Why are you supporting Lee over Bridgewater?

20 maybe 30 times to remind him not to vote for the $700B bill. Wish I still lived in Utah so I could personally enjoy kicking his sorry self out of office. I also wrote him twice.

Bennett’s kind don’t belong in office

“Bob Bennett may be celebrating his win in public, but in private he is putting on Depends and girding himself for defeat.” is a sentence filled with WIN.

When the first GOP incumbent gets tossed in a primary perhaps Big GOP may finally realize that grassroots conservatism doesn’t automatically benefit them. I found it ironic that on the same day Rick Santorum lamented not following is wife’s advice about not endorsing Arlen Specter, Orrin Hatch rallies behind Bob Bennett with no kind words for the tea partiers. Bob & Orrin are having trouble taking the tea partiers seriously in the same way that Democrats don’t take the tea partiers seriously.

“Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.”

Mike is doing a fantastic job over here in Utah. He’s campaigning like crazy, he’s got tons of volunteers (all in matching shirts!), I’m told fundraising is going very well, and people are swarming around him. Rightly so, since we’ve finally got a guy who knows the Constitution inside and out, and will stop voting for all sorts of junk that Congress has no business in.

We’re very much looking forward to Mike unseating Bennett at the May convention!

It is fine to be one-sided, but you should have told the whole story of yesterday in Utah. We had a wonderful convention, as the story in the Provo Daily Herald tells, which I posted below.

Utah Republicans tackle distrust, ‘demon sheep’

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Caleb Warnock – Daily Herald | Posted: Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:05 am | 1 Comment

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Demon sheep, distrust, frustrated voters and purging the Republican Party were hot topics at the Utah Republican Assembly 2010 Endorsing Convention in Orem on Saturday. Hundreds descended upon Noah Webster Academy to hear from party leaders and candidates.

By mid-afternoon, members had voted to endorse the campaigns of Governor Gary Herbert, U.S. Senate candidate Cherilyn Eagar, and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Morgan Philpot. A 60-percent majority was required to win an endorsement; Herbert and Philpot won on the first round of balloting, Eagar on the third.

Utah is the Republican wing of the Republican Party, said several candidates and officials.

“It’s a great time to be a conservative,” URA president Mike Thompson said. “People want their government back and their country back. We need your help, and America needs your help… We call ourselves the Republican wing of the Republican Party. I am tired of the other side going around and apologizing for America all over the world. We are a just nation. We are a good people and we need to come back to those principles.”

“Conservatives are divided, fearful and full of distrust,” said Taylor Oldroyd, chairman of the Utah County Republican Party. “The American people will not follow an angry, frustrated, and distrustful party. … The grass-roots movement right now must unite or divided we fall. I believe as a conservative that the GOP is the best vehicle to accomplish our goals of defending the Constitution and protecting the family. The Republican party needs to purge and get back to our fundamental roots and principles.”

Brian Halladay, chairman of the Utah 9-12 States’ Rights Coalition, urged those gathered to vote against what he called “demon sheep” which he defined as a candidate who professes to be a conservative but does not act as a conservative. Such people are evil and dangerous, he said, showing a poster-sized photo of a toy sheep with red eyes.

Several candidates for U.S. Senate spoke. Tim Bridgewater promised to “cut, slash and burn” federal spending. Cherilyn Eagar said both parties have been at fault in the country’s woes and that “Republicans just need to start standing up and acting as Republicans again.” Mike Lee said the federal government is too big and too expensive.

One candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives spoke. Morgan Philpot said that “if America fails, the world fails. We can no longer afford to elect representatives who do not understand that.”

Posted in Local on Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:05 am | Tags: Gop

elected by the precinct committeemen, get to determine the outcome of the vote on Bennett’s fate. In other words, “mere” registered voters have no say in the nominating process. And the grass roots Tea Partiers and 9.12-ers figured this out in time to become PCs and help elect more true conservative delegates to attend the nominating convention, as reported here. Back in November, 2009, arc_ut gave us some pretty good information about the Utah process here.

there are 3500 state delegates elected from their neighborhoods next March They vote in May..

If at anytime someone gets 60%, of delegate votes, they avoid a primary and further votes.

3 ballots, after the 1st one, if not 60%, all but the top 3 are eliminated.

on the 2nd ballot, the one with the lowest votes is gone.

One the 3rd, if the one with the most votes has over 60%, they are the party nominee, if not, there is a primary in June.

arc_ut, can you give us any update “from the precinct committeeman trenches” on how the surge in participation in the Republican Party by grass roots Utah conservatives has been going?

Thank you.
ColdWarrior
No More Scozzafavas!
Become a Republican precinct committeeman. NOW!

You are right, mostly, except things vary in each county somewhat. In Utah County, the person elected Precinct Chair also is elected as a State Delegate. There are then normally, at least one or two more state delegates from this county, as it is so Republican. The Vice Chair elected and the Chair are also elected as County Delegates, so they choose all the other candidates as well. There are normally several more County delegates elected as well. They then go to the Conventions. If a candidate receives 60% of the delegate vote, they get the nomination of the party at the Convention. If not, the top two candidates go to a primary election. This is similar in most counties, except most counties elect the Chair and Vice Chair of the Precinct separately and then make them run separately for delegate.

Mike Thompson
President
Utah Republican Assembly
www.utahrepublicanassembly.com
(Also on Facebook)

Erickson, sometimes you make good points. But this one is not one of them. Why are you so against Bennett from Utah? Have you even ever been to Utah? Why do you have so much interest in a state you don’t even reside? I suggest before you actually make such ignorant comments, you actually come and check out the state itself. Utah is the state it is today because of Bennett. He has helped get funding for so many projects and improvements, that Utah would not be the state it is today without his great work in Congress. In fact, Utah would be in a pretty sad state without the work he has done. Try picking on someone from your own state.

Here is what arc_utah posted in the Provo Daily Herald concerning the article on the Utah Republican Assembly Convention endorsement of Cherilyn Eagar:

arc_ut said on: February 21, 2010, 8:07 am
I believe that Cherilyn Eagar is the only one running for Utah’s US Senate seat who has supported and been active in fighting for conservative values for the last 30 years at the local, state, national and international level. [That includes Bennett]
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The votes, in Box Elder County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, as announced to the audience that night were as follows:

121 Bennett
100 Lee
50 Bridgewater
39 Eagar (Erickson’s number is wrong)
6 Williams

Since only those that were in paid seats were allowed to get straw poll tickets to vote, and campaigns could reserve tables, you have to look at several factors. Not everyone in the seats of appox. 368 or more voted.

How many seats did each campaign reserve in advance of the meeting? Bennett, Lee, and Bridgewater campaigns each reserved several tables of each 8.

Eagar campaign reserved 2 seats in advance and at most, had 4 from the campaign voting. I don’t believe you can say that for the others, with the exception of Williams.

The others voting for Eagar were those local members that reserved and paid for their seats themselves.

Lee may or my not have campaigned in Box Elder County prior, but he spent all last summer giving classes on the constitution around the state.

Bridgewater has publicly campaigned in Box Elder at min 2 different times.

One of Lee’s biggest local supporters, that had called many in the area supporting Lee, switched to Bridgewater last week.

Eagar had a Buy Your own dinner and also Lunch last week, where she meet with a few key local people in the area.

in a County, where there are approx. 80 of the 3500 state delegates, we don’t know if all 80 were there yesterday or not.
We may know after the March 23rd caucus.

The event focused on ATK and what Obama is doing to that local company. Clearly a chance for Bennett to shine.

If Bennett did bring in over 20 people outside the county to vote for him, as a Lee campaign person claimed after, or not, he didn’t get 40% of the vote. He will never leave convention, if he doesn’t get 40% of the vote.

Brigham City has NOT been one of Eagar’s strong areas of support.

Even with less than 2.5% of the delegates in the state, Box Elder and it’s people area an important area of the state, and I was pleased with the results of the vote, especially taking account the numbers of local voters Cherilyn had not met yet, and the purchasing table situation.

We obviously have a lot to do in the area, and have several key local people working on that.

I witnessed two balloting events, Saturday, one in Orem at the URA event, the other in Tremonton at the Box Elder County Lincoln Day Dinner.

In Orem, where Cherilyn Eagar won handily, there was a large contingent of Mike Lee volunteers on one side of the gym, separated from the main body of the audience. When Mike spoke, there was a great deal of applause from the area of his supporters, the rest of the hall was essentially silent.

When Cherilyn spoke, the applause from all over the gym was widespread, frequent and sustained, except from the knot of Mike Lee supporters.

There was a smaller group of Tim Bridgewater supporters. Overall applause when he spoke was tepid. Neither James Williams, nor Senator Bennett were present.

When the time came to count the votes at the most valid period, Cherilyn received almost twice as many as Mike Lee and a smattering of what was left went to Tim Bridgewater, who trounced the number received by James Williams. A person who voted for James said he did so because James is a nice guy and he didn’t want James to be embarrassed by getting no votes. James is a nice guy. I hope he found consultation in that he got more votes than Bennett, who I recall got none.

No one was paid, overtly, to vote at the URA event. Each person eligible to vote had to pay their URA dues for themselves OTOH, almost, it seemed, everyone was paid to vote at the Box Elder County dinner. The result of the vote was a poll of how many seats corporate sponsors can generate. There was almost a direct correspondence between the number of dinner plates bought by the first and second place straw poll winners and the vote count. The exceptions were James Williams’ and Cherilyn Eagar’s results. Cherilyn is said to have arrived with a team of four committed volunteers, casual observation suggests the same number for James Williams. So, in unbiased voting, James garnered two more than he came with and Cherilyn won thirty-five more. Given the size of the room, there may well have been quite a few who ate Bennett’s steak dinner but who didn’t vote for him. That would not be unprecedented.

At the last State Convention, in Layton, at the Davis County Convention Center, it seemed as if, Senator Bennett, rented an entire wing of the hotel facilities. Food, SWAG and entertainment was plentifully supplied by the Senator. Then came the time for him to give a speech.

To paraphrase his comments, he stood at the lectern and said, “Some people are hoping that I would announce that I’m not running for re-election …” He might have said something else. He may have been trying for ironic humor. I don’t know because, at that point, he got a standing ovation and applause that drown out further comments! I don’t think that was part of his plan.

It seems clear that when Utahns are presented with the choice of the clear and present danger of returning a Progressive in R.I.N.O. clothing to Washington, versus a potential ingrained with the taint of possible overt conflict of interest or moral hazard for conflict of interest in being beholden to a corporation trying to run rough shod over Utah environmental concerns candidate, versus a woman who has proven Conservative credentials that span almost as much time as the candidates, other than Bennett, have been alive, and, spans, as long as, Senator Hatch has been a Senator, the people choose to go with proven a Conservative candidate, who brings, to the Senate chamber, the added benefit of being a woman with the credentials to silence Progressive female retorts simply by showing up – Cherilyn Eagar.

Repeatedly, in this current contest, we have been told the superiority of Mike Lee is that he is a Constitutional scholar. I note that he, as does another, who is an incumbent Executive officer, is prone to give speeches that more seem to be lectures to the ignorant masses. We remember, to our trepidation that Barack Obama is a Constitutional scholar and professor. So, too, was the fascist, Woodrow Wilson.

Cherilyn Eagar is a student of the Constitution. She may not give lectures on its details, but she lives its letter and spirit with every fiber of her body, and has done so, with every act of her adult life, for over thirty years.

Progressives, historically, rule counter to popular will. A tactic of theirs is to play one hyphenated faction against another. Their tactic has been to support two straw dog candidates, either of whom wins, they win.

We should rally around the banner of one candidate to insure that at the convention our standard bearer is nominated our Republican candidate on the first ballot. Our unified, unhyphenated, goal must be to defeat Progressivism. We must strive to defeat it in all of its guises. We must not elect those we fear have an aura of doubt about them because we are uncertain where their loyalties lie. We must not elect those who seek a way to reconcile the evil of Progressivism, and the policies of Barack Obama, with the family values of Utah. We must not elect those who have not repudiated the R.I.N.O. politics of Republican reproachment as of a John McCain, and we must defeat Bob Bennett!

In this contest, time after time, in situations where the outcome is truly a contest settled by the will of the people, not the size of the corporate sponsorship, there is only one candidate who fulfills the criteria of that which our goals ought to be, and, who is propelled forward by the will of the people. That candidate is Cherilyn Eagar.

Let me just say that I believe the following:

This year, in red and purple states, we should be electing conservatives because they can win.

This year, in blue states, we can elect moderates (people who can help us control chambers even if they don’t always agree with us).

UTAH should always have very conservative candidates.

I’d challenge those of you who are working on these campaigns to keep the vitrol out as much as possible and be COMMITTED to getting someone elected with 60 percent.

In fact, I’d like to see all three campaigns INTERNALLY at least, make a committment to vote for the top vote getter if you are the 3rd placer who gets dropped ….

While it is true that Bennett has gotten a lot of money for Utah, consider how much more Utah would really have if we did not have to pay so much money in taxes to support all the Fed give-aways. If the money stayed in the state in the first place we could make all the improvements with our own money instead of begging the Feds to contribute, and paying them 60-80% to “manage” the money. So those of you that think Bennett is great because he has channeled some of Utah’s tax dollars back to Utah … think of how much better it would be if he just worked on legislation that kept the money in Utah in the first place … so we did not have to pay the 60-80% overhead. (Now that is thinnking out of the box, isn’t it … keeping our own money in the state rather than saying “well that is how DC works and ear-marks are how you get your money back.” — We really do need change, not just excuses about how things work — change how they work!)

Of all the candidates competing against Bennett, the ONLY ONE with proven commitment to conservatism is Cherilyn Eagar. For 30 years she has demonstrated her commitment to the values we hold dear in Utah. I think this is what the voters/delegates should be looking at.

Please keep in mind that Obama ran on “Change you can believe in” and look where that has gotten us. The American people had “Hope” that he would bring about change in the corrupt government practices … but look what we got.

Now the candidates that are running tout change too, but what did they do before they started running for the senate seat? This is what I think the voters/delegates should be looking at rather than what candidates are saying as they are campaigning. Talk really is cheap. View the records, then decided who has been in there slugging away. It is easy to say the right words when you are campaigning, and they may even be sincere, but walking the walk is much different than talking the walk.

Please, folks, don’t HOPE a candidate will do what you want as a Utahan, go with someone with an established track record of principles and performance.