Republican delegates got a gift in the mail today – a trifold pamphlet outlining the evils of the so called “Common Core” program in Education, claiming that it is an insidious and underhanded way for the federal guv’met to take over our schools and, therefore, our kid’s fragile little minds! The reality, of course, is that core standards upgrade curriculum so that the [...]
Archive for the ‘Elections’ Category
Bills to Watch: SB 19, Voter Information Pamphlets, Sen. Peter Knudson
Senator Peter Knudson’s (R- Brigham City, District 17) heart appears to be in the right place when he proposed SB 19, Voter Information Pamphlets, however the timing is a bit off. Now, in the olden days, people actually had to walk uphill, both ways, with snow up to their ears to receive a voter information packet – it [...]
Bills to Watch: HB 253, Voter Registration Amendments, Rep. Kraig Powell
I am getting sick of the annual attacks Republicans in the legislature lob towards a citizens right to vote. Every year they try (often successfully) to make it just a little bit harder for you to exercise your right to participate in your government. If they are not trying to put the administration of elections [...]
Bills to Watch: HJR 10, Joint Resolution on Legislator Eligibility, Rep. John Dougall
We start the Bills to Watch series with an announcement. I, Curtis Haring, wish to announce my candidacy for State House Representative of American Fork so that I can formally run against the proposer of HJR 10 – Joint Resolution on Legislator Eligibility, Rep. Dougall (R-American Fork, District 27). Normally this would pose a problem [...]
Endorsement: Ben McAdams for County Mayor
From the moment Ben McAdams threw his hat into the ring for Salt Lake County Mayor, I was excited. Over the years I have watched McAdams, first as an adviser for Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, and then as my state senator; and every time I have had the pleasure to work work with [...]
Don’t Look at the Label
As we rapidly approach the Utah Democratic Party’s annual convention the conversation on candidates to lead our party seems to have taken a dramatic shift away from candidate merit or ability, and towards simplistic labeling. All too often I have heard people say that they will vote for a candidate because they are a woman, [...]
Can lawmakers write for the paper? Yes. Should they? Hell no
Last Tuesday it was announced that West Vally City Mayor, Mike Winder will be a regular contributor to the Deseret News’ online, local news oriented, feature “Deseret Connect.” Since then, Mayor Winder and the Deseret News have successfully reopened the debate regarding how close is too close when it comes to having politicians involved in [...]
Hatch and the Bubble
Last week Senator Orrin Hatch held a “Tele-Town Hall Meeting” in Utah County where he asked various questions to the audience and posted results on Twitter. The questions he posed, as well as the responses he received makes it clear that Hatch is quite content in his bubble and more than happy to think that [...]
We are Democrats dammit, we should be better than this.
Yesterday, a well known individual within the Democratic Party went on to his Facebook page to imply that one of the candidates running for Salt Lake County Chair had a few skeletons in their closet, saying “I have been very torn about this race until my network of intelligence assets told me something disheartening yesterday. [...]
Swallow to make a run for Senate? House?
In the waning hours of the legislative session, I decided to to head up to Capitol Hill and take in the festivities. At one point I returned to a very packed House gallery and found the first seat I could find. Quite by accident I discovered that, seated one row in front of me, none [...]