One More Thought about the Convention

I know that it is well passed. And this post is probably going to be boring to most, but it concerns me greatly. So, I need to write about it.

First of all, from what I can tell there are supposed to be roughly 1200 delegates at the convention from the third district. And I understand that sometimes it is difficult to fill every position, but I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t fill 120 of those positions.

That is 10 percent of the positions went empty before the voting even started. Only 1080 delegates voted in the third district and this is amazing to me. I haven’t been to convention before, but it seems to me that this is either a sign of why grassroots doesn’t work, or a sign that the Republican Party is struggling.

More frustrating to me is those who had their credentials and left. I understand that there are some who had very good reason to leave. And perhaps these fall down numbers are within that range. But simply put. We need to have more dedication to our party.

For the second round, the delegates who voted dropped to 1046. We lost 34 delegates. That’s roughly 3% of the original 1080. Now maybe most of those were the Stone Fonua and Joe Ferguson crowd. If so, that tells me that they really aren’t party people but candidate people, and their precincts need to be more aware of who they elect.

Then for the third round we had drastic drop of 12% from the original voting total. I would have to assume that the major of these people were Leavitt supporters who were too upset to vote for either Chaffetz or Cannon.

How can you do that? You represent your neighborhood. You hold a responsibility to vote for them. If 24 of you would had stuck around and voted for Chaffetz, he would have won. If all of you had stayed and voted, then Chaffetz would have needed 85 of your votes to win.

Sure, I am not sure that Jason could have got those 85. But when people think about it. If they didn’t wanted Cannon over Chaffetz, then they almost handed Chaffetz a win. If 15 more people who supported Cannon in the last round had made the same decision as those who left, then Jason would have won.

I just can’t believe that there were 126 good reasons to leave the convention early. I had to get home to my family and take care of things at home. I know of at least one candidate who had a dance recital he needed to take his children too. But both of us stayed for the last vote.

I guess, I shouldn’t be too surprised about this, but the second district had 368 people drop out.  That is 35% of the original 1046 who showed up to vote in the first place.  I just don’t understand it.  We need people who are more dedicated.

Okay, you can criticize me for having left after the third round and not staying to deal with the bylaws of the party. But I had to draw a line somewhere. If I didn’t have so much going on these next few weeks, and had more time with my family I would have stayed. Not a good enough excuse, but at least I stayed to make the decisions that I believe my precinct was interested in.

I will do my best to be to the 2009 meeting and vote on all of the bylaws and other issues that are presented before us. I just can’t understand how 126 people couldn’t stay for 1 more hour.

Chaffetz and Cannon Discuss the Race on KSL

Posted without comment from me, but please feel free to discuss.

Convention Recap

Well, I know that this is a couple of days old, but I had such a good time at the convention, that I want to record my experience for future reference. And I am hoping that it will be enjoyable for everyone else to read.

5:20am
My day started with a simple question from my wife. “What time are you planning on leaving?”

“5:00.”

“You better get up then.”

I jump out of bed skip the shower, get dressed an head out the door. Stopping only because I forgot my Chris Cannon Breakfast pass.

6:00am (or there about)
Meet up with several people from the Chaffetz campaign who are there to put signs up. By this late time, most of it was done, so I did a lot of standing around. Until they finally opened the doors to let people into the halls.

I placed a couple of signs, but not really much. Eventually, I met up with a few campaign volunteers and I helped to put up a few large triangles to create a larger presence. It was good to see so many people involved and excited about the campaign.

7:00am
I was really starting to get bored at this point. It didn’t seem like there was much going on, so I decided to take my t-shirts and start waiting in credentials line. My first impression was the poor kids who were handing out bags to the delegates for David Leavitt. No one seemed interested in their bags.

I myself didn’t even bother to get one. Perhaps I should have had pitty on them, but I really didn’t care to carry the bag around, and I didn’t care for the “stuff” that was in the bag.

7:30am
Despite the fact that the credentials were supposed to be open at 7:00, the line didn’t start moving until around 7:30. Once I got to the front of the line I realized that I (and a few of the men in front of me) was in the wrong line. Fortunately, the lady guarding the wall between the two areas had pitty on us, and let us in.

I quicking picked up my credentials and I almost walked out without my ballot, because the men checking me in forgot to give it to me. They caught their mistake before I got to far, and I received a ballot before leaving.

7:45am
Picked up a few more t-shirts and a few flyers to help hand out at the door. Most people were pretty receptive to receiving the information, but a few were rather rude. But so be it, I was happy to put up with a little crap to help support Chaffetz.

I really didn’t like one of the flyers. Some of the statements seemed risky. But it appears that they were well substantiated (or verifiable). But it was an interesting statement about where David Leavitt stands on immigration. And if immigration is an important issue to a delegate, this could help them to make their decision.

9:00am
It’s starting to get cold, and I am getting hungry, because I haven’t taken advantage of the Cannon pass. However, the Huntsman booth was within sight of were I was, and the appeared to have some good stuff. So, I handed my flyers to some fellow volunteers, and I went to have some breakfast.

At breakfast, I had some good conversation with some fellow delegates on various candidates, and it was fun to talk to them. I also stopped and talked to Kent Winder from my old Stake to see how things were there. He didn’t remember me, but he did recognize me. That’s okay, because I really didn’t have that much interaction with the Winder Family while I lived in the Stake they lived in.

9:30am
Went inside, because I needed to warm up. I manned some of the booths and helped hand out more t-shirts, button, and flyers about Chaffetz. It was great to see the group of delegates huddled around Chaffetz, asking him questions and learning what he stood for. You could see that there was a genuine interest in what Chaffetz was saying. Whether that interest translated into votes was soon to be shown.

This time was also the first that I heard about the possibility of Chaffetz to garner 60% in the convention. That struck me as a little ambitious, but I was hopeful to see it happen. Because based on past primaries, Chaffetz will have a tough time against Cannon.

10:00am
Found a seat in the Salt Lake County Section of the floor. I found a few Chaffetz supports to sit with, but I didn’t know any of them, but they were friendly enough to sit with.

Eventually, they got to the point that I was eager to get too. We separated into our separate districts to hear from the candidates and to start casting ballots.

Stone Fonua was interesting. I can sum up his talk with one word. “Peacemaker.” Ummm… Interesting talk, and not very inspiring. Seven minutes felt like a half hour.

Joe “NPC” Ferguson (can someone tell me what NPC means) was at least better to listen to. But frankly, you could tell the he was a one issue candidate, who didn’t offer much in the name of a well-rounded candidate.

David Leavitt started with a syrupy video about dreams, values, family, and hope. Then he gave his “I am a Statesman” talk. That made one wonder if they had accidentally arrived at a Barrack Obama campaign. If one were to vote strictly on emotions, then they would have to vote for Leavitt. He really did a lot of work to pull at heart strings. But as usually there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of substance to his talk. Just like all of the balloons that he dropped from the ceiling. Trust me the balloon drop was very anti-climatic.

Jason Chaffetz hit several balls out of the proverbial park. He started out very strong. His talk was by far the most issues based talk. He covered all of the bases (to continue to baseball metaphor): illegal immigration, fiscal responsibility, our national security and more. The audience was clapping and generally showing a lot of support for Chaffetz. The energy level went from a hum to an all out party during Chaffetz’s speech.

Chris Cannon was better than Leavitt, but he couldn’t compete with Chaffetz. Like Leavitt, Cannon started out with a video, but it wasn’t sugary sweet. It was mostly filled with endorsements from various individuals included President Bush, Senator Hatch, and others. When Cannon spoke from the pulpit, he addressed a few issues, and did an okay job.

Round One Voting (Sorry, but I really started to lose track of time, but this was around 12:00pm)
I headed up the stares to cast my first ballot. It was obviously cast for Chaffetz, and I was great to place a ballot for someone I can honestly support.

The interesting thing about the voting was that after I had dropped by ballot in the box (I was little shocked to see that we are still using dangling chads), I walk directly passed Chris Cannon. He was talking to some reporter; I really wasn’t paying attention to who. He stopped his conversation with the report, and turned to me and said, “When Chaffetz is out, I hope that I can get your vote.”

Not grasping the full extent of what he said and being a little taken a back by any comment from Cannon, I stupidly replied, “We will have to see.” I wish that I could have said something more along the lines of. “It won’t come to that.” Or better yet, “I hope that when you get out of the voting, that you will vote for Chaffetz.” But it’s too late now.

The wait for round 1 results, was bearable. There were several other candidates and issues to study up on and look over. However, it was starting to get hard to sit and wait. Especially after they announce the results:

Stone Fonua: 4 ( .37 percent)- eliminated
Joe Ferguson: 49 (4.54 percent) - eliminated
David Leavitt: 220 (20.37 percent)

Jason Chaffetz: 469 (43.43 percent)

Chris Cannon: 338 (31.30 percent)

It was exciting that not only did “my” candidate win the first round. He had a whopping 43% of the vote. The rumors that I heard about 60% were starting to look more realistic.

Round Two Voting
After hearing from candidate for the other offices, and make some informed (and some not-well informed) decisions. I cast my ballot again for Jason Chaffetz, and for the other varied candidates who I thought would do a the best job.

I was forced to walk by the concession stands, but I didn’t give into temptation. I eventually went through the hall that didn’t have the balloting booths, and there I found Chris Cannon dishing out Pizza. Thanks for the slice. It was good, and still very hot.

After the slice, I went over by the Chaffetz booth (which was close to one of the Leavitt booths, and I couldn’t help but notice the face of dejection in the volunteers for Leavitt. I even saw Leavitt himself, and he too was cast down. He was trying to hold his head up, but you could just see that he couldn’t believe the results.

I also took this down time to look up so old friends. I knew that KH was going to be there, so I asked several people if they knew her, but to no avail. Then I looked up at just the right time and found her. So, I made my way across the section of chairs, and we had a fun little how have you been chat.

I also saw some people who lived in my ward while growing up (then lived in my stake a few years back). So I took a moment to say hi to CP, LP, and DP. I couldn’t help but notice that they were wearing David Leavitt t-shirts, so I boldly asked them to vote for Chaffetz, if Leavitt didn’t survive round two. LP agreed that she absolutely would. Because she was completely against Cannon.

The wait to hear the results of round two seemed twice as long as for round one. But I gather that it really wasn’t that bad. Just sitting through the debates about party constitution and bylaws was boring.

Fortunately, the monotony was broken by the violation of floor rules from Leavitt or Cannon or both. As has been well published on the Internet. Approx. 100 teenage volunteers from the Leavitt campaign came out onto the floor carrying Cannon signs. They were reminded of the rules, and then escorted politely off of the floor. In my opinion, it was a gross display of Leavitt’s lack of statesmanship.

I was willing to give Cannon the benefit of the doubt and assume he had nothing to do with it. But that benefit was quickly removed when I saw Cannon and Leavitt walk onto the floor side-by-side shaking hands and I am assuming encouraging people to vote for Cannon. It was then that I was sure Cannon had shot himself in the foot, and I knew that Chaffetz had 60% of the vote.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they announced the results of the the second round of voting:

David Leavitt: 161 (15.39 percent) - eliminated
Chris Cannon: 356 (34.03 percent)
Jason Chaffetz: 529 (50.57 percent)

Round Three Voting
Before I had a chance get up to the ballot boxes, I had several people come up to where I was and ask people near by what they thought of the Leavitt support Cannon move. And the over all consensus was that they were put off by it. It was wrong and they didn’t like it.

While I was in line waiting to cast my ballot I also listened to what people had to say. And while some were quiet, there were several who were vocal about their concern over the move.

After balloting, I quickly stopped off at the Chaffetz booths and talk to a couple of friends on the campaign (KH and AL). They agreed with me. They all felt that Leavitt and Cannon had managed to shoot themselves in the foot and that we were going to take 60%. They might have been less enthusiastic than I, but they had generally agreed.

Jason Chaffetz arrive at the booths while we were there, and all of his supporters applauded his entrance. You could see the humility in his eyes and body language. He was grateful for our support, and moved that we were so excited to see him. I was close enough to hear what he said, but he talked a little bit, then I had to leave. So, I said my good byes and headed out the door.

Just as I was leaving, I saw my friends of my home ward (CP and LP). I asked her as a Leavitt supporter what she thought of the action on the floor. And she said that she felt betrayed. I am pretty sure hers was one of the voted that went to Chaffetz on the third round.

Sometime after 4:30pm
On the drive home I listened to the radio hoping to hear the results. But there was nothing. When I got home, I turned on the TV for some results. I saw nothing.

Finally, I hopped on the Internet and found the results at LeadershipThatDelivers.com and found that Chaffetz missed the boat by less than 1 percent.

Jason Chaffetz: 563 (59.01 percent)
Chris Cannon: 391 (40.99 percent)

AGGHHHH!!!! It was frustrating.

I quickly typed up an email to Chaffetz’ Campaign manager and asked what she wanted me to do next. Then I started my focus on Mother’s Day, because my dear wife gave up a lot for me to do what I did today.

Read My Post at Leadership that Delivers.

http://leadershipthatdelivers.com/gazelem-checking-in/

Parunuweap Canyon

On a little lighter note, but something that is just as much fun for me, I would like to tell you what I did this weekend. While many in my county were working at the convention, I decided to get away.

Yep, I traveled down to Zion’s National Park and enjoyed an 18.4 mile hike through some of Utah’s beautiful red rock country. We started out the trip by meeting up with the rest of our party at the East Gate of Zion’s National Park. It was a beautiful way to start our trip.

Then we heading to beginning of our trail which was located just south of Mt. Carmel on a dirt road about a 10th of a mile from US89. At first we worked our way down the road past the first gate, but from everything that my guides read, we needed to park at the first gate. So, we dropped our packs off as far as we dared take the truck, then we drove bak to the first gate and hiked to our packs.

There were many great pictures of buttes and mesas along this trail. I couldn’t help taking picture after picture. But it was also perhaps the least interesting part of the trail, because he hadn’t yet entered into the red rock that I love.

The first part of the trail is both an off road trail and a horse trail. So, while were were mostly by ourselves (accept for one small meeting with some ATVs) there was plenty of signs of people having been in the area.

The sun was starting to set as we got into the red rock part of the trail, and more and more we spent our time walking in the water. This was actually really nice because it would be a nice refresher to tired and sore feet. When we arrived at Mineral Gulch we knew that we only had a few hours left and my guides had read that there were several beautiful rock formations in the gulch. So, we donned our wet suits, and I put my camera away (I didn’t want to get it wet), and we trekked into the gulch.

They were correct. It really was full of some beautiful rock formations. I truly regretted not having taken my camera for two reasons. First, it was very dry. The wet suits were completely useless, but mostly I regret not getting some great pictures. My party was probably tired of me, because it seemed that every time I turned around a new corner, I saw a face in the formation. I really wish that I had some pictures of them to share with you.

That night we settled down along one of the Sandy banks just at the mouth of Mineral Gulch. By the time we got out of the gulch is was getting dark, so we barely had enough time to set up camp and get a fire started. Then we ate dinner, and as soon as my food was eaten, I went to bed. I was tired, and I say no reason to stay up and talk.

The next morning, we woke up had breakfast and headed out on the trail at 9:00 in the morning. Again we saw many great rock formations. But there wasn’t a lot of time for picture taking because we had 11 miles of trail ahead of us, and the last 4 was supposed to be the hardest.

I wish that I could describe the beauty of the place, and the best part of the hike was knowing that we were one of very few people who have ever traveled in this area. However, we know that these trails have been traveled for many years. One of the signs were these fun petroglyphs that were located about 500 feet from the trail, and well worth the brief break and trip of the trail.

One of my main goals for this trip was to hunt for a couple of geocaches. But this trip proved a disappointment for this trip. There was one cache that was on the must do list. It was called Fat Man’s Misery, and from what I understand it was reachable from where we were. Unfortunately, we lost satellite reception when we got within 350 ft. and we didn’t pick it back up again until we passed it by a tenth of a mile.

There were a couple of other caches that we passed, but one of the men with us wasn’t interested in geocaching, and really didn’t seem to want to indulge me. So, I came home without even one find on this trip. I was hoping to find one after he had left our group, but by that time I was very tired, and my GPS just up and lost all of my personal waypoints. So, I was left with nothing.

But, before I get to the end of the trip, I have to write about the last 4 miles. It was by far the toughest hike of my life. The first mile was straight up. Not so bad that we needed gear, but there was definitely one point where I felt that one slip would have cost me my life.

The next two miles were up hill, after up hill, after up hill. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever head down, which according to the elevataion chart it was supposed to.

The last mile was still pretty rough. Yes, it was finally heading down hill, but like the rest of the trail is was mostly sand. So, that double the amount of effort you needed just to walk in a straight line.

During the last 2 miles, I kept trying to listen for cars so that I knew I was close to the end. But we didn’t hear any cars until we could see their headlight just a head of us. Yes, I said head lights. We didn’t get off of the trail until around 9:00pm, and I was purely beat. I took everything in me to make this trip, and I had a terribly wonderful time.

Is Jason Chaffetz a Political Opportunist?

In my previous post, I mentioned some of the big criticisms of Jason Chaffetz, but I failed to mention one. Thanks to the several comments on the previous post that helped remind me that I should address this issue more fully.

When I first heard that Chaffetz did not live in the Third District, I was very concerned about voting for him. This was still prior to my having made a final decision on who I was voting for, and it really could have put me over the edge.

However, As I started to think about it, I realized that my concern was based on faulty logic. This shouldn’t be a concern because constitutionally, it doesn’t matter what district he lives in. He just needs to live in the state. So, he is not doing something that is illegal or unethical. He is just doing something that isn’t common and perhaps not even well recieved.

Those who dislike Chaffetz run, perhaps because of where he lives, have accused Chaffetz of being a political opportunist. However, this doesn’t add up to me.

First, what does it mean to be a political opportunist? An opportunist is someone who takes advantage of an opportunity that arises. So, when you buy a milkshake at the local drive and dine because it is 50 cents off, then you are an opportunist. The phrase political opportunist doesn’t make much sense to me. Cannon is a political opportunist because he is running again and because he is more likely to get reelected as the incumbent. Leavitt is also an opportunist because he is running after the varied experiences he had as a lawyer, believe he is the best candidate.

Okay, I understand that such accusations are based on the fact that Chaffetz lives in the Second District and not the Third. And they feel he is doing this because it is better for him. If you look at the changes in the districts over the years, you will see that Apline was once in the Third District. And odds are that it will again one day be there, especially, if we get a fourth seat.

A second question that must be asked is, whether it is more advantageous for a Republican to run in the Third District over the Second? Sure Jim Matheson has a good hold of the Second District and many of his constituents like him. However, he could be beat by the right man. Chaffetz could very well have been that man. But Chaffetz doesn’t see the second district as his home. He wants to represent the part of Utah that he feels a part of.

Also, would it be easier to the be one of two republican candidates in the Second District or the little man in the race of three for the Third District. Opportunism implies that you are taking the easy road, and it appears to me that fighting two other viable candidates would be harder than fighting just one in the Second. I don’t see the opportunism in fighting for the Third District here. I simply see Chaffetz as one whose heart is in the Western half of Utah and so that is who he wants to represent.

It’s pretty cut and dry for me. Chaffetz is the more politically conservative candidate. He speaks to me when I hear him. I hear what I want to hear from Leavitt, just as I do from Cannon, but I can’t see it in them. They don’t seem to have a grasp of the details. Chaffetz sees the big picture and filters things through the same conservative lens. It doesn’t matter where he live, he holds to my principles, and he is the right choice.

Who Should Replace Chris Cannon?

I have been meaning to write about my experiences over the past few weeks as a State Delegate for the Republican Party. But I just can seem to get my self to write lately. It just hasn’t been as fun.

But I would really like get my opinion out on the Internet before I cast my vote. So here it goes.

My first experience with the candidates was with Dave Leavitt. I was really impressed with what he had to say. He sounded like a principled conservative, and I was sure that he thought about things like me. I honestly walked out feeling rather overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure that this was going to be a very easy decision.

The things that impressed me about Leavitt was his approach to politics. He seemed very introspective and well thought out. He is a big reader of both moderate-to-liberal news and conservative news. Further, He seemed to be his own man. His thought are his and he will act according to his principles.

I was unimpressed by Leavitt’s riding on the coat tails of Tom Green. Frankly, for as often as Leavitt mentioned Tom Green during our meetings, I wasn’t sure if Green or Leavitt was the candidate for office. I also don’t like his slogan. What does “Restoring America’s Promise” mean? I could write several posts on what those words might or might not mean. And I would still have no conclusion.

My next canidate visit was about a week later with Jason Chaffetz. And I honestly went into this meeting with my guards up. As I have indicated before, I was leaning towards Chaffetz. However, after having met with Leavitt, my leaning was tilted in another direction. So, I wanted to make Chaffetz convince me.

He did.

Simply put, I was sold when he mention that he was debt free. That spoke volumes to me to know that in his personal life he was living what he proposed to do in Washington. Further, he claims to have run his campaign in the black too. This type of discipline is what we need in Washington.

I was also impressed with his campaign materials. Every mailer, letter and web article from Chaffetz is about an issue. Jason knows where he stands on the issues, and he isn’t afraid to say it. He wants those who are voting for him to know what he stands for. I could spend time talking about each issue he has addressed, but you can look over his website and read for yourself where Jason stands. I find that I am in agreement with a large percentage of what Chaffetz says.

I had several concerns about the Chaffetz when I first met him. He seemed to act like he was the morally better candidate. There was an air of we aren’t spending a lot of money, so we are better. We aren’t polling to form our opinion based on yours, so we are better. This moral high grown approach comes off as a little abrasive. However, as I thought about this, these are either non-issues to me, or Chaffetz approach is the same as mine. So, I had to put that aside as I considered him as a candidate.

The next big thing that bothered me was that Chaffetz has a tendency to go negative. He is almost too quick to let you know how he disagrees Cannon or Leavitt. This is probably the number one issue that most delegates have with Chaffetz. However, it does show us a couple of important things.

First, we see that Chaffetz is aware of his competition. He doesn’t ignore them like they aren’t there. Nor does he treat them like the fly that buzzes around you, and swat at them occasionally. He takes the fight head on. Jason appears to be the same way with the issues. He studies it. He gets to know it inside and out, and then he will attacks or supports it based on the his guiding principles.

Second, and this is closely tied to the first, Chaffetz will take this same passion to Capitol Hill. As a general rule, we as Utahns don’t like like aggressive candidates. However, if you think about it, we need an aggressive representative in Washington. New York will pick an aggressive candidate, so will California and many other stats. The Third District needs a fighter, so let’s vote one in.

Some have argued Chaffetz’s aggressive nature will alienate him on Capitol Hill. However, I believe that this will have just the opposite effect. People will see a real leader in Chaffetz. They will want to put him into positions of power because he is willing to fight, even when it is up hill all the way.

For me, Chaffetz is the best candidate, and he has my vote on Saturday.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to state that I have been working on the Chaffetz campaign for the past few weeks. The campaign has even requested that I write a post about Chaffetz. I hope that Chaffetz comes out on top of this race. And I look forward to the results on Saturday. However, I would never write something that wasn’t my opinion. I hope that this gives those who are still undecided a little push toward Chaffetz, because he is the true conservative in the race.