Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Caucus Night Tonight: Be Careful Which Conventon Delegates You Choose

In many respects, several non-federal races will have much greater local impact than the race for Bennett's U.S. Senate seat

We'll let this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story serve as reminder that tonight's the night for Utah's Precinct Caucuses, in which members of the various political parties will select delegates for their respective County and State Nominating Conventions. Here's the lede:
Utah's election for U.S. Senate is still more than seven months away, but Bob Bennett's fate could be decided Tuesday in living rooms and school houses across the state, as Republicans gather in local caucuses to choose delegates to the state convention.
The delegate sweepstakes is a crucial, if often overlooked, first step on the road to elected office since those 3,600 delegates could ultimately decide whose name appears on the November ballot, and both Bennett and his host of Republican challengers were making a final push Monday to stack the meetings with their supporters.
"It's huge," said Republican challenger Mike Lee. "In fact we're referring to it within our campaign organization as Super Tuesday. It's immensely important."
Although this morning's story focuses on the intra-party GOP U.S. Senate race, there are also several state-wide and local races wherein ultimate outcomes could be critically affected by the preferences of delegates who are elected in tonight's Precinct Caucus Meetings. In many respects, these non-federal races will have much greater local impact than the race for Bennett's U.S. Senate seat. We'll reel of those which particularly caught our eye this morning, one by one:

State Senate District 18 (GOP) - Sen. Jon Greiner v. Stuart Reid: In this highly unusual race, Boss Godfrey lackey and mentor Stuart Reid, who ran unsuccessfully against Greiner as a Democrat in 2006, is again challenging our incumbent Republican State Senator/Ogden City Police Chief. This time however Reid has switched parties, adding another RINO* to the Utah GOP party membership rolls. It'll probably be a very lively Utah GOP Nominating Convention race. And yes gentle readers, you can expect Greiner's purported Hatch Act violation to be brought up by Reid on the convention nominating floor. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Boss Godfrey's minions will be packing tonight's GOP caucus meetings with Reid supporters, in the hope of emerging from the caucuses with a majority of delegates who lean strongly in favor of Stuart Reid. If you attend tonight's GOP caucuses, folks, we therefore urge you to thoroughly vet prospective delegates regarding their commitments in re the Greiner v. Reid intra-party race.

State House District 9 (DEM) - Rep. Neil Hansen v. Jesse Garcia: We're scratching our heads, frankly, wondering what's gotten into Garcia, as he challenges 6-term Rep. Hansen for the Leg. 9 House Representative slot. Within this morning's Standard-Examiner story, we find this interesting Garcia quote:
Former Councilman Jesse Garcia is challenging fellow Democrat Neil Hansen, who is the incumbent for the Utah House District 9 seat.
Garcia said he thinks he has a good chance at winning the seat and looks forward to working toward that.
Working across party lines and reaching bipartisan agreements is what Garcia said he brings to the table.
"You don't sell yourself or your party out, but you have to at least communicate through a consensus," he said. "I think I would bring something a little different than what we have right now." [Emphasis added].
We'll take the reference to "working across party lines and reaching bipartisan agreements" to mean that Garcia has caved in to anti-Hansen interests, and is more interested in knocking off Rep. Hansen than in serving the interests of his own Democratic Party. We strongly recommend that you get on down to those mass meetings, Democrats of Weber County Forum, to be sure that the delegates you elect tonight don't serve the interests of those anti-Hansen forces. Think about it folks. In an intra-party battle between an 11-term incumbent and a decent but unexceptional fellow who couldn't even deliver his own re-election last November in Ogden's tiny Ogden City Ward 1, the election of pro-Hansen delegates ought to be a no brainer.

Weber County Commission Seat A (GOP) - Comm. Ken Bischoff v. Rep. Kerry Gibson: This is also an unusual intra-party race, inasmuch as intra-party challenges between simultaneously serving GOP elected officials are virtually unheard of. For those Weber County Republicans who favor Democratic Party candidate Amy Wicks however (we're sure there are more than a few of you), you might want to consider prospective county delegates who lean toward Gibson, who lacks Bischoff's "power of commission incumbency," and whose House District 6 political base doesn't span the whole county, as does Bischoff's. Thus for those GOP voters who favor Amy Wicks, Gibson might be the slightly weaker GOP General Election opponent. Parenthetically we'll add that we've also been hearing rumors from Weber County GOP insider sources, that Bischoff may have already agreed to drop out of the race, (which might explain why Gibson has declared his candidacy for his GOP colleague's Commission seat.)

That's it for now, gentle readers. We hope all of you will attend tonight's caucuses/mass meetings, which represent "grass-roots politics" at its best.

And for those readers who need information about times and locations for your parties' respective meetings, we link the Weber Democratic and Republican Parties' respective caucus location pages below:
Weber County Democrats
Weber County Republicans
That's it for now, gentle readers; but we do hope you make it a point to attend your party's caucuses/mass meetings, where a small fraction of Utah voters will have a highly-disproportionate impact on the ultimate choices appearing on 2010 General Election ballots. Politics-wise, these political meetings deliver plenty of bang for the political buck.

For a complete list of individuals who have declared their candidacies for the various offices which will be decided in the 2010 General Election, by the way, be sure to click this link:
2010 NOTICE of ELECTION and CANDIDATE DECLARATIONS
Perhaps there are other intra-party races which we can discuss.

Who will be the first to spout off?
______
*RINO: Republican In Name Only

13 comments:

Look at their records said...

Greiner or Reid, no choice there. Hansen or Garcia, no choice there. I think the fine citizens are going to continue to get what they deserve, a good beating! If that's the best representation they can come up with, well that is not good enough. Makes me puke.

Senatoooor said...

Griener was just found guilty of violating the Hatch Act.
One would assume this precludes his participation in civic matter?

Dorrene Jeske said...

The verdict on Greiner’s Hatch Act violation is four years late and really fouls up that senatorial race. I think that I would rather see Greiner as a state senator than Reid. I get the same chills down my spine with Reid that I do with Scott Brown – in my opinion, neither one is to be trusted.
I would really like to see Amy pull off a victory in the Commission race for a couple of reasons: 1) there is no Democratic representation on the Commission; 2) I think that the streetcar corridor going up one of the downtown streets would have a better chance. I like Representative Gibson, but I’m afraid that his buddy, Senator Jenkins, (a cousin of Mayor Godfrey) and now in a very influential leadership position at the Legislature, would have substantial influence on him, and we would risk the streetcar corridor going up 36th Street. I think that Amy and Jan Zogmeister would be formidable foes against Godfrey always forcing his ideas on others. I think that Amy would be a good, vibrant addition to the Commission.
On the Hansen - Garcia race, I have one question -- why wouldn't Garcia be violating the Hatch Act if he ran for the Legislature? He works in a job where he obtains federal grants. I thought that was the reason that he didn't run against Hansen in the last race. I don't think his responsibilities have changed?

all too convenient said...

I can picture Matt texting away in a corner-Stu, John's lost his case switch to Dem now!

Danny said...

In all the discussion, one forgets the true reason for running for county and state delegate (the first step of which is to attend the caucuses tonight.)

That is, the free dinners, the phone calls, the mailings that will only go to delegates. In other words, you get to feel like a PLAYER for a few weeks.

My picks are

Senate - anybody but Bennett. I'd love to see him out in the caucuses! If not, then out at the convention. If not, then out in the primary. If not, he will surely lose to a Democrat in the election and we don't need that right now.

County Commission - Bischoff, for standing up to Powder Mountain.

Hansen vs. Garcia - Hansen.

Greiner vs Reid - I would take a swig of Pepto Bismol and go with Greiner. Then I would probably vote Democrat in the election.

Rob Bishop, check

For Guv, I'd go with Dell Schanze in the convention (as a tribute to the quality of leadership in the Utah Republican party), then vote Corroon in the election.

For state senate and legislature, I'd lean Democrat, even though I don't think I've ever voted for one. But it's time for a change in Utah.

nicely done said...

Watch Scott Brown (aka Mr. Know it Built it Done it all) surface from the bog and follow Stuart into this...didn't we get enough shinanigans at Business Development with this duo?....too bad the SE didn't dig just a little deeper in the past....sigh....
pass the barf bags....

Monotreme said...

Judge: Greiner must resign as Chief or as Senator.

nicely done said...

The Chief of Police...breaking the law....go figure....

more of Godfrey cronies said...

Go figure

Ray said...

UAR shows it's influence on "free speech" in Paul Rolly's SLT column today:

"Behind the Iron Curtain: When representatives of Utahns for Ethical Government stood on the sidewalks at Utah Valley University in Orem to gather signatures on petitions for the proposed ethics reform ballot initiative Friday, some of them had their efforts cut short.

They were gathering signatures of folks coming and going at the annual home and garden expo at the UVU campus. When Utah County Republican Chairman Taylor Oldroyd noticed the petitioners and discovered what they were doing, he complained to security and the petitioners were told to leave. Oldroyd apparently had the authority to get them kicked off campus because he is the executive director of the Utah County Board of Realtors, which was a sponsor of the event.

The expulsion was similar to the actions of another Utah County politician seemingly averse to free expression.

Rep . Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, took exception to a booth sponsored by the Fair Boundary Coalition at a College Republican event at the University of Utah last fall. The coalition is pushing to have an independent commission recommend how legislative and congressional districts are drawn.

When Lockhart complained about such a subversive influence tainting Republican values, the Fair Boundary folks were asked to leave.

--

Oath of omertà: Another Utah County GOP requirement this year is that Republican candidates for public office must sign a document declaring they did not sign the ethics reform initiative petition.

Maybe they are being given an offer they can't refuse?"

As one blogger suggested:
"Republicans are all for free speech as long as it is thier type of speech"

What would jesus say said...

Danny,
As one blogger suggested:
"Republicans are all for free speech as long as it is thier type of speech"

Sounds like our very own Mayor..

nicely done said...

Glad to see Stuart has maintained his sense of character.....keep your eyes on the minions .....the wheels on the bus go round and round

Curious 1 said...

Sen Bennett made the list of the 10 most ridiculous ammendments to the health care law. They deny gays to marry in Wash DC. Why do they complain about Fed involement in Utah and local affairs but get involved in DC issues. How does it effect Utah voters?

Viagra, ACORN and Gay Marriage: The 10 Most Ridiculous GOP-Proposed Health Care Amendments

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