to fuse the two parties together.
Chaos reigned within the Communist Worker's nomination halls, with hardliners wanting a 21st term for the long serving Hinckley were met with the younger guard that pressed for "young blood" to revolutionize the party's aging and shrinking demographically targets. They argued there would be loads of new voters that would be unfamiliar with Hinckley's stances on issues, and that a newer face of the CWP needed to be their primary concern.
There were rumors of legalizing same sex marriage, but this proposed platform was swiftly withdrawn from consideration by the liberal branch of the party over outrage by the staunchly hardline members and the moderates, both of which could shoot down the proposed amendment to the platform with a voice vote.
Nominee Uchdorf made a backroom deal with Hinckley to promise a rigged party leadership election in the octogenarian's favor if Uchdorf would withdraw from the ballot to ensure Hinckley the nomination as the candidate for Prime Minister. He would agree to this, but only if Anderson failed to get more than 50 delegates to support him on the second ballot.
Uchdorf kept his word and officially withdrew his name from consideration as a political candidate. 50 of the Uchdorf Delegates, now left with two choices, decided to instead walk out of the convention. The Nomination went to Hinckley because of Anderson's poor showing in the third and final ballot.
The combination of the two former political parties, a necessity if vote splitting was to be avoided, happened to have the smoothest nomination process for the Joint ticket. Former Mayor of Salt Lake City John Huntsman, was an incredibly popular choice for the delegates, and won nomination on the first ballot with a unanimous vote of 63.
The First, three hour long Prime Minister debate held on August 23rd, 2008 was the most watched event in Deseretian history, with an estimated 19.2 million people tuning in on the television, while the radio broadcast nabbed a respectful 5.9 million listeners during the debate and newspaper presses printed out a total of 4.5 million papers with each quote in the entire debate being listed (That edition of Revolutionary Morning had over 304 pages in the newspaper, 4 devoted to various front page gossip and 300 to the debates and each line of dialogue.)
The Results of the election came in two entire months after the only debate. Incredibly early exit polls from generally safe CW dual tickets encouraged predictions of a sweeping Communist Worker's victory. This overconfidence seeped into the media, with the Deseret People's News, a state owned corporation boasting/predicting only "9 counties to go to Romney and 1 to defect to Huntsman." The DPN's actual numbers were off by 47 more than expected for Romney and 30 more than thought could go to the People's-Liberal nominee.
With the devastating defeat of nearly 177 members of the Communist Worker's Party, Prime Minister Gordon B. Hinckley delivered his letter of resignation to the Deseretian Parliament, who accepted it unanimously. Many of those hardline CW members that shut out the young guard from the convention in favor of the aging candidate were horrified at the prospect of electing some one younger, and so rushed to find a replacement in the age range of 70 to 80 years old that had good habits to ensure a long life span.
The previous deal of leadership alteration was leaked to the public, with many CW members howling for someone to blame for the defeat. Hinckley became an immense subject of hatred for the CW membership and the state owned media, who, now under the control of Dieter F. Uchdorf, became merciless at Hinckley's long term of office, bringing up the thousands of illegal activities the Hinckley branch of the political arm had done in the 80 years of power that they had enjoyed.
The government would be established under an English model thanks to the large heritage groups with anglo origins that hoped for speedy diplomatic recognition as an independent state if a british like model of governance would be adopted as the political system. While those on the DN argued for something "Uniquely Deseretian", the agreement was reached to establish the position of Prime Minister, Dual tickets for a political party and grant 3 members from the capital.
At the Deseret National party nomination, two main front runners for the position appeared as attractive candidates:
William "Mitt" Romney
Orrin Hatch
The Hatch supporters decided to caucus with the Romney delegates to the convention and formally nominated Romney as the official DN nominee for Prime Minister on the second balloting by a narrow majority.
Deseret National First Ballot
Romney: 62/122
Hatch: 60/122
Second Ballot
Romney: 70/122
Hatch: 52/122
Romney: 62/122
Hatch: 60/122
Second Ballot
Romney: 70/122
Hatch: 52/122
Hatch was placed on the ballot as the joint nominee with Romney for the Dual Ticket to fuse the two parties together.
Chaos reigned within the Communist Worker's nomination halls, with hardliners wanting a 21st term for the long serving Hinckley were met with the younger guard that pressed for "young blood" to revolutionize the party's aging and shrinking demographically targets. They argued there would be loads of new voters that would be unfamiliar with Hinckley's stances on issues, and that a newer face of the CWP needed to be their primary concern.
There were rumors of legalizing same sex marriage, but this proposed platform was swiftly withdrawn from consideration by the liberal branch of the party over outrage by the staunchly hardline members and the moderates, both of which could shoot down the proposed amendment to the platform with a voice vote.
Communist Worker's First Ballot
Gordon B. Hinckley: 207/400
Dieter F. Uchdorf: 152/400
Neil L. Anderson: 41/400
Gordon B. Hinckley: 207/400
Dieter F. Uchdorf: 152/400
Neil L. Anderson: 41/400
Communist Worker's Second Ballot
Gordon B. Hinckley: 193/400
Dieter F. Uchdorf: 160/400
Neil L. Anderson: 47/400
Gordon B. Hinckley: 193/400
Dieter F. Uchdorf: 160/400
Neil L. Anderson: 47/400
Communist Worker's Third Ballot
Gordon B. Hinckley: 350/400
Neil L. Anderson: 50/400
People's Liberal First Ballot
John Huntsman 63/63
Gordon B. Hinckley: 350/400
Neil L. Anderson: 50/400
People's Liberal First Ballot
John Huntsman 63/63
General Debate
Memorable lines from the First Debate:
- Romney: "Our national defense must be kept up so that our armed forces can be entrusted with the safety of the nation. I know trying new things is difficult, Prime Minister, but we have to get over our fears of losing and just try our best! That'll be my new campaign slogan, Try our Best."
- Huntsman: "I have nothing against people that live different lifestyles with me, we'll have to shop with them, eat with them and live with them. The LGBT community has had a silenced voice in Deseret for too long, and if I am elected Prime Minister, their voices shall no longer be silenced."
- Hinckley: "I am the most experienced Politician here-"
- Romney: "You're also ninety-eight years old, Prime Minister. The People seek new blood in the waters for us to test out, and if you're in the way of progress-"
- Hinckley: "I'm not in the way of progress, I can try new things, In fact, I'll attempt to eat my shoe, that's new! I'm rhyming too, what a flu!"
- Hinckley proceeds to put his shoe in his mouth before spitting it out.
- Hinckley: "I guess I can't."
Results
With the devastating defeat of nearly 177 members of the Communist Worker's Party, Prime Minister Gordon B. Hinckley delivered his letter of resignation to the Deseretian Parliament, who accepted it unanimously. Many of those hardline CW members that shut out the young guard from the convention in favor of the aging candidate were horrified at the prospect of electing some one younger, and so rushed to find a replacement in the age range of 70 to 80 years old that had good habits to ensure a long life span.
The previous deal of leadership alteration was leaked to the public, with many CW members howling for someone to blame for the defeat. Hinckley became an immense subject of hatred for the CW membership and the state owned media, who, now under the control of Dieter F. Uchdorf, became merciless at Hinckley's long term of office, bringing up the thousands of illegal activities the Hinckley branch of the political arm had done in the 80 years of power that they had enjoyed.