Legislators are people too!

When I first started getting involved in politics, I had one issue that was important enough to me, that it actually got me to the Hill. I admit that I was terrified! My voice cracked if I had to speak to a legislator in the hall, let alone testify in committee meeting. I had this image in my head that they – the legislators – were different than me and almost unapproachable.  I am glad to say that I was mistaken – they are real people, with real lives, real concerns and a genuine desire to do a good job.

Over the years, I have talked to enough people that feel the way I felt that I wanted to find a way to let you know that our legislators – the people we elect to represent us – are NOT that different. They live in our communities. Their kids go to the same schools. They drive over the same potholes we do and have many of the same worries. They are not full-time legislators, so they have “real jobs”, from stay-at-home moms, to attorneys, to farmers, to truckers, to teachers, to small business owners and everything in between.  They have to budget and pay taxes, just like the rest of us.  Some “grew up” in politics while others never thought they’d end up involved.  Some have been involved for years, others are relative new-comers.  Some come from the very conservative right, others from the very liberal left and many somewhere in the middle.  I can tell you that I genuinely like individual legislators across the political spectrum.  I’d like to give you the chance to get to know them as real people too.  To that end, I will be doing profiles here – not campaign profiles and a list of resume accomplishments, but real questions everyone wants to know (OK, that I wanted to know.  Feel free to send me ideas as we go forward.)  I hope to have all 75 House members profiled before the next session. Stay tuned for the first of many posts.

And, as proof that they are real people – check out the picture.  From left to right, that is Senator John Valentine, Lt. Governor Gary Herbert, US Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Bob Bennett and former Representative Chris Cannon, channeling the Village People.  At least they kept their shirts on…..

Quote of the day

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

Cicero – 55 BC

What is currently being done HAS been tried before….

Why socialism won’t work

OK, OK, it’s likely an urban legend, but you get the idea, right?  I have been in Eastern Europe several times, the first just months after Ceausescu was executed by the people in Romania.  I have seen what lack of incentive does and it ain’t pretty…..

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D!  No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

More troops in war on terror

President Obama announced today that 4000 new troops will be deployed to Afghanistan to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al Qaeda forces who continue to run amok in the middle east.  Intelligence reports show Al Qaeda is “actively planning” new attacks on the U.S. from safe havens in Pakistan.  According a a Fox news report, Obama said “The situation is increasingly perilous.  The safety of people around the world is at stake.”

The CNN news report added that it is key that Americans understand Pakistan “needs our help” in the fight against al Qaeda.  Obama also said that the United States is seeking to work with the United Nations to develop “greater progress for its mandate to coordinate international action and assistance, and to strengthen Afghan institutions.”

Hmm.  Maybe Bush DID know what he was talking about when he kept saying that we were in danger and could not let up on the war on terror, a position for which he was frequently and strongly castigated….

Race for State Chair

The behind-the-scenes negotiations, finagling, endorsing and encouraging (or discouraging, as the case may be) in the race for Republican party State Chair has led to an interesting line-up as of tonight.

Dave Hansen and Tim Bridgewater are now in the race for state chair, Todd Weiler is out. For vice-chair, we have Morgan Philpot, Christy Achziger and once again, Todd Weiler.

Dave Hansen, long active in the Republican party in Utah and currently on staff for Senator Orrin Hatch, has announced his run for chair, with endorsements from Senators Hatch and Bennett, Representative Jason Chaffetz and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Bennett and Hatch are not surprising, but the endorsement from Chaffetz was received with a fair amount of grumbling from many Chaffetz supporters. When I questioned Congressman Chaffetz on why he would support an “establishment” guy, he reminded me that he makes decisions on a case-by-case basis, that he is now part of “the establishment” himself and that he is also supporting Morgan Philpot for vice-chair, someone who is not a long-time party insider. Chaffetz also said that when he “broke the rules” and ran hard against an incumbent, Dave was very fair to him and is a man of impeccable integrity – a ringing endorsement.  Chaffetz praised Hansen’s fundraising skills and feels that he would do a good job helping candidates to re-take seats lost in the last election, almost all in Salt Lake county.   Hansen will have to convince 50%-plus-one of the state delegates that he is not just there to ensure another run for Hatch or Bennett, as many delegates are quite disillusioned with both of them and count their endorsements as reasons to vote against Hansen. According to the Deseret News, he “ won’t take a party salary but volunteer his time, earning his income by working for Hatch and his other consulting clients”,  a position that is not likely to sit well with many delegates.

Announcing his own run via Facebook later in the day was Tim Bridgewater.  Also a long-time figure in Republican politics in Utah, Bridgewater declined to run for party chair in 2007, saying, also according to the D News,  “I was a 10-state coordinator for Sen. McCain, and was on his campaign payroll, I believed it would be a conflict” to be raising money and doing grassroots work for a … primary candidate ” while still trying to be the spokesman for Utah Republicans.”  He is experienced in grass-roots organizing and has twice garnered more delegate votes than his opponent at state convention, but lost in the primary races to John Swallow, who subsequently lost to Jim Matheson.  He is popular among many delegates and is likely to garner support and endorsements from other heavy-hitters in the political world.

It is shaping up to be quite the race.  Convention is in June.  I look forward to hearing from both candidates between now and then.

Utah County GOP leadership change

On April 25, the Utah county Republican party will be holding its organizing convention.  This year, for the first time in 8 years, Marion  Monnahan is not running for chair, making it an open seat.  To this point, two people have declared their intention to run for chair – Taylor Oldroyd and Steve Diamond – but the deadline is April 10th.  Marion has said that she will not endorse anyone until that deadline has passed, leaving one to wonder if there is someone else waiting in the wings.

Oldroyd, CEO of the Utah County Association of Realtors, recently spent 6 years back in DC as part of the Bush administration, doing three different jobs for the Department of Agriculture.  He was active in Utah politics before his stint in DC and has been active since his return about 16 months ago.  A self-described staunch conservative, he is a firm believer in limited government, property rights and financial responsibility and is looking forward to more openness and transparency in the county party and is using the technological tools now available – Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, etc.

Diamond, a real estate investor and mortgage broker, is also running on a platform of openness and transparency and using the techie tools now out there.  He also advocates eliminating all automatic delegates.  Urged to run by his friend and neighbor, Linda Housekeeper, he feels he can bring a new style of government to the party, one focused on “transparency, neutrality and technology”.  He is relatively new to the political scene in Utah.

Both candidates will continue to have open houses over the next few weeks.  For more information, you can go to:

SL Trib article

Daily Herald article

Steve Diamond’s blog, email him at steve@stevencdiamond.com or call him at 801-830-2400

Email Taylor at taylor@ucaor.com or call (801) 404-8635

and look for them both on Facebook.

Humor from Biden

According to Politico, Joe Biden talked this weekend at the Gridiron Club and quipped:

President Obama does send his greetings, though. He can’t be here tonight — because he’s busy getting ready for Easter. (Whisper) He thinks it’s about him. …

(OK, I don’t know if that’s funny or just scary….)

Biden continued:

I understand these are dark days for the newspaper business, but I hate it when people say that newspapers are obsolete. That’s totally untrue. I know from firsthand experience. I recently got a puppy, and you can’t housebreak a puppy on the Internet.…

We are now two months into the Obama-Biden administration and the President and I have become extremely close. To give you an idea of how close we are, he told me that next year — maybe, just maybe — he’s going to give me his blackberry email address. … But the Obama Administration really is a good team. I am the experienced veteran. Rahm can be an enforcer. And Tim Geithner is always there when you need to borrow money. And no questions asked.

I wonder if the same people who think Jason Chaffetz shouldn’t be displaying a sense of humor are going to go after Biden?  Nah….probably not.

Utah’s 2012 race

According to LaVar Webb and Deseret News columnist Bob Bernick, there is already plenty of speculation on the 2012 races.  Bernick points out that the 2012 race will see an open slot for governor, a potential new 4th congressional seat, the juggle on the state level after redistricting in 2011 and potentially the attorney general’s spot and perhaps an open Senate seat, if Orrin Hatch decides to retire.

Webb said about the governor’s spot:

A group of political junkies were sitting around at lunch talking about who has been mentioned by the Great Mentioners  as 2012 gubernatorial prospects. Here’s the list:  Republicans: Gary Herbert, Mark Shurtleff, Lane Beattie, John Valentine, David Clark, Kirk Jowers, Kevin Garn, Brent Brown, Merrill Cook, Natalie Gochnour, Chris Cannon, Jason Chaffetz. Democrat: Jim Matheson. The list will grow, and watch for some surprise candidates.

It will be interesting to watch things unfold over the next couple of years.

More on the caffeine tax

As a follow-up to the follow-up, Rep. Craig Frank has posted the following on his blog: Less Tax…Not More.  This should clarify his position that he was NOT SERIOUS, but he proposed studying a tax on “cold caffeine” to make a point.  It went viral, surprising not only Representative Frank, but long-time journalists like Robert Gerhke.   I think more people have been talking about a “targeted tax” in the last week than probably the last ten years.  What do you think?

Chaffetz: Cut up the credit card

Congressman Jason Chaffetz, representing Utah’s third district, has his own column on CNN. This morning, he posted an article calling for fiscal discipline and for the feds to stop running the government on a credit card!

Some pertinent points:

I want to remind Congress what my constituents already know: We cannot be all things to all people. In my opinion, we have to cut the size and scope of government. Further, we cannot continue to run this country on a credit card. We are racking up unimaginable and unsustainable debt. I was sent here to join those who would fight for accountability. That is my priority.

Starting a new program seems to be relatively easy compared to cutting something in the federal bureaucracy. It’s much easier to be the party of “yes” than the party of “no” when it comes to spending in this town. But I didn’t come here to take the easy path. There are nearly 1,200 federal programs. We can live without many of them. Such as a World War II era program that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize mohair.

He is also enlisting the help of all those willing to join the fight to rein in the out-of-control spending we currently see.  He and his staff are keeping a binder full of business cards from people who visit their office. On the back of each card, the visitor has written one idea for making government smarter, smaller and more efficient.  If you want to send Congressman Chaffetz your ideas, drop by his office in Provo (and soon in West Jordan), call the district office at 801-851-2500 or just email him.  I can tell you from personal experience, the office staff is responsive and pretty quick.