Let Us Never Forget

I've always been interested in WWII history. Especially the events that happened on the beaches of Normandy on June 6th, 1944 - D-Day.

I remember going to see Saving Private Ryan as a college student. It was one of a few films that have ever really left a lasting impression on me. Particularly the opening sequence where the soldiers are landing on the beach. Many of them never made it out of the boats. Others jumped over the sides only to drown or be shot in the water.

I remember wondering how I might react in that sort of situation. Would I be a coward? Would I be a leader? Would I be afraid? Would I have survived?

Scary questions. Ones I'm grateful I've never had to answer thanks to the brave men and women who have worn the uniform and continue to do so today.

To them I say - Thank you!

Take a minute and view this really interesting slide show of D-Day from Life Magazine.

A Party of Primaries

I think Primaries are a good thing. It keeps things fresh and elected officials honest. As an incumbent you hate them. As a news reporter you LOVE them for the drama and conflict (because really that's what sells news right?). As a Party leader you publically support them and stay neutral, but still hate them for the often divisive versus constructive nature of those types of races.

Senator Bennett's got a Primary. Congressman Cannon had a number of Primaries and eventually lost in one. And, there is a lot of speculation as to who may or may not challenge Gary Herbert from within for Governor in 2010.

So I found this exchange at the PolitickerNY interesting. It's an interview with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, about his plans to run against current Democratic Governor David Patterson, who replaced the disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Interesting parallels with our own Utah Republican Party. Particularly considering that both New York and Utah have had and soon will have recently replaced state-wide elected officials; NY - Gov. Spitzer & Sen. Clinton, and Utah - Gov. Huntsman.

AC (Andrew Cuomo): My plan is to run for reelection as attorney general.

Q: That has not changed?

AC: Nope.

Q: There was a lot of action in terms of potential challengers to Kirsten Gillibrand sort of being asked to not run. Just in general, is there any benefit to a party that has gone through some appointments on the statewide level, having primaries? Is there any upside?

AC: The Democratic Party is essentially a party of primaries. I mean, there’s always the discussion ‘Maybe it would be good if there were no primaries, and everyone just gets behind and picks a candidate.’ For many years the Democrats said that’s what the Republicans do. They just squelch intraparty discussion. The—we often have primaries. President Obama is the product of primaries. In the presidential, the Senate race, I even think he ran against Bobby Rush for Congress, early on. That must have been a primary, right? So we’re a party of primaries, which I think winds up being good for us, because I think the conversation and the discussion within the party can be very productive. Because we have a broad party, a lot of diverse interests, and those interests need to be discussed and need to be aired. So I think it can be good, as long as the primaries remain constructive, and not destructive.

Q: Will Paterson have a primary next year?

AC: Oh, next year? Who knows what’s going to happen next year? Next year is a long way away.


Next year is indeed a long way away. A long way away indeed...

Oh yeah...me too.

Me and Josh Romney - we're in the same boat. We're both 33, politically-minded, stunningly handsome, and really smart. Had the Deseret News called me for a quote I would have said the same thing. By the way Gary - I am available, and I don't plan to run for Governor in 2010. You know, I'm just saying...I too am "considering all options."

Josh Romney Would Consider Lieutenant Governor Position

"Romney, the son of former Salt Lake Olympic leader Mitt Romney, told the Deseret News on Monday that he won't run for governor himself in 2010.

But he didn't rule out serving as soon-to-be-governor Gary Herbert's No. 2.

"It's definitely not something I'm actively campaigning for," Josh Romney said. "If it were offered to me, I would give it serious consideration."

Romney, 33, said he and Herbert have already talked several times since Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced he would step down once the U.S. Senate confirms his appointment as ambassador to China.

The lieutenant governor's spot "didn't come up in conversations," Romney said. "There's nothing official or serious at this point. But I'm considering all options. I find it to be a great thing to give back to the community, to serve in public office."

Bennett's Race to Lose

So the race for US Senate is miles away, but with the recent announcement(?) of Cherilyn Bacon, the race on the GOP side is getting crowded.

I am happy to see a woman get into the race. I don't know Cherylin that well, but from what I can tell she will be a frank and straightforward debater.

I'm not really sure if Cherilyn announced formerly or not - it wasn't over Twitter so she's probably okay, but it does seem similar to Shurtleff's anti-climatic announcement a week or so ago. I guess you need a real podium nowadays for an announcement to be official. The Twitter/leaked-to-bloggers announcements are just preliminary now I guess.

It's very early, but I have to say that I think Bennett is clearly in the lead, despite the various announcements. He's conciously making the case for his conservative credentials, which is to be expected given the current climate in Utah.

Holly at Holly on the Hill had a great summary of his recent presentation to a business group in Provo. It appears he's saying and doing the right things. He's running ads early, sending post cards early, and has the all important nod from Papa Romney.

Shurtleff has sort of stumbled out of the gate. Literally with his Twitter mishap and now this week he's fending off accusations he helped the recently indicted "Free Capitalist" Rick Koerber, by pressuring the Utah Securities Division to call off or tone down their investigation. At Mark's announcement there was dueling press conference with the annoucenment of the Patrick Henry Caucus the same day that stole a bit of his thunder, and perhaps draws into question the AG's own credibility among conservatives.

And we haven't heard much from Tim Bridgewater since his Twitter announcement that he was running. It's early, but it seems like Tim has been brushed aside and has yet to gain much if any momentum from his would-be run at the GOP Chairmanship race.

A very interesting pool of candidates. But, they've all got their work cut out for them if they want to give Bennett a serious challenge.

Evil Twin

Last week, Joe Pyrah from the Provo Daily Herald pointed out that my blog looked very familiar.

A quick click to his blog the Sausage Grinder and you'll see that our two blogs do look eerily similar.

Truth be told, I'm sure Joe's blog was up and running much longer than mine...Independent of Joe's blog, I just happened to have used the same blogger.com template - complete with Twitter feeds and everything. I thought I was being so cool when I discovered I could add those. Who knew I was behind the times? (Joe did). Heck, we both even have pictures of the state capitol building at the top of our home pages!

The only thing I'm missing is a portrait shot from glamour studios on my right side bar - how much do those run nowadays Joe?

Voting from Home?

As Jay Leno likes to say "How lazy are we getting in this country!?"

The state of Hawaii just tried a totally paperless election. Voters could cast their ballots either online or over the phone. The results? Voting dropped 83% compared to the previous (same cycle) election.

As anyone who has ever worked on a campaign will tell you - turnout is always critical. That's why you always hear about campaigns that monitor things like traffic and the weather. Is it raining? That could help the challenger. Is it sunny? Bonus for the incumbent. Accident on the highway? Uh oh, not enough time to make it to the polls...

Voters can be rather fickle.

I'm always cautious about likely voter polls, especially if the primary screening criteria is based on the question of "how likely are you to vote?" Because, everyone will tell you they are voting - "don't question my devotion to my civic duty," but really much of what happens on election day depends on that person's schedule for the day. Too busy with the kids? Running late from work? Heck, if the line's long (anyone remember the Presidential Primary last year?), folks will just turn around and walk out.

I like the Hawaii attempt. I hope that the low turnout was a function of newness and lack of awareness and education of the new system. Here at home we can vote early as two weeks before the actual election day. So really, there's no excuse for any Utahn not to make it to polls.

There's much more that could be said about individual responsibility, patriotism, democracy, representation, ect... But let's face it, America has a real apathy problem.

This land is your land...this land is my land...

Excellent article from the Desnews on the Rock Canyon situation in Provo. The fellow who owns a large part of the Canyon wants to mine a portion of it. You can read the article here.

The paper offers four or five perspectives from the various concerned parties. I prefer this style of reporting. It's more presentation of facts as those participating in the situation see them without including biased opinion from the reporter.

If I want to read biased opinion I can always listen to talk radio - or read blogs. ;)

Chrysler (State?) Bailout

I was bit surprised to read this story about the State Legislature considering stepping in to save local Chrysler dealers. Last week Chrysler sent notices to nearly 800 dealers out of a current network of about 3,200 that it was revoking their franchise rights.

I can understand why a business owner would be upset. They had been loyal franchisees many of whom had been selling cars for decades. But my issue with these guys is; didn't they see it coming? The company was restructuring in bankruptcy for crying out loud! Is this really an after-effect of the big Fed-Auto-Bailout? or the actions of the free market's invisible hand?

Chrysler has been in trouble for a long time. Case in point; the typical Chrysler dealership sold 303 vehicles per showroom last year. Toyota sold 1,292 and Honda did 1,219/per. Also, it's not like they didn't see new closures coming, the company has reduced dealerships from 4,320 in 2001 to 3,188 by the end of April this year.

If Chrysler now wants to open a new dealership within 150 miles of one they just closed down, the Legislature's proposal would require Chrysler to first offer the former franchisee the opportunity to (re)open the business. I suppose that's not all that bad, but it seems like that should be between Chrysler and it's dealers - I don't see a reason why the legislature should be involved. It's more of a contract issue in my mind that should be settled in the Judicial system - not Legislatively.

So why is the State Legislature getting involved? As much railing as the Legislature does against 'bailouts' and government intervention, it seems ironic for them to step into the fray at this point. Perhaps it's because one of their own - Rep. Patrick Painter is himself a Chrysler dealer who is now losing his dealership.

Ryan's takeaway: It doesn't look good for the Legislature or the State GOP when they apply conservative principles selectively.

Show Me the Money!

The State of Utah has come a long ways...

I remember as a college student doing an internship that required me to tabulate and record the voting records for a series of Senate Bills. Maybe this dates me (it was just in the late '90s), but none of the data was available electronically - not on the web or even available on a disk. I had to literally go up the Capitol and ask the grumpy old Senate receptionist lady for the record book and record the votes by hand (I did have a laptop so that helped somewhat).

Now look at us today! The State Legislature has an awesome searchable and (relatively) user-friendly website. And yesterday, our new 'Acting Governor' announced this new site - Transparent Utah. It's a gold mine of searchable budget related data. Ever wonder how much goes to education? roads? or the Health Department? You can see how much the state is spending by agency and department. It's not audited and much of the data is aggregated and not broken out by line item, but still what a great resource.

I much prefer this type of site to utahwastebuster, which was/is an effort by Representative John Dougall and Senator Steve Urquhart to uncover state spending waste. While I can appreciate the concern to prevent waste I felt that site was more about promoting personal agendas rather than actually solving significant waste issues. That site has not seen much traffic since the legislative session when it was initially promoted, and it doesn't appear any significant 'waste' was reported or investigated.

I come from the school of the thought that says give people access to the information and they'll find the issues, problems, and even good things being done in our governement. The premis of a wastebuster type site assumes not just waste but almost some type of criminal misdoing on the part of government employees. And I think conservatives make this mistake too often by assuming there is something criminal happening when in more cases than not, waste is simply the by-product of an ineffecient bureaucracy. That said, I think it would be appropriate for the State to actually have a whistleblower site/system to ferret out criminal acts. (Does anyone know if they already do - I would think so)

I believe transparency is a key element of a vibrant democracy. I'm pleased to see our elected officials acknowledge our right to know and have access to this type of information. So. All you government watchdog wannabes - get on there and dig to your heart's content. It's your government - make it better!

再见! (Goodbye) Jon. Hello Gary.

So with Governor Huntsman bolting the state for the lure of the orient we now have a new, yet familiar face in the Guv's office.

I think its great that Huntsman is opting for the Chinese Ambassadorship. I believe this is what he's wanted to do for some time. Had McCain won I have no doubt Huntsman would have lobbied for the same position. Interesting political dynamics though. With Huntsman often mentioned as a potential Prez challenger I guess the Obama Administration was thinking "keep you friends close, your enemies closer."

So I wish him good luck. His diplomatic approach to problems which may have recently caused him some minor heartburn with the conservative faction of the state, will now suit him very well in the art of international negotiation.

I wasn't always a fan, but the more I studied him and learned about where he was coming from I came to really respect him. I liked his approach. He avoided the negative and divisive language that can quickly muddle up complex issues such as; immigration and liquor laws. I think he often felt uncomfortable in political speak situations so I found his style refreshing. Because he wasn't a natural politician I think he gravitated towards his own style which is more statesmanship-like. I wish more officials would try to emulate his approach to the issues. The state would be better for it. Utah's citizenry would be less put-offish when it comes to politics if our leaders would take a cue from Jon.

So now, we look to Gary Herbert. I've had a couple of chances to meet with him. He's very personable, genuine, and pragmatic. My favorite meeting with him was at the Juab County Lincoln Day Dinner. It was held at a small senior citizen center in Nephi. Not a minute before we all dug into our dinners did the power go off in the entire place - not a single window to be found either! I guess it's a sign of our times, but soon enough everyone produced their cell phones and all the elected officials spoke by cell phone light. Gary didn't miss a beat.

It's those kinds of times, when you get to see people out of their comfort zones and guards down a bit that you learn about people's true colors. Gary came across very natural and seemed as if he was among friends. I think Utah is going to like him the more they get to know him.

Truth be told I really don't how he'll interact with the Legislature. He's got to run again in November 2010, so I suspect this next session everyone will be polite with neither the Legislature or the new Governor pushing too hard until they know who's going to be in the Guv's office on a more permanent basis.

So who else is in the mix for 2010? Former Senate President and current Senator John Valentine will run, Lane Beattie, also a former Senate President, and current CEO of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce will likely run as well. If you know of others testing the waters let me know and we'll get the word out.

So, a very big Thank You to our outgoing Governor Huntsman, and a welcome and good luck to Gary Herbert.