Round Table Freshman Caucus with Congressman Jason Chaffetz

Dear Constituents, we recently received this information and wanted to share it with you. All are welcome. HI02 Secretary

Round Table Freshman Caucus

with Congressman Jason Chaffetz

Question: If you had the opportunity to meet extensively with some newly-elected Freshman Congressmen before they headed off to Washington, is there anything you would want to tell them?

Answer: I'll bet you would! On Saturday December 18th, iCaucus is hosting a “Round Table Freshman Caucus” for several of the 2010 freshman-elect Congressmen and Senators to meet with Congressman Jason Chaffetz, as well as several guest experts; and with grassroots activists and citizens such as yourself.

We are especially pleased that one of our SPECIAL guest experts will be Anita Moncrief, the ACORN whistle blower who courageously exposed ACORN's massive voter fraud while working at ACORN.

Please Reserve your spot as early as possible: This is only one day and an opportunity you do not want to miss. Your early RSVP allows us to adequately prepare the logistical details for this Round Table!

Where: Challenger School in Lehi (behind Cabela's) 3920 N Traverse Mountain Boulevard Lehi UT 84043

When: Saturday, December 18th, 2010 Begins at 9:00am and runs through 4:30pm, with a Town Hall lunch.

The iCaucus Freshmen Round Table will consist of 3 elements, as outlined below:

1st element: KEYNOTE CAUCUS SESSION:

Congressman Jason Chaffetz (UT-3) will be our keynote "guest speaker". Congressmen Chaffetz is excited to meet and connect with grassroots activists and the Freshman Congressmen to take a unified message to Washington DC … instead of the other way around. I put "guest speaker" in quotes because Congressmen Chaffetz won't be giving us a speech, instead the format of Chaffetz’ time with you will be a combination of a townhall format with a "let’s roll up our sleeves and talk around the table" type of meeting.

2nd element: ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION SERIES:

In addition to meeting with Congressman Chaffetz, you will also attend a series of Round Table discussions with expert resources that have agreed to come and meet with you and the freshmen Congressmen.

Session 1 – Solutions for Effectively Reaching Minority Voters: Presented by Anita Moncrief, American Majority, ACORN Whistle blower, Washington DC

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-washington-dc/anita-moncrief

Session 2 – Solutions for our Federal Deficit and Debt Reduction:

The Media and the status quo in Washington have framed our budget problems as a series of false choices: Either we must raise taxes, (they say), or enact draconian budget cuts, or default on our obligations, or raise the debt ceiling. The founders of The Independence Caucus categorically reject these 4 false options, and this session will present a real choice: A comprehensive and sequential strategy for eliminating deficits and debt by reversing and eliminating the systemic problems that were built into the Federal Budgeting Process in 1974.

Session 3 – Solutions for Reigning In the Unauthorized Expansion of the Federal Government:

Presented by the founders of the Patrick Henry Caucus. http://www.thepatrickhenrycaucus.org/

Session 4 – Solutions to Intrusive Government Interference in Education:

Presented by Bruno Behrend, Director of the Center for School Reform, The Heartland Institute, Chicago, ILhttp://www.heartland.org/about/profileresults.html?profile=9B1D98727001E6461A5F2A122FC9B19D&directory=0490F571009CFDBBCAA4E62B8A3EBAE2

Session 5 – Solutions for the Unintended Effects of Government Regulations on Foreign Policy:

Presented by Frank Anderson Sr., President and CEO of the Middle East Policy Council, Retired CIA Bureau Chief, Washington, D.C. http://www.mepc.org/media-resources

Session 6 - Recognizing a True Education When You See It:

Presented by Hugh Gorgeon, Regional Director of Challenger Schools, Salt Lake City, Utahhttp://www.challengerschool.com/

3rd element: “TOWN HALL” LUNCH:

The freshman Congressmen will be the guests of honor at a Town Hall Lunch where you will mingle and dine with the Freshman themselves, plus the expert speakers, and your fellow grassroots activists. This lunch will also feature a special presentation to iCaucus endorsed representatives.

Why December 18th?

While Dec. 18th is pretty close to Christmas, it's the earliest date that Chaffetz could commit to meet with the freshman, and the last opportunity for grassroots activists to meet with the freshmen-elect before they get bombarded by special interest groups in Washington.

Cost of the event:

Because this is so close to Christmas, we have worked hard to keep the cost absolutely as low as possible:

________________________

Option 1, Full day plus lunch: $25.00

Includes attendance pass to the Chaffetz Keynote Caucus, plus all six Round Table sessions, plus the Townhall Lunch with the Congressmen...in short, everything is included.

To reserve your spot and purchase Option 1, click the link below: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=66ZFM6AF9XRSY

_____________________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Option 2, Full day but skip the lunch: $15.00

Includes attendance pass to the Chaffetz Keynote Caucus, plus all six Round Table sessions, but no lunch To reserve your spot and purchase Option 2, click the link below: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=EY2EJR8T2DEKU

Thank you! Frank Anderson - frank@icaucus.orgCo-founder,

Independence Caucus

Join Independence Caucus and make a difference.

(385) 204-1796 ~ www.icaucus.org

Central Committee Meeting Notes, Nov 2010

Below you’ll find the agenda and my associated notes from the most recent Central Committee Meeting (Utah County Republican Precinct Chairs, Vice-Chairs, Leg Officers, and County Officers are members). I posted my reflections on this meeting and the others I’ve attended on my personal blog.

Agenda and Brief Notes

1. Welcome – Dave Hansen, Chair Pro Tem
   There were motions to have other officials act as chair as both our County Chair and Vice Chair were out of town), these were rebuffed and Dave was nominated and approved as chair
   - Recognition of Elected Officials and VIP Guest
   - Prayer
   - Pledge
   - Adoption of Agenda – adopted
2. Consideration of Caucus envelop complaint
   It was moved and seconded that the complaint be dismissed as the executive committee has put in place measures that will ensure that this does not happen again. The motion passed overwhelmingly after a little discussion.
3. Elections Committee Report – nothing significant
4. Finance Committee Report – the county has a little more money than was budgeted. There was some discussion on whether or not it was legitimate to use party funds to pay an attorney to help with the articles of incorporation. The Steering committee, as per the constitution has the right to move money from one line item to another in the budget but not to spend more money in total than was budgeted. Some people wanted to argue the opposite.
5. Approval of appointments – there were a number of chairs, vice chairs and other officers appointed to fill vacancies.  There was contention regarding one appointment in LD60 so the others were approved and then the LD60 vice chair appointment was discussed. It was motioned that LD60 meet and come with a recommendation before the matter is considered by the full committee. This motion was rejected and a bitter discussion ensued with no resolution (time ran out) and no plan to address it until the next committee meeting. The party secretary reviewed the circumstances around the appointment and showed all applicable items from the by-laws and constitution. The 30 second version is that the chair of LD60, Linda Housekeeper, took a leave of absence to run for county office last year prior to the caucuses. After the caucuses the vice chair resigned and the county chair appointed a vice-chair so that the LD would not lose a vote at county and state conventions. I believe the root of the problem was that the county chair appointed a vice-chair that Linda did not want and so the contention began.
6. Audit Committee Report – the audit committee was asked to look into the envelop issue and make a finding. There finding was that errors were made but nothing rising to the level of misfeasance, malfeasance, … . The committee chastised the group involved but did not find anything worthy of removal from office or criminal. The committee chair, John Booth, noted that someone had leaked the audit report, which he felt was a violation of civil laws, and that he had been under significant pressure to release the info prior to the meeting. His last item of business was to submit his resignation.
7. Constitutional & Bylaws Committee Report – nothing significant
8. Report from elected county officials.
   This was the most interesting part of the meeting. The County Assessor and Clerk each mentioned how lean their departments were and each expressed a willingness to personally answer questions from county residents on issues like property valuations.
   The sheriff pointed out that for a county of our size we have 1/4 of the prison population as would be expected.

As an end note I would like to thank Dave Hansen for taking the time to chair our meeting. He was an effective chair in spite of dozens of people who were also trying to run the meeting.

Thank You!

Now that the elections are over I want to thank all those who participated in the process for there efforts in helping us exercise our rights and obligation as citizens in selecting our leaders. Congratulations also to Wendy Hart who is now our school board representation. She has already started to make a difference in terms of transparency.

At the risk of leaving someone out thanks to:

• Wendy Hart, who was both a candidate and active vice-chair. Wow what an example
• Carin Hadley, our secretary who did a great job keeping us informed via her blog posts and Facebook updates.
• Rey Johnson, Ken Bushman, Jesse Adamson, Carin Hadley and Wendy Hart who spent time as county delegates meeting the candidates. Mike Bready and Terry Melendez who did the same for us as state delegates. All the delegates invested a lot of time on our behalf and made an effort to share their views and solicit our input. Thanks to Howard Siegel as well who was elected as a county delegate but, because of an unavoidable calendar conflict could not attend convention, bowed out and let Carin take his place as a delegate.
• Rey Johnson, Vern May, Carin Hadley, Karin Kinghorn, Sandy Williams, Devirl Barfuss, Becky Rainer, Ray Ellison, Rod Lisonbee, Gary Nixon, Janice Hymas and Kurt Holmestead who helped survey our precinct to ensure that the state voter info was correct and handed out registration forms.
• Ed Ludaescher who distributed literature to a lot of homes and donated his yard for campaign signs for an extended period of time. And Dorothy for putting up with it :)
• Jennifer Bengzten, Karin Hadley, and Suzanne Mann who helped organize our precinct garage sale Morgan Philpot.
• Mike and Lisa Olson for letting us use their garage and yard for the sale.
• Caitlin Bengtzen, Devon and Jason Kinghorn also helped with garage sale.
• The Bengtzens for being willing to host a campaign advisor from out of state for Morgan on very very short notice late one Friday night.
• Michael O'Halloren Teague Bengtzen, Caitlin Bengtzen and Vern May who helped with poll watching.
• Diane Kingston, Lon & Kaye Nally, Suzanne Mann, and Karen Kinghorn who helped with election day calls
• Mike Bready who sponsored the best primary debate between Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee at Novell. 
• Ken Bushman, Rey Johnson, Jesse Adamson, Teague Bengtzen, Wendy Hart, Carin Hadley, and Vern May who helped staff the debate.
• Mike Olson who was a district captain for Morgan Philpot's campaign
• All those who let us use their fence or yards for large campaign signs: the Bengztens, Garrets, Thurmans, Hyatts, Johnsons (Rey and Carolyn), Olsons (Mike and Lisa), Herrons, Thelma Smith ... 
• Scott Hart gets a big thanks for editing the video of Morgan's visit to our precinct and creating 13 clips for us to put on YouTube. This was no small task and it was excellently done.
• Tim Aalders who had Morgan Philpot on his radio show multiple times and ran Morgan ads his show as well.
• Plus all of you who encouraged people to vote and shared your thoughts and opinions with your neighbors.

You all made a difference this year. I'm inspired by your involvement. Now we have to hold those elected accountable. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" as Jefferson said.

Voting took place today!!!

Today is a monumental day...it is the long awaited Mid-Term election. Several Precinct members voted early and others chose to use the Absentee ballot. Then, there were the die-hard fans of the polling booth on Election Day. Several Precinct members were there bright and early as the polls opened.

The HI02 Precinct, along with HI05 scheduled Poll Watchers throughout the day. Here, Rod Mann, our faithful Precinct Chair, is taking the first watch.

We are grateful for those individuals who serve as Polling judges and ensure that those presenting themselves to vote are registered to do so in our area.




The new Voting system.....failed early!





So, a few of us got the good-old fashioned paper ballot!




Here, candidate John Dougall waits with the rest of us to cast his vote.

We hope you all took the opportunity to cast your sacred vote today. Our thanks to everyone for all their assistance in this election year. There were hours of hard work by many constituents in the HI02 Precinct.

Let's look forward to the final results!

New Morgan Philpot Video

The video below is one of the best and highlights what I feel is Morgan's strongest attribute with respect to being our congressman. He is humble and will strive to serve with honor.

Learning about Judges up for re-election

If you want to know more about the judges up for re-election in our area, please go to:

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Utah_judicial_elections,_2010

Who actually represents you?

Who is the current Representative for us? Listen to him tell you who he is and who he supports. Decide for yourself if he represents you.

What Do Jason Chaffetz and Jim Matheson Have in Common?

Not much you say. Well hold on. Here are a few items:

• Chaffetz votes with his party 92% of the time, Matheson 93%.
• Chaffetz abstains 1% of the time, Matheson 2%
• Chaffetz has sponsored 26 bills and 1 was made into law, Matheson 19 and 2 were made into law

Now for the opposites (or at least wildly different):

• One of the two representatives Chaffetz most often votes with is Walter Minnick, one of the two representatives Matheson least often votes with is Walter Minnick
• One of the two representatives Chaffetz least often votes with is Parker Griffin, one of the two representatives Matheson most often votes with is Parker Griffin.
• In his current term Chaffetz had $0 in earmarks, in his current term Matheson had $71M
• Chaffetz received a 93% rating from the National Taxpayers Union in 2009 while Matheson received a 30% rating.

Most people consider Chaffetz to be one of the most conservative members of the US House. In fact the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action rated him a 0% liberal in 2009 (Matheson received a 55% rating for the same year a drop from his previous off-year rating of 75%). Matheson is an ever so slightly stronger supporter of his party than is Chaffetz of his. So how is Chaffetz is considered a strong conservative a while Matheson is a conservative Democrat. Just a question? I’m sure there is a plausible answer.

During his entire term of office Jim has sponsored fewer bills (19 v. 26) than Jason but passed twice as many (2 v. 1). So you could say that Jim works smarter than Jason. Of course Jim has had 10 years to build his resume while Jason has had only 2. Oh, and in case you were wondering; Jim co-sponsored 180 bills of which 14 were passed. Jason also had 14 of the bills he co-sponsored make it into law but he had to co-sponsor 370 (over twice as many as Jim). You could say Jim is more effective in using his time but of course he had 5X the time to get the same results. Net/Net Jason legislatively accomplished almost as much as Jim but in 1/5 the time.

Do we want someone more like Jim or Jason representing us? Well for me the choice is easy. Morgan Philpot is unquestionably more like Jason than Jim.

 

Sources: www.opencongress.org & www.opensecrets.org

Tell the Whole Truth....

We can all tell it is late in the political season as the very 'negative' ads are flooding the airways. However, negative and untruthful are not synonymous.

I just saw the most recent advertisement by our incumbent Representative. He infers that his opponent did several things that are questionable. Namely, resigning halfway through his term, not voting for over 200 votes, not paying taxes, moving out of state etc.

When I attended the cottage meeting this past weekend, Mr. Philpot reported that this ad was coming and gave the following information:

1. He made a 'life decision' to attend Law school, which prompted him to resign once he got accepted to the school.

2. He attended Law school in Michigan...thus the move and lack of votes after he resigned.

3. Because of his move, he received a tax notice late once it arrived in Michigan. He stated that the late penalty was in the $60.00 range, and he paid it.

Mr. Matheson is inferring that Mr. Philpot is unreliable, a tax evader, and that he 'left the state'. In my view, a half truth is a full untruth. Please take the opportunity to investigate not only these accusations in this race, but any other accusations you find sensational at this point in the season with any race. Find out for yourself what the truth is.....please don't rely on talking points that seem far afield.

If things were as bad as some candidates pose at this point, why wouldn't these points have been raised earlier in the campaign? In my view, stating them any earlier would have allowed you as the citizen to learn the actual truth. By doing it now, perhaps the candidates are counting on you to not have or take the time to learn what the facts truly are.

So the question really is, who is more reliable, and who is more transparent and accessible to the constituency. Again, find out for yourself....be informed.

What Do Jason Chaffetz and Jim Matheson Have in Common?

Not much you say. Well hold on. Here are a few items:

• Chaffetz votes with his party 92% of the time, Matheson 93%.
• Chaffetz abstains 1% of the time, Matheson 2%
• Chaffetz has sponsored 26 bills and 1 was made into law, Matheson 19 and 2 were made into law

Now for the opposites (or at least wildly different):

• One of the two representatives Chaffetz most often votes with is Walter Minnick, one of the two representatives Matheson least often votes with is Walter Minnick
• One of the two representatives Chaffetz least often votes with is Parker Griffin, one of the two representatives Matheson most often votes with is Parker Griffin.
• In his current term Chaffetz had $0 in earmarks, in his current term Matheson had $71M
• Chaffetz received a 93% rating from the National Taxpayers Union in 2009 while Matheson received a 30% rating.

Most people consider Chaffetz to be one of the most conservative members of the US House. In fact the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action rated him a 0% liberal in 2009 (Matheson received a 55% rating for the same year a drop from his previous off-year rating of 75%). Matheson is an ever so slightly stronger supporter of his party than is Chaffetz of his. So how is Chaffetz is considered a strong conservative a while Matheson is a conservative Democrat. Just a question? I’m sure there is a plausible answer.

During his entire term of office Jim has sponsored fewer bills (19 v. 26) than Jason but passed twice as many (2 v. 1). So you could say that Jim works smarter than Jason. Of course Jim has had 10 years to build his resume while Jason has had only 2. Oh, and in case you were wondering; Jim co-sponsored 180 bills of which 14 were passed. Jason also had 14 of the bills he co-sponsored make it into law but he had to co-sponsor 370 (almost twice as many as Jim). You could say Jim is more effective in using his time but of course he had 5X the time to get the same results. Net/Net Jason legislatively accomplished almost as much as Jim but in 1/5 the time.

Do we want someone more like Jim or Jason representing us? Well for me the choice is easy. Morgan Philpot is unquestionably more like Jason than Jim.

Sources: www.opencongress.org & www.opensecrets.org

Is Matheson In Step with Utahns?

I thought it would be interesting to look at how a liberal group rated our congressmen so I went to the website for Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and looked at their annual rating for house members from 2001 to 2009. Over the course of that time period the average democrat was given an 86% by the ADA. Jim Matheson had an average rating of 66% so he was rated as more conservative than the average democrat. Contrast this with the ratings of the 1st (4%) and 3rd (2%) district representatives (Hansen/Bishop and Cannon/Chaffetz respectively) for that time period and you can see how out of step Matheson is with the our other congressman. I wonder which of the 3 our more closely aligned with the average Utahn. You can be the judge but it seems to me that Mr. Matheson is much more aligned with liberals than conservatives.

I also found it interesting that  in 2006 and 2008 Mr. Matheson’s liberal rating took quite a tumble. Let me see, were those election years?

I believe Morgan Philpot is more closely aligned with the largely conservative members of the 2nd Congressional District. Let’s make sure he is the one that represents us going forward.

Is Matheson In Step with Utahns?

I thought it would be interesting to look at how a liberal group rated our congressmen so I went to the website for Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and looked at their annual rating for house members from 2001 to 2009. Over the course of that time period the average democrat was given an 86% by the ADA. Jim Matheson had an average rating of 66% so he was rated as more conservative than the average democrat. Contrast this with the ratings of the 1st (4%) and 3rd (2%) district representatives (Hansen/Bishop and Cannon/Chaffetz respectively) for that time period and you can see how out of step Matheson is with the our other congressman. I wonder which of the 3 our more closely aligned with the average Utahn. You can be the judge but it seems to me that Mr. Matheson is much more aligned with liberals than conservatives.

I also found it interesting that  in 2006 and 2008 Mr. Matheson’s liberal rating took quite a tumble. Let me see, were those election years?

I believe Morgan Philpot is more closely aligned with the largely conservative members of the 2nd Congressional District. Let’s make sure he is the one that represents us going forward.

Morgan Philpot Cottage Meeting on 10/23/10

Yesterday, the New York Times followed certain grassroot political organizations here in Utah. One of the candidates they followed was Morgan Philpot. I attended a cottage meeting in Alpine to hear from Mr. Philpot last night. Although the media did not attend, if Mr. Philpot did as well as he did last night for them, they certainly should have a positive view of the citizen's of Utah.

Here are a few talking points that I appreciated:

1. Negative campaigning: Morgan stated that they looked over the last few campaigns that have been waged against our current incumbent. He said that they all turned negative, and that became the advantage for Mr. Matheson. He and his campaign made a decision early on to not use negative campaigning, and have not done so. He states that he would rather use his opponents factual voting record instead, and has done so.

2. Suggestions from the 'crowd': Several attendees suggested that he call Mr. Matheson the "Democratic Candidate, Jim Matheson" because Matheson's advertisement does not identify him in this manner. Morgan stated that he did do this for a time, but then Mr Matheson came out with ads stated that Mr. Philpot was being "political". That got a laugh from everyone.

Another suggestion was to highlight Matheson's voting record on the stimulus and other spending bills he supported.

Still others asked why he didn't point out, what they felt, were the specific untruths Mr. Matheson was using against Mr. Philpot. Mr. Philpot again stated that he is using facts and that people don't be seem to be buying the innuendo from the opponents camp.

3. Advertising: The question was asked as to why the Philpot campaign isn't advertising on TV. Morgan reported that one weeks worth of TV advertising would cost over $170,000.00. When asked how the Matheson campaign is able to afford this, Morgan reported that over 80% of their funding is coming from sources and special interests outside of Utah. The Philpot campaign is being run on a 'shoestring', but seems to be effective. Even Rocky Anderson reportedly called up Morgan to give support. That is one for the books!

4. Volunteers: Many people asked how they could get specifics on his platform to be more knowledgeable when sharing with others. He gave this link to get this information.

He also spoke about many people who have taken on campaigning without being asked. He spoke of a gentleman in Wasatch County who has organized and lead a campaign there. For the first time in years, Wasatch County is leaning toward someone other than Mr. Matheson. He also mentioned that people were doing many things on their own to campaign and fund raise. He was very specific when he mentioned that a Garage Sale had been held to raise funds. I quickly spoke up stating that this was out precinct and the whole room erupted in applause.

If you want more information about Morgan Philpot's campaign, please go to http://www.philpotforcongress.net/icampaign/index.php.

Philpot v. Matheson Debate and the FairTax

After listening to the debate (if you haven't listened click here) I kept thinking about Matheson’s oft repeated refrain that Morgan wants to tax everything you buy at 23% and in reality that rate would likely be 30%. There is some truth to this statement but Matheson leaves a lot of information out as well.

What Morgan has said on a couple of occasions is that he could support a national sales tax such as the proposed Fair Tax Act of 2005 (HR 25 and S 25) which call for a 23% sales tax on all new goods and services. This proposal is explained in detail by the Americans for Fair Taxation on their website www.fairtax.org for those who want to learn more.

What Matheson left out was that the fair tax initiative would only be enacted if the 16th Amendment was repealed (this is the one that gives the federal government the right to tax our income) and it It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes.

The FairTax replaces the revenue collected by the taxes enumerated above with a national sales tax. It was designed to be revenue neutral. So if we are bothered by 23% (or in 30%) sales tax then our anger should be directed at those in government who are spending our money at a rate equivalent to that kind of a sales tax. As someone who has been in office for 10 years and voted for the stimulus bill, cash for clunkers and numerous other programs Matheson should be the last person who would want talk about issues related to the cost of government.

What I love about a sales tax versus an income tax is that it decreases the federal government's involvement in my life. No longer do they need to concern themselves with how much I make and my sources of income. Nor do I need go through an annual exercise in determining how much I owe the government. If I’m wrong and underpay I’m subject to varying degrees of penalties and interest charges. However, if I overpay the government then, oh well, the government has benefitted from my money but only pays me the principle back. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of a national sales tax (again, if and only if the 16th amendment is repealed).

Back to the debate, I have the mental picture of Matheson waving his finger at Morgan and touting how naive he would be to consider a tax program like the FairTax which could impact the economy in such as negative way.

Tell me again Mr. Matheson, how a program which takes the same amount of money from us but eliminates the IRS, means I don’t have to file income tax reports, and has the potential to generate income from people who currently don’t pay income taxes (criminals, workers paid on a cash basis …) is bad. That finger and the self-righteous attitude that goes with it should be more introspective.

I looked (see When is a Blue Dog only a Mirage?) and at no time in his last term in office did Matheson cast a deciding vote or was even one of several deciding votes on spending bills that were conservative in nature. Any votes against bills that I feel were terrible such as ObamaCare were cast only after the fix was in for these monstrosities.

I loved Morgan’s comment that he fully supports Milton Friedman’s stance that “I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.” Additionally, I thought Morgan’s comment that he thought Matheson’s assertion that a 23% or higher sales tax was necessary simply reflected the typical Washington attitude that spending must increase not decrease.

We need people like Morgan in office who will seek to cut taxes and spending wherever and whenever possible.

Go Morgan!

By the way did you know that 9 states have no personal income tax and use a state sales tax  (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington, Wyoming)? And how do they rank in a survey of the best and worst managed states in America (note, Utah was 6th).

• (14) Alaska
• (42) Florida
• (41) Nevada
• (8) New Hampshire
• (13) South Dakota
• (36) Texas
• (35) Tennessee
• (15) Washington
• (1) Wyoming

The average ranking was 22. So these states are in general better than average and don’t burden their citizens with annual income tax filing nor do they invade their privacy. So tell me again Mr. Matheson how terrible the FairTax concept is and why I shouldn’t vote for Morgan because he said he would consider such a proposal. Maybe I shouldn’t vote for you because you think it is such an awful idea. Good idea. I think I’ll do that :)

Go Morgan!

Philpot - Matheson Debate on Video

This past week, a debate was held in St. George between Morgan Philpot (R Candidate) and Jim Matheson (D Candidate). Please use the link below to view it. It helps differentiate where each candidate stands on various issues. It is a "must-see" view. Please inform you neighbors about it and please plan to vote on or before November 2nd. This is one of the most important elections of our time.

The link below shows the debate held in St. George, Utah between Philpot
and Matheson. The debate introductions don't start until around 15 minutes so
feel feel to skip forward at least that far.

http://vstream.dixie.edu/DSC/Viewer/?peid=cac4131afa2d4fd397fc9e08b7d0b12d

Matheson casts the deciding vote.....

The President of the Utah Taxpayer association recently spoke about the House of Representative's decision to not extend the Bush Tax Cuts. This speaker happens to be our own State Senator, Howard Stephenson. See who the swing vote in Washington DC was ....

Utah County General Election 2010, Early Voting Schedule and Locations

(Image courtesy of media.sacbee.com)

Early Voting

The Utah County Clerk's Office provides voters the option of voting prior to Election Day at any Early Voting Location. Registered voters may visit any Early Voting Location and cast a ballot in person using a touch screen voting device. Voters are not required to go to a certain location to vote early, you may visit any site within Utah County to vote. Early voting begins 14 days before Election Day, and ends the Friday before Election Day.

In order to be eligible to participate in Early Voting, voters must be registered to vote at least 30 days prior to the election and provide valid voter identification. Valid voter identification means:

1. a form of identification that bears the name and photograph of the voter; or

2. two forms of identification that bear the name of the voter and provide evidence that the voter resides in the voting precinct.

Utah County General Election 2010 Early Voting Schedule and Locations
October 19-22 and October 25-29, Location Times

Utah Community Credit Union
1364 North Commerce Drive
Saratoga Springs 1 pm - 5 pm

American Fork Library*
64 South 100 East
American Fork 3 pm - 7 pm
(*Friday, October 22, 2010 and Friday, October 29, 2010 1 pm - 5 pm)

Orem City - City Building Rotunda
55 North State Street
Orem 1 pm - 5 pm

Utah County Administration Building
100 East Center Street
Provo, Utah (Room LL900) 8 am - 5 pm

Spanish Fork National Guard Armory*
2801 North Main Street
Spanish Fork 3 pm - 7 pm
(* Friday, October 29, 2010, 3 pm - 5 pm)

A recap of Republican "Meet Your Candidates"Family Picnic ,

An event was held on October 9th, 2010 allowing citizen's to not only hear, but meet the candidates from our local races all the way up to our Congressional races. Here are some photo's from the event:




Governor Gary Herbert



Doug Whitney and Jeff Buhman

Mike Lee

Lot's of candidates were represented!

Meet the Candidates Family Picnic!

You're Invited!

Republican "Meet Your Candidates"Family Picnic Saturday,

Oct 9, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm Orem City Center Park

- 300 East 100 North, (North Pavilion) Orem*

Meet Your Republican Candidates and Representatives: Governor Herbert - Senator Hatch - Mike Lee Jason Chaffetz - Morgan Philpot Gary Anderson, Doug Whitney County Candidates and your Utah County State Representatives and Senators

Family Picnic - Food - Live Music - Kid's Activities. Picnic Tickets: At the door = $6 per person, or $25 per . Pay Now for a discounted rate of $5 per person or $20 per family! Tickets can be purchased in advance for a discounted price on the county website at http://www.utahcountygop.org/.

Of course you are welcome to meet the candidates without charge. The optional food and activities require a paid ticket.

*Directions: Orem Center Street exit from I-15. Go East through the light at State Street and Center, and after you pass Smith's you will see the park on your left just before the traffic signal at 400 East. There is parking on Center and also on 100 North.

Save the Date! Fundraiser this Saturday!

Looking to downsize a bit? Do you have extra items you no longer need?

Bring them to the our Garage Sale on Saturday, 9/25/10. Proceeds go to benefit the Morgan Philpot campaign.

Address: 5276 West 10850 North from 7:00 to Noon.

Be there!

86% of all Congress are up for re-election

See this new ad from Morgan Philpot who is opposing Jim Matheson. If you agree with it, please donate to his campaign @

http://www.philpotforcongress.com/.

Central Committee Meeting Notes 28 Aug 2010

Wendy and I attended the Central Committee meeting on 28 Aug 2010. Someone proposed revising the agenda in order to improve it. In my view the specific changes suggested were good but not significant, but  the point of proposing the revisions was to criticize the County Steering Committee (Party Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer + 5 appointees) which was not useful and ended up wasting valuable time. (30 to 45 minutes) In the end the original agenda was adopted so I'm not sure what purpose the exercise served unless it will be a taken as a lesson going forward by the steering committee to improve agendas.

To summarize, four changes to the Bylaws were proposed  (click here to see a document with the with additions underlined and deletion struck out). They were all adopted. Below is a description of the discussion.

1. Change to finance and budget policies: The bylaw was revised to eliminate an inconsistency. The original version defined the approvals required to spend money and then directed the Central Committee to define these limits for each election cycle. The proposed change eliminated the direction to the Central Committee to define the limits. (they can be changed by a request to change the bylaws). There was little discussion on this one and it was adopted.
   
   
2. Robert's Rules of Order: This is a new bylaw that says that Robert's will be used as the default rules of order for any meeting of the County GOP. There was some discussion on this but it was not consequential and it was approved almost unanimously.
   
   
3. Change in the number of CC members required to constitute a quorum (without which business cannot be conducted). The change was to move the number from 35 to 100. There about 560 CC members so this is a little less than 20%. Someone moved that we use a percentage rather than an absolute number. This was rejected when the secretary pointed out that the number of members varies slightly from meeting to meeting (people move, resign, etc) and this would mean that the quorum requirements would need to be recalculated for each meeting. It is much simpler to have a fixed number. Pretty much everyone agreed with that and this change was approved with almost unanimous (if not unanimous) support.
   
   
4. Clarification to rule regarding county and precinct officers public support of candidates for Republican office. The current rule says that the steering committee members cannot publicly endorse Republican candidates for office if their party candidacy is opposed (primary or convention).  The rule was revised to exclude people from criticizing candidates. Evidently, a precinct chair publicly criticized one of the Republican candidates during a primary using his or her title and claimed that this did not violate the rules because he was not endorsing a candidate (only tearing down one).  There was a lot of discussion on this for two reasons:
   
   1) Some people felt that the new language added ambiguity for precinct officers. I didn't concur, it seems clear to me. Precinct officers cannot endorse a candidate for nomination when using their title. For example I could not have said that as your precinct chair I encourage you to vote for Morgan Philpot during convention. I could and did say that I personally supported him and encouraged all the delegates I knew to do the same.
   
   2) A number of people did not like the entire bylaw and felt like it should be removed. This has both pros and cons but was out of order because what was being discussed was clarifying the current bylaw. It was suggested that a separate request be sent to the bylaw committee for this action. Evidently this has been discussed in previous Central Committee meetings.

A resolution was proposed and adopted that we encourage our state party leaders to reject the money recently apportioned by the federal government to states to as a bailout for education workers (click here to see the resolution in its entirety). The governor has said that Utah will take the money because, regardless of whether we take it or not, it will get spent and we will just be losing out. I know this may sound a bit Polyanna but I think we should take a stand and say that we as Utahns will not take the money because we think this is not the time for the Federal government to be piling onto the already disastrous debt burden we are carrying. Plus, it can be reasonably argued that this is not a role given to the federal government by the Constitution in the first place. There was not a lot of discussion on this and it was passed again with near unanimity.

One item which as brought up was that you can now register to vote online. Not sure how good an idea this is. Someone pointed out that when an audit of drivers licenses was conducted that 10% of those with licenses are not citizens. But for now it is the way it is.

Some time was spent discussing the county budget and how much money was given to candidates by the county. The elections committee also gave a report on what the county plans were to promote Republican candidates this fall. Real short this involves contacting all county voter  (member of all parties or no party affiliation) by the 22nd of Sept. We will be handing out voter registration cards, mail-in voting applications, and a data sheet that has candidate contact info and election related deadlines. If anyone would like to help our precinct with this effort please contact me (hi02.precinct.chair@gmail.com, 801-847-2051).

Get out the vote-This Saturday 8/21

(Image courtesy of utahdatingideas.com)


Join us this Saturday, as the Utah County Republican Party takes an important step on the Road to Victory!We have two Get-out-the-Vote events slated for Saturday, August 21 in North Utah County. Join your Republican friends in an effort to get voters registered and educate our neighbors on why voting Republican matters more than ever.



9:45 a.m. at Highland City Splash Park (north of the Highland City Hall)

Support Morgan Philpot for US House

Get Informed! Get Involved!

Set aside some of your time and money to

Support Morgan Philpot NOW

So that we won't have to fight Nancy Pelosi later.

Most of you were very energized at the time of our caucus, especially around health care and general spending  issues. We had 5X the number a attendees at this years precinct caucus as compared with the last one. I hope many of you are still feeling the passion as it is time to start to look at the elections this fall. I know it is early but in what I feel is the most critical race for our precinct, the race for the US House of Representatives, your early support of Morgan Philpot can make a big difference in the final outcome.  I know him personally and can tell you that he is an honorable person who will do all the he can to support the principle of limited government and the free market. I will not worry and wonder about how he will vote as I do now with our current representative.

If you don't know him Morgan will be on the radio Thursday August 12th between 11 and Noon on  KTALK AM 630

I recently did some checking on voting patterns for our precinct In the last three election cycles for the house of representative we voted as follows (turnout % is for all voters in our precinct boundary):

Year	Republican Candidate	Democratic Candidate	Voter Turnout
2004	65%	33%	?
2006	61%	37%	52%
2008	54%	41%	72%

Like many of us I had heard and believed that Congressman Matheson was a moderate to conservative democrat who generally voted the interests of his constituents. While in some sense that may be true below are some interesting bits of information that may alter that perception:

  The National Taxpayers Union rates each Member of Congress' voting record to determine how friendly (or unfriendly) they are to taxpayers. Here are their grades for Matheson:

Year	Grade	Score	Rank
2009	C-	30%	187
2008	C-	40%	188
2007	D	24%	202
2006	C-	47%	205
2005	D	37%	231
2004	D	29%	228
2003	D	30%	245
2002	D	27%	263
2001	F	25%	239

While Matheson has improved over the years do we really want someone with a C- rating in this category.

The Americans for Democratic Action (a liberal activist organization) rates congressmen each year on how closely they adhere to the "liberal agenda" through their voting records. While he does not get a 100% liberal rating he is widely out of step with our other two congressional representatives (which one of them do you think more accurately reflects our views) and much more closely aligned with the average democrat than you might think.

Year	Average Democrat	Average Republican	Matheson	Hansen/ Bishop	Cannon/ Chaffetz
2001	85%	8%	70%	5%	0%
2002	86%	5%	80%	0%	0%
2003	89%	11%	70%	0%	5%
2004	85%	10%	70%	5%	0%
2005	91%	8%	75%	10%	0%
2006	83%	10%	45% hmm, wasn't he up for relection this year?	10%	5%
2007	92%	16%	75% back to normal	10%	10%
2008	89%	22%	55% relection again?	0%	0%
2009	85%	7%	55% writing is on the wall?	0%	0%

Here are some of the votes which earned Jim is liberal rating over the last couple of years:

• HR 1905: voted to give Washington DC a seat in the House of Representatives
• HR 2669: voted to increase the max Pell grant to $5,200, cut the interest rate on subsidized student loans in half, increase the federally backed loan limit to $65,000.
• HR 3963: reauthorize the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) at a cost of $60B over 5 years.
• HR 6: increase the CAFE standards for cars and light trucks as well as mandate that 36 billion gallons of biofuels be used by 2022 (how was anyone supposed to know in 2007 what fuel mix would be the most cost effective in 2022 and where in the constitution does congress have the mandate to do this in the first place?)
  
• S 2739: voted to suspend the rules and pass a bill designating new park, wilderness and scenic areas ... .
  
• HR 384: voted for TARP
• HR 1913: voted to expand the federal hate crimes law
• HR 3435: voted the cash for clunkers program
• and of course he has voted several times for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house.
  

Related Links:

• County voting information: http://www.utahcountyonline.org/Dept/ClerkAud/Elections/index.asp
• Americans for Democratic Action Newsletter A Newsletter for Liberal Activists (contains rates for members of US House and Senate)
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2001.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2002.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2003.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2004.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2005.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2006.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2007.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2008.pdf
  http://www.adaction.org/media/votingrecords/2009.pdf
• National Taxpayers Union rating for Congressman Matheson: http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/ntu-rates-congress/members/house/jim-matheson.html