Category: Local
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Endorsing Laura Belnap
School board races tend to fly under the radar and rarely do I see one candidate shine compared to their opponent but this is one of those times.
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I’m In
Well, I’ve been struggling with the question of whether I should run to replace Jim Nielson in House District 19 since he announced that he won’t run for another term. Apparently Mike Leavitt told Mitt Romney about it and Mitt took the time to share his thoughts: With that encouragement how could I not…
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Thoughts on Caucus System Reform
Curt Bentley has an excellent post in which he discusses the issue of reforming the caucus system. I really appreciate the methodical approach he has taken to examine the issue. I completely agree with each of his guiding principles and while I suspect I am more comfortable with the caucus system in its current form…
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Strengthening Our Caucus System
Instead of sidestepping our caucus system we should strengthen it by keeping what it is good at (leveling the playing field for candidates) and improving where it is weak (disenfranchising less popular political positions). We can do that by changing the way delegates are chosen.
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Perceived Electability and IRV – A Case Study
As a followup to last night’s special election to fill Dan Liljenquist’s term as State Senator, I noticed some interesting things based on my interactions with other delegates and my review of the actual results (round-by-round, not just the final tally). First let me provide some metrics that some people might be interested in –…
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Special Election – Senate District 23
Regardless of who is ends up finishing the state senate term that Dan Liljenquist was elected for there is one campaign promises that I would hold them to even if the eventual winner did not make this promise personally: to make representation a two way street by actively providing information to constituents during the session…
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The Straw Man of Teacher Pay
photo credit: 2create I saw a post on Facebook, and later an email, with a title about how overpaid teachers are. The post went on to show mathematically that teachers are not overpaid by any reasonable measurement. Teachers and their unions would certainly appreciate the logic in their favor but the real value that I…
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Ongoing Local Discussion
photo credit: dorineruter I’ve shared some ideas (and will be doing whatever work I can to see that they get implemented) about how to make caucus meeting accommodations that are better suited to having productive and effective caucus meetings. I realize that having comfortable accommodations does nothing to address the issue of having ill-informed or…
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Davis County GOP Convention
I wanted to share a few thoughts from the Davis County Republican Party convention from Saturday. It was fun for me as the first time I have attended such a convention with the ability to vote. Because I have spent so much energy researching and considering the Senate race and other races that will be…
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Caucus Accomodations
I think it is a sign of how casually we view our caucuses that parties can do so little to make them successful. It is a sign of the apathy of the general population to the political process that party leaders really have no idea how many people to plan for and a sign of…