Congratulations to David

Well tonight we met and held the special election. I thought the turnout was ok, the room was filled but I am not exactly how many votes were cast and what kind of percentage it is. Anyway I pretty nervous leading up to the speech. I had prepared some remarks, but my wife always tells me I am much better at speaking to the people instead of hiding behind a paper. So I tried to convey my feelings for the party and where I wanted to lead it. Boy does four minutes go by fast! Anyway I probably stumbled a little with the question answer session, but who knows. When all is said and done the votes were cast and David James came out on top by just under 10 votes.

You know, in all honesty I probably lost the election myself. I didn't follow my own rhetoric. I waited until the last minute to try and call people and ran out of time before I got through half the list. I saw one person from around where I lived. Had I gotten the 2 or three precinct chairs, vice chairs and secretaries here from those areas here, I would have won. So I learned a hard lesson today about politics, it is about who shows up. (I also lost two votes because a certain 2 people decided to take a cruise in the caribbean)

So what does this mean for me? Well, I need to make sure my Leg district gets out to vote. I will be working hard talking to the precincts and making sure they understand their role. I will work hard to help make sure the Lincoln Day Dinner goes off well and that we can raise funds for our party. And come March or April when we convene again, you may very well see my name again up for office. I love politics, I love being a republican and I love my country.

Financial mess

I am like many Americans, concerned about our economy. Most elections come down to the economy. As a matter of fact when people desire a change usually the economy is the reason. Look at 1980 and 1992 for example. There are some conservatives very upset about the proposed bailout. As someone in the finance world, I have mixed feelings. I am always leary when the government steps in. However at times I do believe it is necessary. The purpose of government is to protect its citizens. Often we see that in times of war and we become very patriotic and nationalistic. Well I also believe that the government needs to protect our own economy. I understand the government is one of the culprits in this mess. However, I tend to agree with the Treasury secretary that at least we have a plan on the table. Congress needs to act fast. Our economy needs help. I don't have the answers, I am not an expert. I just know that people are concerned about their money. People are stuggling to make ends meet. People are losing their jobs and costs are rising. I am preparing salary budgets for next year and I am told that I can increase wages by a maximum of 4%. Yet our food, cost of health insurance, and gas for cars and heating has all increased more than that. Times are tough and so it is important that we elect people that can and will work together so we can overcome this tough time.

Voter turnout.

Sometimes I wonder, who really cares about politics? I know fundamentally we care about issues, but do those feelings translate into action? It will be very interesting to see if this years election brings out more voters than normal. According to a Washington post article in January 2005 , the 2004 elections had just over a 60% voter turnout and Bush actually won over 50% of that vote. However when you factor in the 78 million voters who did not turn out, the percentage of voters for Bush was only 30%. 78 million people did not vote....and so I ask why not?

What about Utah? In the 2004 election Utah was actually one of the highest states with voter turnout, over 68% according to the Deseret News report. Now flash forward to the 2006 election and according to KSL we were the lowest. Not only that but our voter registrations dropped as well. In the 2007 special election again only about 37% voted. In Cache County only 36% voted in 2007, in 2006 31.95%, 2004 62%. These are all general election results. What about the primary elections. In the same year 2004, the primary election for cache county had a whopping 14% voter turnout. This was an election that if my memory serves me correctly we had a race for a State Legislature seat. We need to increase voter turnout. There is no reason why people should not be voting in these elections. Will Utah voters not come out because our Favorite adopted son was not put on the ticket? I hope we do come out and vote. I hope that we can help mobilize our efforts and get more of our youth excited about politics. I believe that both candidates want change and we want a government that works. So we need to get out the vote and make sure that we top 2004 results with over 70% voter turnout.

The importance of money

One of the things I would like to do as the party chair is raise more money. Under David Butterfield's leadership the party, I believe, began to do a much better job of this. Look without money people cannot run campaigns. So what begins to happen is that only those that are well to do will run for office and those that might struggle paycheck to paycheck, yet have a desire to serve their community feel that they cannot afford a campaign. If the local party had more money, they could help these viable candidates in elections. In addition, we could do more public awareness of issues in order to educate our community. Fundraising needs to be a big part of what we do.

Also it is a proven fact that if people pay into something, they become vested or have an interest in that item. By putting money into Republican politics a person will feel more part of the system and will be more committed to serve or help out. We know that there are many Republicans able to donate large sums of money, just think back to last year when Mitt Romney came to town. Now imagine if everyone that could just gave $10 to the party, how much more money we would have available to help out.

With increased funding it also becomes important to be wise stewards of that money. I feel that the current leadership is very wise and concerned about the proper use of party funds and that must continue. If elected, it is my goal to double the amount of money we earn as party in order help out where needed in crucial campaigns.

Decreasing Voter Apathy

One of the goals I have as county chair is to decrease the amount of apathy that exists. It really is sad that we send our troops overseas to fight for freedom yet our own people do not use the rights given. While living in the Dominican Republic for 2 years, I was able to witness their Presidential election. There was excitement as the various candidates would come to town. People would line the streets to watch and political talk was abundant. Now keep in mind the system was very corrupted and in this particular election the current president who had won re-election previously due to voter fraud was up to the same game. He was behind in votes until the electricity went out and when it came back on, he had won. The country was brought to a brink of chaos in the weeks after the election, where martial law ruled and people were clashing in the streets. Finally the chaos ended when the President decided to compromise and only be in office two more years. While watching this unfold, I thought about our own country and how we take our right to vote for granted.

Now lets flash forward to 2008. Utah is one of the leaders in the nation for poor voter turnout. People for various reasons just don't care. In local elections a small percentage of those able to vote actually do vote. And so I ask why is that? Why do people not care about who is representing them? Some will say that it is because one party dominates the scene, and why vote because we know the outcome. I am not going to try and prove that point wrong because honestly, there is some validity to it. What we need to recognize is that in Utah Politics, our precinct meetings and county conventions holds a lot of weight. If you really want to have a voice, you must go to your precinct meetings, stand up, voice your opinions and then get elected to be a delegate. In our last meetings, some precincts were not even represented. That my friends is sad! Are our brave men and women sacrificing so much so that others can have they type of freedom we enjoy, just to have their own countrymen not exercise the right? I would hope not.

So here is what I propose:

• We need to empower the Precinct chairs, vice chairs and Secretary's so that they know what is going on in county, state and national politics. They need to be out recruiting neighbors to attend meetings and they themselves need to organize with the help of the Leg chairs opportunities for candidates to get the message out
• We need to get our neighbors registered to vote- again the best way is through the precinct system
• Our candidates need to do more campaigning and not just assume they have it in the bag (even though they may). I believe we that we have a fine bunch of legislators that really do care about Cache Valley. I also think they do a pretty fair job of getting out there, however by knocking the doors and getting to meet people who don't attend events, they can hopefuly persuade some that may not vote to vote.
• We need to be a party that is not looked upon as being too elitist or out of touch. We need to reach out to our younger generations and make sure they understand that we care about them as much as the democrats. We need to continue to build up our USU republicans, as well as form organizations for our high school kids and our young republicans who do not go to USU.

These are just a few ideas and I am sure there are more. Please comment if you have any thoughts. We must always keep in mind that in the recent presidential elections, every vote does count. Had Al Gore just won his home state, he would have been president. Good thing he didn't and good thing States like Utah and Wyoming with just a few of the electoral votes, voted the way we did. This election is shaping up once again to be a close one, and your vote does count!

Letter to the editor

I am glad we have freedom of speech and the ability to write into a local newspaper. But if you are going to write something, at least sound intelligent and not like well, I can't even say it! I am not even a liberal and today when I read in the Herald Journal a letter, I thought, "boy, I feel sorry for him". I am sure in the next few days there will be more letters attacking the poor guy for his remarks. You can go and read the letter for yourself http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2008/09/06/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter01.txt

Now maybe this guy failed world geography, but I don't quite understand how being the son of a man born in africa makes him Middle Eastern? Or how being a christian makes him muslim? I am not a Obama fan, or sympathizer but come on, this election is about issues and not about race or religion. Hopefully most will read his letter and not assume that his beliefs are typical of Cache Valley residents or Republicans.

This country is great because we can have the voice to speak out. We do not have the government cracking down and not letting people speak their mind. We believe that people have the right, within the guidelines of the constitution, to say what they want. Want we do not have the right to do is be mean spirited and discriminatory. Now some might question me on that last remark and ask what is discrimination? And maybe that will be a topic of further discussion later, but for this post it means, lets not vote for the democrats because thier candidate is black or for the republicans because we have a woman candidate. Let's look at the issues presented and then make our choice and leave race, gender and religion out of it!

McCain's speech

I know that a lot of people have gripes about McCain. To the ultra conservatives he is too liberal. For some it bothers them that he has worked with both parties and he has the respect on both sides of the aisle. But I would hope that we could all admit that there is something refreshing about a leader that is able to overlook party lines and in his mind vote what is best for the people as whole. I loved his speech today (albiet, he is not a good orator and I am sure if elected David Letterman will have a good time with some of his antics....did anyone else notice how often he winks?) A lot of what he said rang true for me. I don't like the idea that if your elected republican or democrat that you need to do what the "leadership" says. Who to say what "they" believe is the correct course.

I think we forget that in our country we elect people to represent us. That elected official not only represents you but also me and many more. I have my opinion and you have yours and while some might agree with me, maybe more agree with you so it is up to our elected official to make a decision based off what is best for all. You cannot always make people happy. Every decision one makes will draw criticism from somewhere. With that in mind, it is refreshing to know that McCain holds certain values and is governed by those values (love of country, love of service just to name a few). Yet he made it clear that his cabinet and those whom he surrounds himself with, will be people from both sides. There will be active debate on subjects and in my mind somewhat of a checks and balances that we need in Washington and even here. After listening to him today, I feel that it is John McCain's turn to be President. Will he accomplish everything he wants, no. Will he cause some of us Republicans to wonder which side is he on....probably. But at least he is straight forward and a fighter.

Romney's speech.

Here is the link to Romney's speech last night...he still looks presidential (how old will he be in 8 years?) Also if you missed Rudy's speech, check it out also!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgueO5xYUw

Why I am running for county chair

Ever since I was in Junior high, I loved politics. Actually let me take that back, my initial interest probably came in 1984. I was 10 years old (my son's age now...wow) and Ronald Reagan was running against Walter Mondale. For those of you who may remember, Walter Mondale did something historic...he had a woman VP. Anyway I remember we had a mock election and the majority of us voted for President Reagan (as did the country). When I went to college I studied Political Science and was quite interested in how elections worked and what swayed people to vote the way they did. What I found is that people are motivated by change (hence the big push that Obama has been emphasizing, idealistic change without any real plans). It is because of that love of politics that once I moved to Utah, I began to be involved with this grass roots level of politics.

I was quickly impressed with the Utah idea of having precinct meetings and a county convention. I was elected to be a delegate and I have served as Vice Chair of my precinct as well as for the last two years a leg 3 co-chair. It has been a great learning experience for me and I have realized that I want to try and accomplish three things for the party if I am elected. They are:

• reduce voter apathy and increase awareness of our political system here in Cache Valley
• Increase the amount of republicans attending precinct meetings and conventions
• Increase local fundraising efforts to help maintain our republican values in our valley

In future posts I will outline how I hope to accomplish these goals. Also please use this blog as an opportunity to comment and maybe we can get some discussion going. Also feel free to contact me via e-mail for suggestions on topics or just general questions you want to know. I will have some pictures up soon also so you can see who I am.

Finally, I would really like your support on September 25th. I feel that together we can make our valley stronger and make sure that the Republican Ideals continue in this beautiful place we live.

Wow, what a great speech by Sara Palin

I have been waiting for tonight since last Friday. Gov. Palin really showed why McCain picked her as his VP. She spoke with conviction and determination. She had some great one liners attacking the Obama nation (I just realized that if you say that real fast it kind of sounds like Abomination...hmmm) and I loved that she did not mention her daughter's pregnancy. I don't know how after tonight you don't love her and her family. Maybe its because I was raised in the west, in the middle of nowhere, that I can appreciate what she brings to the table. You can't ask for a more of Washington outsider.

I'll be honest, I was really hoping for Mitt Romney to get the VP nod. I thought he would have made a great President and a great VP. So last Friday I was dissapointed when I first heard the news. But that shortly faded when I watched her with McCain. I thought, wow, McCain pulled this out of nowhere and its going to be his ticket to the White House. Tonight, I felt the same. Nice job and lets get the McCain/Palin ticket elected in November.

First attempt at blogging

I am excited to enter this new realm of blogging! My purpose in creating this page is primarily to write my political thoughts and musings and hopefully allow people to know where I stand on issues. Currently I am running for the country chair seat of the Cache Republican Party and I thought this would be a great way for people to get to know me. So I encourage people to read and respond!