Weber County Republicans have two candidates facing off in next Tuesday's Republican Primary in Senate District 18: Senator Dave Thomas, the incumbent, and Challenger Jon Greiner, current Ogden City Chief of Police. Many Weber County Republicans are mystified that Chief Greiner has thrown his hat into the ring, your humble blogmeister included.
Although we would have nothing in particular against Chief Greiner's candidacy if he were not running against a Republican incumbent, we are convinced that Senator Thomas has done a yeoman's job during his tenure, and that there is therfore no arguable reason that he should be replaced. Greiner's public explanation of his rationale in entering the race, urging the "changing of horses in midstream," is less than convincing, from our point of view. Not only that, we believe Weber County Republicans have a significant investment in our hard-working Republican incumbent, whom we believe to have performed with remarkable excellence, during his tenure in his state senate office.
We are therefore strongly endorsing Dave Thomas, for a reprise in Senate District 18.
Dave Thomas knocked off our old Lift Ogden Friend, then-incumbent democratic Senator Ed Allen four years ago, bringing this seat back to Republican hands. Since 2003, he has worked to protect consumers, ensure that there is equity in transportation dollars spent in Weber and Davis counties, and led the fight to guarantee local control of local decision-making in our cities, counties, and school districts.
Sen. Thomas sponsored Utah's Do Not Call List to ensure that unwanted telemarketers could no longer invade your privacy without your permission. He authored the Unified Fire Authority which allows the consolidation of fire services to bring better economies of scale to fire protection. He is also the author of Utah's Religious Land Use Act, which prohibits discrimination against churches. He was one of the forces behind the Legacy Highway settlement and obtaining $51,000,000 in transportation dollars this session to finish widening I-15 in Weber county. It was Sen. Thomas who obtained a commitment from the Huntsman Administration that Weber and Davis counties would be treated fairly in the distribution of Centennial Highway Fund dollars in the future. And it was Sen Thomas who led the fight for Jail Funding Reform in the State.
As the Chair of the Judiciary Interim Committee he is also the leader of the tort reform movement in the State, which has as its goal reducing insurance premiums and health care costs. Recently, it was Sen. Thomas as the Chair of the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee who obtained pay raises for our highway patrolmen and corrections officers, as well as additional monies to open up the new POST training facility for law enforcement throughout the State.
Sen. Thomas received the Utah Sheriff's Associations Executive Directors Award for 2005, was named a Guardian of Small Business in 2004, and was just recently named by the Utah Taxpayers Association as "Friend of the Taxpayer" for 2006.
Sen Thomas believes that the issues facing District 18 center around transportation, tax reform, immigration, and education. He is committed to ensuring that monies are appropriated to the Centennial Highway Fund projects for Weber and Davis counties. As can be seen from his past record, he can make it happen. He remains committed to reducing taxes where ever possible. He has supported reducing the State Income Tax from 7% to 5% and using the surplus to fund the reduction. He opposes amnesty for illegal aliens and has suggested that one way to recover the costs of illegal immigration is to impose a 6% surcharge on money wires to other countries, since this is the primary way illegal aliens send money home. That surcharge can then go to the Uniform School Fund to reduce the costs on our schools. With regard to education, he has led the fight against the one-size-fits-all philosophy of the federal government and believes No Child Left Behind has been implemented in contravention of States' rights. He remains committed to merit pay for teachers, which has drawn the ire and some negative campaigning by the UEA. Since 2003, Sen. Thomas has voted to increase funding for public education by over $660,000,000. He is a true friend to educators, but probably not to the UEA.
Sen. Thomas is a self-described fiscal and social conservative, and that is the way his voting record shows him to be.
Perhaps Chief Greiner's own elective political time will come. What's needed now, we think, is proven performance -- and not mere promises.
We urge Weber County Republicans, and ALL District 18 Republicans, to vote for Incumbent Senator Dave Thomas on June 27.
© 2005 - 2014 Weber County Forum™ -- All Rights Reserved
18 comments:
Thanx for a good endorsement, Rudi.
I'm working hard for Dave. His effectiveness, to some measure, is demonstrated in the sneaky and vile attempts to smear him, at least in my area.
Just like with Dorrene Jeske, we are experiencing the DISAPPEARING CAMPAIGN SIGNS!!!
Also, the opponents of his and proponents of Lift Ogden (what a misnomer, eh?) enjoy telling the uninformed here that a vote for Dave means a vote against the gondola....And that he is 'against education'....'against IHC'. (IHC endorsed him!)
Dave will be glad to speak about these issues with anyone.
Well, when your proposal has no merit, and your cheerleader for it no honor, I suppose it isn't unreasonable to think lies, innuendo and dirty deeds would be flung into this senate race.
Dave is an honorable man. I hope folks will visit his website or call Dave on the phone. Then they'll be proud to cast their vote for him!
Rudi wrote:
Sen. Thomas is a self-described fiscal and social conservative.....
Yellow Dog Democrat Curmudgeon quietly notes that George W. Bush is also a Republican self-described fiscal and social conservative....
Imagine that....
can someone explain to this new york city boy what lift ogden is, what all the noise is about the gondola, etc...I'm very interested.
LOL, Curmudgeon!
Recent events and posts indicate that "the minority party" is "feeling its oats" and senses Republican "blood in the water" nationally.
While there's some reason to anticipate a Republican "bloodbath" NATIONALLY in 2006, due to the gross errors of the neo-CON Republican faction who presently control our federal government, US Democrats still have yet to field a slate of candidates who don't have the smell of Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry...
We won't hold our breath, therefore, to await the Demos putting up electable candidate slates on the local level to regain the U.S. House, at least. There's no reason to expect that US Demos won't uselessly continue to wander around in the dark yet again in the next election, trying to please all their far-flung constituencies in 2006, just as they have done over the past eight years.
We also predict Utah Republicans will continue to remain Republican through the RESURRECTION, notwithstanding the oft-predicted (national) NeoCON fall from grace.
Our job at the local level as local Republicans?
To cull the local Trotskey-style Republican neoCONS and Pathetic Religious Wing-nuts from our party.
We'll clean up our party at the grass-roots level. We hope you'll do the same with yours.
We're still wincing at the choices our respective parties gave us in the last U.S. Presidential election:
Candidate R: A yale graduate Skull and Bonesman
Candidate D: A yale graduate Skull and Bonesman
Thank goodness we're not limited to such narrow choices in our local Weber County races.
Cync:
This Brooklyn boy welcomes another NYer. Utah cannot have too many.
Briefly, the mayor wants to sell Mt. Ogden park to a real estate developer, who wants to develop it as a gated community of vacation villas, and use the profits to build a gondola to a resort he wants to build up the Mt. at Malan's Basin. The city is to use its money from the sale, and more, to build gondola from downtown to WSU to deliver tourists from the coming commuter rail and downtown hotels to the developer's gondola & resort. Many are not happy about this. For detail, look at many threads posted on this website and go to these websites:
For pro-gondola views:
Lift Ogden
For a different view on things:
Smart Growth Ogden
Curmudgeon: "Sen. Thomas is a self-described fiscal and social conservative....."
Note the elypses.
"Sen. Thomas is a self-described fiscal and social conservative, and that is the way his voting record shows him to be."
That's what we said; and that's what we meant.
Let's keep it honest here, people.
Indorsing any Republican this year is like endorsing a Pig-In-a-Poke. They have this attitude that they are the only righteous people on earth and that if you don’t conform to their way of thinking that you must either, to be evil, or rebellious, or stupid.
I mean that, you might wonder where I have gotten this miss information. All you really need to do is listening to KSL radio and you have the Sean Hannity Show. Then you turn the radio dial to KNRS Rush Limbaugh, then you turn the dial again and then you have Laura Ingraham. Then turn the dial again to KTALK and you have G. Gordon Liddy You know the very crude and Watergate co-conspirator went to prison for Former President of the United States, Richard Nixon. That is right, the Republican poster child who was a victim of over zealot Democrat prosecutor. And of course we can not forget our hero, Oliver North. Found Guilty on 12 counts of felony charges, let loose because he and his team threaten to tie the courts up for years with endless donated legal defense funds, was cut loose early. The term is called corruption. corrupt >adjective 1 willing to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain. 2 evil or morally depraved. 3 (of a text or computer data) made unreliable by errors or alterations. 4 archaic rotten or putrid. >verb 1 make corrupt. 2 archaic infect; contaminate.
-DERIVATIVES corrupter >noun corruptible >adjective corruption >noun corruptive >adjective corruptly >adverb.
-ORIGIN from Latin corrumpere 'mar, bribe, destroy'.
I mean lets get real here. None of these people really have family values. They only have one value to sell to you, over the air waves, that is their own personal agenda. Which is brain washing you to the Republican party values. Being paid big buckets to carry of the corporate flag as an ensign, that they claim, “ this is the gospel truth”.
Here is a challenge to give to each and every one of you!
Every time one of these talk radio host uses one of these words, Replace the phrase of “Liberal” to the word “Nigga” and the word “Dem-o-crat” substitute it with one of these other words, Oh say for instance “ Jew”, or how-about, “Spic”, or even “Mor-mon”.
Now you get the idea what these people are doing, nothing more spreading propaganda.
I can actually close my eyes and picture myself being taken back in time to the year 1940 and listening to a German radio broadcast. But also realize that they are talking about the here and the now.
Now you get the idea. For those who don’t see it. Neither did a majority of the German population at that time either.
Rudi:
Took you a while.... [grin].
Ahem!
Demonizing good people solely on the basis of their partisan political affiliation is ridiculously childish, anonymous.
There are good, honest people in ALL political parties.
The ones we are endorsing are the best of the whole Republican political lot, in our view.
Your argument reminds me of the childish views of Sports fans in the S.F. Bay area, where I spent most of my adult life.
"If you ain't a Raider Fan, you ain't shit," some of them with the same mind-set as yours used to say, 24/7, with a totally straight face.
The true fight in America, as in the State of Utah, is the same one that's been fought throughout human history:
Individual Freedom vs. Totalitarianism.
The Republican candidates whom we are recommending are all pro-individual freedom. There are advocates of this value in ALL American political parties.
If there are candidates in other parties who promote these values, and who are running in the upcoming primary, we would welcome your singling them out.
That would be productive. What you're doing now is DEFINITELY NOT.
We are engaged in the preliminary bouts now, as the Primary Elections approach. Our intention at this point is to identify those Republican candidates who show common sense, good business judgment and respect for American Democracy.
We're growing tired, frankly, of your "my team is best" silliness.
This is a non-politically partisan blog; and we intend to keep it that way.
We will not tolerate "Democrats" mindlessly flailing "Republicans" and vice versa.
Allowing such behavior only leads to bedlam.
Read our posting policy, anonymous.
You're pressing very closely toward the point where your not-so-humble blogger will begin enforcing sanctions.
Nuff said?
Thanx for your attention to this matter.
We're sorry that we need to be so abrupt.
Please keep reading and posting. Keep in mind, however what your humble blogmeister has said.
As the old saying goes, it is possible to disagree, without being disagreeable. -anon
Anon: Thank you sooooo uch for quoting the dictionary to us...did you find all that under :GODFREY???
Fits him to the proverbial T. Corrupt, evil, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
And you seem to be one of his blind followers. Remember that Godfrey registered as a Republican...but he couldn't stand the clean air of integrity and honor and had to slink back to the party of his dear in-law, Ed Allen.
It's never too late to repent, Anonymous. Just go to confession and say ten Hail G. Gordon Liddy's. That'll clear your sinuses.
So Rudy if this fat cat republican buddy of yours is such a great man of the people why the hell didn't he stand up in the special session and call bull shit on this arrogant and heartless snubing of the poor folks with tooth aches? I mean hell man, a big chunk of his district is the whole west side of Ogden. He probably has more poor old folks with teeth problems in his district than any other senator in the state, yet we didn't hear one friggen word from him in their defense!
I think the whole damn republican party has gone to the dogs. We are all a bunch of self rightous and arrogant SOB's, especially here in Utah.
And you can quote me on that.
Dave Thomas is no laughing matter when it comes to Law Enforcement Officers. The State of Utah is at the bottom of the scale in the Nation; when it comes to pay salaries,medical benefits, and retirement for our heroes.
In working with the legislature last year for the firefighters, I found Senator Thomas open-minded and willing to listen. Then he researched the facts and supported the firemen in trying to defeat SB229. Senator Thomas is highly respected by the members of both Legislative bodies, the House and the Senate. He has already been elected to several prestigious committees and has a good deal of influence. I think it would be a shame to lose the leadership power he has garnered for Weber and northern Davis Counties. On the other hand, knowing how Godfrey works, I worry what influence he will try to exert over Chief Greiner to further his own selfish ends in Utah legislation. Do you think it's a coincidence that his old buddy, Stuart Reid, is running for this same Senate seat on the Democratic ticket? My personal opinion, is that Godfrey wants control of that Senate seat. Last year he had to get Senator Scott Jenkins to sponsor SB229 and a couple of his ill-fated eminent domain bills, but if he has his own man as a Senator, he can get anything he wants sponsored.
GO RAIDERS!
Well, since we seem to have drifted onto the nature of Republican governance, permit me to offer the following, from this morning's SL Trib. In an inquiry conducted last year into $30 billion [yes billion] that was squandered by the Pentagon in weapons procurement under Mr. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon's inspector general asked Rumsfeld to testify.
When he showed up, the IG placed him under oath. Mr. Rumsfeld was not happy at being asked to swear that he would tell the truth. "I find it strange," he said, that as a government official "the laws applied to me." [Quotes from the transcript of the inquiry, which has just surfaced. The IG eliminated Rumsfeld's testimony from his final report.]
The Secretary of Defense finds it objectionable to be placed under oath because he thinks it "strange" that as a government official "the laws applied to me."
He is, needless to say, still a Republican Secretary of Defense in the administration of a Republican president.
Kind of says it all, doesn't it?
Curmudgeon
I think that "interview" you refer to between Rummy and the criminal investigators happened several years ago? If so, it only goes to show you that the republican perfidity is no new phenom. In fact it started back in the Nixon years and has seen a steady decline of ethics and rise of arrogance ever since. Meanwhile the Demo's can't seem to find their own asses with both hands. The Libertarians, while espousing great ideas, are equally lame.
What's a poor political junky to do?
Curm.....let's start a new party!
Jon Greiner and Sturt Reid - BOTH Matthew Godfrey people. We really have a choice here.....
How about a write-in campaign for Curmudgeon?
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