Here's some interesting post election news from this morning's Salt Lake Tribune. Utah Senate majority Republicans have elected new leadership, sacking former Senate President John Valentine and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, and replacing them with Mike Waddoups and Sheldon Killpack. Could this change in leadership spell a softer, gentler attitude in the upper legislative body on the hill? Or... does this change in leadership signal a leap from the frying pan... into the fire?
And here's a story element with a local angle:
Sen. Scott Jenkins of Plain City and Sen. Greg Bell of Fruit Heights round out the leadership team as the majority whip and assistant whip respectively.Senator Jenkins is Boss Godfrey's cousin, of course, and the same Senator Jenkins who sponsored the Godfrey-backed Senate Bill 229 ("Godfrey's Revenge"), which gave cities the option of abolishing civil service commissions. (We loved the part in the above-linked article, where Senator Jenkins dropped Ed Allen's name, to sell Godfrey's Revenge to former Democratic Senator Ed Mayne.)
Long time Weber County Forum readers will also recall that Senator Jenkins and his big spending cousin are also great fans of the power of eminent domain. In 2007, Senator Jenkins was instrumental, of course, in restoring the power of eminent domain to Boss Godfrey's bag of tricks, over the opposition of Senator Bramble. What better for American democracy, we ask, than a Senator in leadership who thinks its just fine to take properies from random lumpencitizens for pennies on the dollar, and to hand them over to giant multinationals like Wal-mart?
This is a Senate leadership team which will require some close watching, we think. Corporo-fascist tendencies in great ones must not unwatched go.
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
10 comments:
Interesting story in the paper this morning about how bloggers are going to try to turn tourists off to Utah. This is being done as a sort of Payback for the Mormons supporting/donating to the Prop 8 in CA.
One blogger admits that there is no real way to measure if this effort will have an effect or not. As I read the article I couldn't help but think that this might actually increase tourism. Doesn't the whole world want to see religious fanatics up close?
My one thought on the whole debate is why do religions believe that they have the patent on marriage? What does two humans dedicating their lives to each other have anything to do with religion?
I hope everyone is having a beautiful Saturday. This is a bit off topic but I found the whole idea interesting.
At least we didn't elect ed Allen or "G Train emplyee Patterson to complete Godfreys power. I hope Ed and Godfrey both lost a lot of money on their failed campaign. Neil will keep an eye out for us.
I am delighted to have Greg Curtis and Valentine removed from power. And Curtis Brtamble is really good riddance!
I do not like the ascendency of Scott Jenkins as he has never supported anything I have been for.
I am very curious - did Scott Jenkins rise to power by being or having been a Bishop in the LDS community?
That seems to be a prerequisite for getting elected in Utah politics.
I am amazed at the arrogance of the following quote from Waddoups, an attitude that itself is at the heart of the serious ethics problem raging in the Utah Legislature:
"We have some concerns about ethics. We don't want that to be perceived that there are any unethical senators, but we believe the perception needs to be improved and to do that we need to be responsive to the needs of our constituents,"
So what we can expect is that the Legislature won't do jack shit about real ethics reform, but will work on the public's "perception" by putting in more PR effort to promote the disingenuous idea that they really ain't as sleazy as they appear to be. It's the same old carnival shell game that these creeps are soooo good at.
UTAH SENATE DEMOCRATS ELECT NEW LEADERSHIP
The Senate Democrats elected new leaders today. Results of the leadership elections are as follows:
Senate Minority Leader - Senator Patricia Jones
Senate Minority Whip - Senator Ross Romero
Assistant Senate Minority Whip - Senator Karen Mayne
Senate Minority Caucus Manager - Senator Luz Robles
This is the team that will to the public and do what is right.
If only Valentine and Brambel had gone the way of Creg Curtis! Then we might have the ethics and campaign finance reform we (3 out of 4) seek.
Greg Bell is a very reasonable, moderate Republican. Let's hope he continues to work his way up.
So the Utah Republicans are changing their legislative leadership? Wouldn't ya know it? President Elect Obama [gosh, it felt good typing that!] wins campaigning for change, and now everybody wants in on the act! [grin]
Sorry guys. Couldn't resist.
Allen could still win. Wouldn't that be a hoot!
dan
Sorry but Bell is as conflicted as all the rest of them on the hill. He is a land use attorney and bush league "developer". He works for, and votes for all of the real estate and developer industry insider deals that come before the senate regardless of how they effect the vast majority of Utah citizens. He places these special interests above the citizen's interest every time. It wasn't too long ago that he tried to pull a RDA blight scam (that would of made him millions) against people in his own town of Farmington, but the outraged citizens of that town shoved it down his throat and defeated it. All the time he does this self, and crony, dealings he positions himself as some sort of ethical beacon within the party. This positioning is pure bunk. He is as self dealing and dishonest as the rest of the senate leadership and his appointment is no better than the bum he replaced.
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