Month: March 2010

If McCain Were President

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photo credit: Wigwam Jones

After another year of domestic turmoil and political shenanigans, a year of watching President Obama in office rather than out on the campaign trail, I find myself frequently having the thought “if only McCain had been elected President instead.”

The thought came again today but unlike previous times I feel like sharing what would likely have happened in a McCain administration to this point.

If McCain had been president he would not have received the Nobel Peace Prize and Justice Souter would not have retired so he would not likely have named any justices to the Supreme Court by this point in his presidency. As far as issues that he would have dealt with that Obama has been dealing with I would like to address health care legislation, auto bailouts, stimulus, and Iran.

Tags 2008, Elevated, McCain, Obama, president

culture Local

Community Caucus

photo credit: San Jose Library

There seems to be some confusion in the public mind about the purpose and nature of caucus meetings. For example Thomas Wright, chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, is quoted in this article on KSL.com saying:

{the candidates have been busy recruiting people to show and get elected at those meetings.}

“That’s why it’s more important than ever for the everyday citizen who hasn’t been recruited by a candidate to go to their caucus meeting and run to be a delegate. If they allow the candidates to recruit and get their people elected as delegates, then ultimately the voice of that neighborhood has been taken away.”

This statement implies that those who have done their research before the caucus meeting and settled on a candidate are not “everyday citizens.” I freely admit my own reservations with choosing candidates who are focused only on one of the races they will be expected to vote on, but simply because a person has already chosen their senate candidate does not mean that they are not everyday citizens in their neighborhoods.

Tags caucus, Elevated, reform

Local

Reforming Caucus Meetings

Post author By David
Post date March 26, 2010
No Comments on Reforming Caucus Meetings

I’m sure I’ll have a number of posts trying to define what needs to be reformed and how to reform those things but I’d like to start a list of the things that need to be addressed as I see it in the immediate aftermath of the meeting this week.

We need to accomodate the crowds better.
Some informality is nice but there must be some clarity about how things are supposed to work – especially for people who have never attended before.
Two hours is not long enough to deal with such an important task. People need to get prepared in advance so that they do not end up ignoring or passing over issues of importance.
One issue or one race should not dominate the decisions that will decide who is in power for two years.

I recognize that this list could expand but as you can see there are issues that should be dealt with by the community, the party, and individuals. I plan to take action on all those fronts. In fact I have already started trying to ensure that there is an ongoing forum for political thought and discussion within our precinct so that we can stay informed rather than simply brushing up on the issues in the days before the meeting and more importantly so that we can have an idea of where we stand relative to others in our precinct.

Tags caucus, reform

culture Local

A Crusade is Born

photo credit: elycefeliz

I woke up this morning incredibly frustrated. The fact that I am not a state delegate as I had hoped to be is a surprisingly small part of the reason for my frustration. The majority of my frustration is with the way the caucus meeting was held and conducted. I’ll skip the details for today but if you want to get an idea read Tyler Riggs’ caucus experience – it’s remarkably similar to mine.

If you had asked me yesterday I would have told you that professional or career politicians were at the root of our political problems at all levels of government. As of this morning I’m convinced that political novices are either aiding and abetting them or else giving them a run for their money regarding how much damage they can do to the cause of good government.

Tags caucus, Elevated, reform

National

Reality Bites

photo credit: erin m

Before the health care vote even started candidates and elected officials opposed to this atrocious excuse for health care reform were pledging to repeal it if passed. They have asked citizens to support those who are willing to repeal this bill. When it passed they renewed their pledge. That’s great on paper but the reality is that we are unlikely to ever have the super-majority necessary to override a veto should a bill to repeal ever pass. That means that efforts to repeal would have to wait at least three years until we got a president willing to repeal this monstrosity. Sadly the voters have shown many times that they do not have a three year attention span. As for congress, I find it miraculous that they had a two year attention span on this issue—perhaps they managed because they completely abandoned paying any attention to how much the voters disliked this particular piece of rancid sausage.

Tags Elevated, health care

Local State

Tasks for State Delegates

Post author By David
Post date March 19, 2010
No Comments on Tasks for State Delegates

Heading into the last few days before the precinct caucus meetings I feel that it is important to acknowledge that state delegates have more to do than simply vote for the senate candidate of their choice at the convention. I know that my focus here has been on that race and it seems that many other people focus primarily there. I can honstly say that only the various senate campaigns seem to be making a large push to get their supporters to run as delegates.

At the caucus meetings it is important for those running for state delegate positions (and those who are voting for delegates), regardless of which senate candidate they may favor, to keep in mind that delegates have more to do than pick and support a senate candidate. For example, in my precinct there are three offices that have intra-party challenges (assuming nobody files to run for the Republican nomination against Rob Bishop today):

Governor — Gary Herbert, Richard Martin, and “SuperDell” Schanze
U.S. Senate — Bob Bennett, Tim Bridgewater, David Chiu, Cherilyn Eagar, Leonard Fabiano, and Mike Lee
House District 20 — Becky Edwards, Chet Loftis, and D J Schanz

Interestingly the incumbent is alphabetically first in each of those races.

All caucus attendees need to keep in mind that a state delegate must attend to each of the races, not just the one they are most interested in. We may give more weight to the race that we are most concerned with but we must realize that the position encompasses all the races.

Tags 2010, Becky Edwards, Bob Bennett, Cherilyn Eagar, Davis County, Gary Herbert, House 20, Mike Lee, senate, state delegate, Tim Bridgewater, Utah

life Local

Campaign Week

I have spent months gathering information and studying candidates and issues as well as learning about my precinct since I didn’t live here until just after the caucus meetings two years ago. I have talked to a number of my neighbors although I have tried not to overwhelm anyone with my interest in politics. Now we come down to the final week before our precinct caucus meeting and hopefully a week from today I will be, as one person succinctly described it, “every candidate’s best friend.” In other words, a state delegate in the Republican party.

Now is the time to more actively campaign among my neighbors and let them get to know more about my political interests than could be displayed within the limitations of a caucus meeting. In addition to sharing reminders about the caucus meeting that would inform people about my intent to seek a state delegate position, I’m thinking about holding a small pre-caucus meeting where people in the neighborhood could come talk together about issues.

Anyone have any thoughts about such an idea?

Tags 2010, campaigns

culture Local State

Demanding Accountability

With Kevin Garn resigning, the possibility of closure for the legislature over this sad story is within sight. By resigning promptly Rep. Garn has demonstrated greater wisdom than some of his colleagues who facilitated this public circus by allowing this to be aired from the chamber floor and then giving him a standing ovation.

Out of respect for the seriousness of this situation and the honor that should prevail within the elective body this should have been handled somwhere other than the floor of the house. Regardless of where the public announcement was made it should not have been followed with applause for any reason. (I might make an exception if he had chosen to announce his resignation in the same prepared statement.) I’m not saying that his colleagues should have publicly castigated him when he made the announcement but there was nothing to applaud in his admission of shameful past actions.

I believe that anyone who participated in that inappropriate applause should publicly explain their participation. Anyone who does not do so in the next few days should face at least a token opposition in the primaries by an opponent who will demand an explanation of that action. There are only two possible explanations: “I was foolishly caught up in the crowd” or “I was coerced to join in the applause.” Either reason should be publicly acknowledged.

I questioned my own representative relative to what happened and her explanation was in line with “it was a reaction to very surprising news.” In her own words she said:

At that time, his statement was so out of context for what we were expecting to hear . . . My personal reaction at that initial moment of hearing the 2 minute statement was thinking that while his political career was most likely over, 1) that the forthright nature of the confession was admirable and courageous, 2) the work he had done as a legislator was effective . . . and 3) he had been a real support to me on several tough issues this session. Those 3 thoughts, combined with the fact that in the House we have a propensity to stand and clap for everything, led to that reaction from all of us. Also, when Speaker Clark finished his statement it was an invitation to stand and support our colleague. There was no condoning or justification or excusing the behavior included in the statement, however.

Now, understand, the standing/clapping is a very different issue than condoning the initial behavior . . .

However, I can see how inappropriate the clapping was and the message that it sends to the public. It is confusing and misleading at best and ultimately was the wrong reaction to a wrong venue for a significant statement such as this. (From private email correspondence—used with permission.)

I consider that to be a reasonable explanation especially in light of a statement she made later that as more information has become available she is very disturbed by the behavior.

I think it is as important for the public to be conscious of how much more we know now than was public when his statement was read as it is for public officials (now and in the future) to recognize that a very measured public response is always in order (whether in drafting laws or in supporting a colleague) because the public will still see their initial response after more information is available.

Tags 2010, Becky Edwards, Davis County, House 20, Kevin Garn, legislature, Utah

State

Public Office and Private Morality

Post author By David
Post date March 12, 2010
11 Comments on Public Office and Private Morality

photo credit: aurélien.

Just to be clear from the beginning, this topic is inspired by the Kevin Garn story and while I will refer to that story specifically everything I say is meant to apply to any matters of the private morality of a public official.

First, I would like to say that Rep. Garn seems to be dealing with this in the best way he knows how. Second, I agree with this comment on Holly’s site saying that we should:

hold our elected officials to the highest moral and ethical standards

Having said those things, I don’t believe that Rep. Garn’s problem is any of my business because he is not my representative. If he were my representative that would be another story.

Tags Elevated, ethics, Kevin Garn, media, morality, Salt Lake Tribune, Utah

State

Senator Cook

In case anyone has forgotten (or perhaps you simply missed this blip of news) Merrill Cook is running to replace Bob Bennett in the U.S. Senate. If you happen to be among the forgetful or uninformed you are hereby unequivocally forgiven based on the fact that Mr. Cook made his announcement (at the same time as James Williams abandoned his bid) and then promptly disappeared from the public eye.

If this is typical of his many previous campaigns it is a wonder that he was ever elected to anything and no wonder that he lost so many races he ran in. More importantly, if this is any indicaion of how he operates then he has no business being a legislative aid in Washington, let alone a senator. His rightful place in the capital could be nothing more than “tourist” if this disappearing act is any indicator. So far it appears that every single candidate is working harder than Mr. Cook despite the fact that every one of them had a headstart.

Tags 2010, candidates, Merrill Cook, senate, Utah