Convention Summary

You can see the Deseret News summary of the Convention here. If you are interested in the specific results for the county leadership positions you can find them here.

I'm going to keep it simple and just focus my thoughts and takeaways from our breakout meetings with State Senator Margaret Dayton and Representative Keith Grover.

Senate District Meeting

We met with Senator Margaret Dayton for about 45 minutes. I like Margaret but, I thought she did a couple of interesting things. First off she started by writing the toll-free subscription number to the NRA magazine. I'm all for the 2nd Amendment, but I would have prefered her to simply recomment the publication as one she enjoys rather than actually providing the number.

Second interesting announcement; surprisingly she thanked everyone who had encouraged her to run for the US Senate, but announced that she would be running for the State Senate and not the US Senate. Of course she was flattered, but no, just the boring old Utah State Senate. I wish her well in her re-election bid. Rumor is that Greg Hudnall is considering a challenge run, which would make for an interesting race. I'll keep my ear to the ground on this one...

Sen. Dayton did say she hadn't talked to Rep. Fowlke beforehand, but she proceeded to invite Rep. Lorie Fowlke up to the front so we as delegates could get an opposing view from two Republicans on the rivers/private property issue. Maybe it's not a big deal nor her intention, but it seemed like she was trying to put Lorie on the spot a bit. I don't want to get into the rivers issue here, but truth be told, I thought Rep. Fowlke came off well. She was well spoken and her reasoning logical.

My takeaway: Margaret approaches issues ideologically, someone like Lorie approaches them pragmatically. I think both are healthy and needed not only in the Republican Party but government in general. I enjoyed hearing the two perspectives and I'm glad Margaret did what she did (just give a gal a head's-up first next time!).

During our Senate breakout session Lt. Governor Gary Herbert took a few minutes for an update. He was well spoken and took on the issues straightforwardly. The interesting takeaway was to see him distancing himself a bit from Governor Huntsman on issues like civil unions and global warming. Gary was clearly setting himself up for a run at the Gov's spot in 2012. I think he's got a good shot. He was in good form on Saturday.


Legislative District Meeting
Next up was our meeting with Representative Keith Grover. I'll start with my takeaway from this meeting: Keith is definitely coming into his own. It was the most confident I've ever seen him speak in front of a group of delegates.

He mentioned a couple of times how much he really feels he's bound to be responsive to us as delegates and thinks about us when he votes. I believe he does. Keith reviewed a couple of the high profile issues from the last session; One being ethics. Keith said that he feels the ethics issue is addressed every two years when the people vote and that was good enough. I understand what he means, but I think most people (and the delegates sitting around me) feel that more could be done. It probably deserves a separate blog post in the future so I'll leave it there for now.

One delegate from Vineyard asked about the Anderson development end-run around Vineyard to get the County to do an RDA. I blogged about that issue last week. You can read that post here. Keith expressed concern about how important the project is but didn't have much more to add to the previous comments, which included pretty much the same concerns I brought up in my post. It's an important issue for our area.

Since education wasn't a real big issue with the session Keith didn't bring it up in his summary. The question did come up though. There was some discussion from the delegates expressing desire to see more movement towards choice in education and charter school expansion. Also, autism legislation was discussed.

During the winter months we have some of the worst air in the country. So I asked Keith if there was anything that could be done to improve our air quality in Utah County. Keith said he had asked some officials about it and really given our geography the only thing that could be done - was to move. I was kind of surprised that that was the response. Because really, there are things we can all do, but how much of a difference would it make? I'm not really sure. I'm not satisfied with the moving option so I'm going to do some additional research - stay tuned! But in the meantime check out this press release regarding a BYU-Harvard study on the topic here.

My Major Takeaway: I thought there was a lot of chest thumping with each official and candidate trying to out-conservative each other. Which is fine I suppose at an off-year convention. Being conservative is who we are - we all get that. But, I'm a bit concerned that the Party is missing a lot of opportunities for greater discussion on a number of issues people face every day - I-15, Geneva Development, Economic Development, Ethics reform, Education, Environment (just to name a few). Is our Party really in touch with the issues most important to most Utahns?

Power Grab?

Geneva site Developers Look to Bypass Vineyard

I'm not sure if this is a power grab by Anderson Development or not. It has all the makings of one though.

Anderson appears to be doing an end run around Vineyard to develop the old Geneva site. The way Anderson is going about things makes it seem a little suspect. Basically, the development company is asking Utah County to create an RDA (Redevelopment Agency) - even though Vineyard claims it can handle it. An RDA is kind of like a separate governing/taxing entity so it would essentially limit Vineyard's say in what and how Anderson develops the property.

Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs not withstanding the old Geneva site is really one of the last prime development opportunities in Utah County. So this is a big deal. It's important that it be done right. By right I'm including proper transportation infrastructure - can you imagine '000s of homes right off of 1600 North in Orem with cars all trying to get on and off I-15 during rush hour? It needs the right mix of industrial and commercial zoning, residential zoning - multi-unit/single unit mix, ect...this is a big deal for our neck of the woods in Utah County.

My question is why is Anderson treating Vineyard like a pebble in its shoe? I realize its a tiny city but why not engage and be good corporate citizens? I think transparency in government is the best practice and in this case a little transparency into the motives behind the move towards a county level RDA would go a long ways. Is it for financing purposes? infrastructure? planning? what?

There may be very good reasons for the County to do this versus Vineyard, but I have yet to see Anderson Development make the case - at least publicly.

Provo Race Getting Crowded

Neighborhood chairman considering run for Provo mayor

Don Allphin throws his hat in the ring.

This makes three declared candidates with Mayor Billings who says: "he is leaning toward running, but wants to get his family's full support before making any formal commitment."

The Mayor is clearly in the race. With Representative Steve Clark declaring a few weeks ago its quickly becoming a crowded field. Conventional wisdom would say that three challengers will dilute the angry voters and favor the incumbent. However, I see three challengers as a symptom of dissent among the ranks.

Parallels

There are a number of interesting parallels to Chris Cannon's situation one year ago. First, both Cannon and Billings had/have served for 12 years. If Billings is elected that's 16 years as Mayor. I repeat 16 years as Mayor! (this isn't the US Senate you know). Second, a couple of high profile issues appear to be weighing on the incumbent; Cannon-illegal immigration and Billings-iProvo. And third, each race had/has a field of very well qualified candidates. In the congressional race you had Chris Cannon, David Leavitt and Jason Chaffetz. In the Mayor's race there's Rep. Steve Clark, Businessman John Curtis, now neighborhood activist Don Allphin, and Mayor Billings.

With this many declared candidates for Mayor (the final deadline to file isn't until July) I think folks smell blood in the water and see Mayor Billings as vulnerable.

I've commited my support to John Curtis. I'll blog more about why in a future post, but I'll say that John's positioning himself well and has shown his abilty to be a good organizer. He's got an early start and has already siphoned off a number of local heavy hitters as endorsments - people who had supported Billings in the past. You can see that list here.

Representative Clark has been in the legislature since 2001 (see his House campaign site here)and before that served three terms on the city council. Steve's wife Cindy is currently on the City Council. Steve's got history that's for sure, but he's never had a serious race. It will be interesting to see if he can mobilize the ground troops on a city-wide level. As he said here, he still has a lot of ground to cover to catch up to Curtis organization-wise.

I'm excited to see so many qualified candidates. I think the competition will breed constructive debate and hopefully the various campaigns will get folks here in Provo involved and excited about our city and its future.

If I had to handicap the race at this point:

Billings: 1/3

Clark: 1/5

Curtis: 1/2

Allphin: 1/9

Good luck to all the candidates!

Orrin Off the Top Rope

Hatch: 'The Rock' and I could kick butt

Can't you just see it now?

While Hatch & The Rock's manager 'Mr. Fuji' is distracting Harry Reid...Orrin 'The Hammer' Hatch swings Senator Durbin into the turnbuckle. Then he tags The Rock to finish him off with a pile driver.

If Sonny Bono (hand over heart) can get elected to congress why not The Rock?

'Shalom'

Israel backers big source of Bishop's campaign cash

The SLTrib this morning ran an article about Congressman Bishop getting most of his last quarter's campaign cash from Pro-Israel groups.

My take: Given Bishop's LDS affiliation it comes as no big surprise he's pro Israel - I am too. And really, Bishop has never been big on fund raising. My guess is he really didn't try very hard to raise money this quarter - NORPAC offered to do a fundraiser for him and he did it.

I thought the most interesting quote is Bishop's take on Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bishop says: "Netanyahu would be an excellent American politician." He's right, but given how much aid we send to Israel I'd argue Netanyahu already is...

Thanks Bill

Utah lost a great leader and statesman last Saturday. Sadly former Congressman Bill Orton was killed in an ATV accident.

I first met Representative Orton when I was a senior in high school. I was visiting Washington DC with the National Youth Leadership Conference (NYLC). The Congressman was kind enough to visit with three not-yet-able-to-vote high school kids who didn't even live in his district at the time. When his staff informed him he had a vote he suggested we walk over to the Capitol with him.

I remember walking through the tunnels from his office to the Capitol and him stopping to show us some of the pieces of artwork submited from students across the country. He seemed particularly proud of the Utah entries. We stood outside the House Chambers in awe as we watched the various members of Congress walk through security to vote.

When we returned to his office he took a polariod (remember those?) with each us individually and encouraged us to consider doing an internship in DC during our college careers. I remember him as being friendly, kind, sincere, and intelligent.

That hour or so he spent with three kids from Utah left a big impression on me. I did do an internship as a graduate student on Capitol Hill and often thought of my experience with Congressman Orton years later as I walked through those same tunnels as a congressional staffer.

Utah lost a good man on Saturday. In an era of the one-liners and eight second soundbites I wish our country more men like Bill Orton. My thoughts and prayers go to him and his family.

Welcome

Just getting started blogging here. I've enjoyed microblogging on my Facebook status updates then tried Twitter, but wanted to do something where I could expound a bit more.

I enjoy local politics and the occasional quip on business here and there. You can expect a little of both with a slant towards the politics stuff.

A word about 'comments.'

The thing I like about the dialouge on Facebook is that when folks comment on posts or notes, you have to stand behind it because your name is published with your comment. The problem with blogs and comments on news sites is that anonymity breeds sarcasm, personal attacks, and frankly unintelligent debate. My hope is that people here will feel free to post their actual names, think before they submit - and most of all have fun!