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We start with prayer, the flag ceremony, the pledge of allegiance,
and the national anthem. Carmen Rasmusen
Herbert sang the national anthem and it was very nice. She’s
married to Gary Herbert’s (Lt Gov) son Bradley, for what it’s worth.
The Utah Republican
party has a set of banners up and buttons playing on the “i can”
in “republican.” “I can provide students an excellent
education,” “I can give my family a great life,” and so on. Very
clever and emphasizes the Republican ideal of self sufficiency.
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Opening ceremony at the convention
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After the opening, we had a credentials report and adopted the rules
and agenda for the convention.
As usual, there was drama around Mike Ridgeway. Apparently Salt Lake
county refused to seat him has a delegate and there was a motion to
allow him to be seated at the State convention. It failed. I’m sure
there will be more.
We’ve now moved to the district breakouts. District 3 stayed in the
main hall, so I just sat still. The candidates I consider serious
contenders in District 3 are
Chris Cannon, the incumbent, David Leavitt, and Jason Chaffetz.
There’s also Joe Fergeson and Stone Fonua who haven’t raised much
money and haven’t been heard from by delegates. They’ll get their
seven minutes of fame this morning. Fergeson is campaigning against
the North American Union and Fonua is campaigning for something
called “the Peacemaker.”
Jason Chaffetz has raised around $70,000. David Leavitt raised twice that
many and Chris Cannon has doubled Leavitt. Not surprising since
Chris is the incumbent.
I’m torn between these three. I believe them all to be good men with
Utah’s best interest at heart. They aren’t that far apart
politically. I know Chris and Jason well. I’ve spoken to them
several times over the course of the campaign. I don’t know David
Leavitt, but have tremendous respect for his brother Mike (current
Secretary of HHS).
When I ran in my caucus meeting, I told the people there I’d base my
vote for congressman on the basis of their support for Larry Lessig’s Change
Congress. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to both Chris and
Jason about this and they were both supportive of two of the four
pledges. Chris didn’t think eliminating PAC money was practical, but
was in favor of limiting all contributions to less than $300.
Why didn’t I speak to David Leavitt about Change Congress? It’s
partly my fault: I went to only one event where he spoke. But it’s partly
his fault as well. He’s been largely unavailable. Several attempts
to get a message to him about Change Congress through his staff
failed to elicit any response.
In fact, one of the things that’s turned me off about
Leavitt’s campaign is that it’s been much more impersonal than
campaigns I’m used to. Lots of events to hear him speak and lots of
literature, but not much personal contact. This morning for example,
Chris and Jason were both at their booths (and I’ve got photos
to prove it). Where was Leavitt? I don’t know. I wandered
around the entire center and didn’t see him once.
I wasn’t overly impressed with David Leavitt’s speech. Some shouting
at inopportune times. Jason gave a great speech, but his calling
global warming a farce turned me off. Of course, I’m not sure Cannon
or Leavitt feel much different. Both Cannon and Leavitt started
their speeches with videos. Cannons was probably the best, but I
liked that Chaffetz didn’t have one. Cannon’s speech was good: he
talked about his background and how he got where he is.
Cannon is a supporter of eVerify,
which I think is a big mistake. Of course, you can’t find anyone
who you agree with on everything–unless you’re the candidate. That
might not work either. I’ve known some candidates who I’m sure
argued with themselves.
Time to vote!
I voted for Chris Cannon. I know some people will disagree with that
vote so let me say why:
- Chris was willing to support important aspects of the Change
Congress pledges, including big support for transparency. He even
took the time to meet personally with me on the pledge and talk about
it.
- Chris has been a good friend to technology. Many technologists
in the state who I know and trust are firm supporters of Chris
Cannon. I’ve talked to Chris several times about technology issues
and he’s well informed and thinks carefully about them.
Now we’re listening to speeches for statewide office. The only
interesting race is for Treasurer. Go figure.
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Ballot
boxes
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Gov. Huntsman spoke about his accomplishments. He made it clear he
only intends to serve one more term (if he’s elected, of course).
Chuck Smith, running against Huntsman, gave a good speech and seems
to have some good ideas, but he’s not going to win. There’s been no
campaign to speak of.
Mark Walker is a
former legislator with little experience in financial management.
Richard Ellis is currently the Deputy Treasurer and a former
directory of the Governors Office for Planning and Budget. But Ellis
has been roundly criticized by the legislature and has little support
there. I think it’s more than Walker being “one of our own” with the
legislature. I think Ellis has seriously made many of them mad with
things he’s said and done. Of course, I know how that feels. 
The Utah County Treasurer nominated Richard Ellis and said Ed Alter
(current Treasurer had planned to do it, but was unavailable.)
The nomination focused on Ellis’ experience. Gordon Snow (Majority
Whip) seconded the nomination. Ellis spoke about what he’s done in
the Treasurer’s office: financial and technical innovation. Ellis
gave a good speech.
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Balloons waiting to fall above my head
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David Clark, Majority Leader, nominated Walker. He noted Walker’s
integrity. John Valentine (Senate President) seconded. Mark
Shurtleff and Ron Bishop (1st District Congressman) also spoke for
Walker. He emphasized more investment of public funds for larger
returns. It’s interesting that our conservative legislature supports a
less conservative financial manager for treasurer. He
emphasizes his private sector experience–although he doesn’t get
specific since he has no financial experience that I’ve heard about.
He seems to be running largely on his Republican credentials.
Results: Merrill Cook, Bill Dew, and Brian Jenkins advanced to the
run off ballot for District 2. In District three, David Leavitt
received 220 votes, Jason Chaffetz received 469 votes, and Chris Cannon
received 338 votes. They’ll all go to the second ballot. The other
two received almost no support, so unless people change their vote,
I’d expect to see Jason and Chris go to a third ballot. We could be
here all day…
The conventional wisdom is that a vote for Leavitt or Chaffetz is a
vote against Cannon. But that’s not the case. In fact, I
saw Leavitt and Cannon talking in the hall and the word going around
the floor is that Leavitt is asking his delegates to vote for
Cannon. Of course, that won’t keep the final outcome from going to a
primary vote in June. In fact, it would take a huge swing either way
to avoid that. Greg Curtis, Speaker of the House, predicted 55%
Chaffetz, 45% Cannon. I think it might be closer than that.
I snagged a seat at the press table: power and a table to put my
computer on. Sweet!
While we were waiting for the second ballot to be counted, Senators
Hatch and Bennett spoke. Basically cheerleading for Republicans.
That’s OK–this is the right crowd for it to be sure. Hatch says: “I
was a Mitt Romney supporter, but that’s over. If you can’t get
behind McCain, you might as well turn the election over to Barack
Obama. That would be a catastrophe for the judiciary.” Hatch says
McCain will appoint the right kind of judges and that alone is a good
enough reason to support John McCain. Hatch gets a standing
ovation. No doubt that the man is popular with this crowd.
Along with all of these are the usual controversies surrounding
voting and credentialing procedures. Some older and disabled
delegates had a tough time getting to the ballot boxes apparently.
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A row of Macs at the press table
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Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and State Auditor Auston Johnson were
elected by acclamation since they’re running unopposed. We watched a
McCain video. Mark Shurtleff spoke after showing us a video. I
presume it’s been prepared for the general election. Shurtleff gave
a god talk and got a standing ovation. Balloons dropped. Basically
anything to fill the time while they count votes.
The bags filled with balloons were hung above the press table, so
they all fell on the floor around the press and not on the
delegates.
Argh. Now we’re doing party constitution changes. What fun. In the
middle of the second amendment, someone went down and there was a
call for a medic. There was a division called on the second
amendment to replace winner take all with proportional representation
in future presidential primaries. The amendment failed.
There will be a third ballot for the 2nd and 3rd Districts. In the 3rd
District, Leavitt got 161 votes, Chaffetz got 529 votes, and Cannon
got 356 votes in the second round. That gives Chaffetz over 50%, but
he needs 60% to avoid a runoff. That’s 630 votes it everyone
stuck around and will vote on the third ballot. He
needs 100 of Leavitt’s votes to win outright.
People in Leavitt shirts are walking through the hall carrying Cannon
signs. They’re getting boo’d and the Rules Chairman is asking them
to leave since campaigns are not allowed to campaign in the
convention hall itself.
I’m going to go get ready to vote. They’re not going to open the
ballot boxes until we’ve heard the Bylaw changes because they’re
afraid people might leave. Ya think!?!
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Jason Chaffetz running for Congress in the Third District
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The first bylaw amendment is to allow the delegates that are bound to
Mitt Romney to vote for McCain. People cheered wildly after the
speech against the change. People here still love Romney. Someone
made a motion to postpone he amendment indefinitely. Everyone really
just wants to vote and go home, I think.
In the end, for the 3rd District, Jason Chaffetz came within 9 votes
of being the nominee and not having have a primary with Chris Cannon
on June 24th. The final tally was Chaffetz 59%, Cannon 41%. What a
finish. I’ll bet there’s some Chaffetz supporters who went home
early and are kicking themselves right now.
Tags:
utah
politics
republican
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