Wednesday, September 19, 2007

With former Gov. Calvin L. Rampton's passing earlier this week and the viewings and funeral set for Thursday, hordes of old Democrats are expected to fly into Salt Lake City to pay their respects. It brings to mind several great stories involving Rampton and his time in office and here is one of them: It was 1967 and Rampton was in the midst of his first term in office. He was planning to run for re-election in 1968, but felt he needed a State Democratic Party chairman more supportive of him in order to succeed. The current chairman, Ray Pruitt, had criticized Rampton because he didn't think he was partisan enough. Rampton got his old friend Wally Sandack to run and at the convention Sandack was nominated. Rampton recalls in his memoirs that a delegate named Bart Lower stood up and asked for the microphone. Rampton thought he was going to second Sandack's nomination but instead Lower went into an anti-Jewish rant, since Sandack was Jewish. Lower said the Democrats "can't have a Jew running the party," especially, he added, since George Romney, the governor of Michigan and a Mormon, was running for president in 1968.
George Romney's younger brother, Charles Romney, was a Utah Democrat and was also a delegate at the convention. He suddenly ran down the aisle and challenged Lower to a fist-fight.
The Sergeant of Arms broke it up.
Cheers, Paul Rolly