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APRIL 2008 www.utdemocrats.org | Spring in the Timpanogos high country (© Willie Holdman, www.willieholdman.com)
FROM THE CHAIR | WAYNE HOLLAND I have endorsed the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama for president of the United States. Sen. Obama has strong statewide appeal and an ability to bring the American people together after eight years of Bush administration mismanagement. Frankly, he has helped to energize our state Party. While we are blessed at having two exceptional candidates, Obama was clearly the choice of Utah Democrats on Feb. 5 and is the choice of the majority of Utah Democratic candidates to head the ticket in November. Remember the rally last August? Sen. Obama rearranged his hectic schedule to speak at a spontaneous rally of several hundred grass-roots supporters. He didn't have to do it. In fact, he didn't make any money doing it. But that Kimball Junction event showed me that he gets it. He’s interested in building a strong Democratic Party in Utah and throughout the western United States. As a result of that small consideration many of those who attended the rally voted for him in the primary, told their friends and neighbors to vote for him, and will be knocking on doors for him (and us) this summer and fall. Sen. Obama also demonstrated a rare sensitivity to Utahns when he canceled a Salt Lake City rally scheduled on the day of LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley’s funeral and then his wife, Michelle, visited church leaders several days later to discuss family-related issues. • Download a flier (1.5 MB) to help Jean Welch Hill's campaign for Utah Attorney General • Download a flier (front ,1.7 MB, and back, 1.7 MB) to help Bob Springmeyer's Governor campaign THE MINORITY REPORT | Environmental scoreboard • Democrats in the Utah Legislature averaged an 85 percent favorable rating on environmental issues this past session, according to the Salt Lake chapter of The Sierra Club. Voting 100 percent were Roz McGee, Jackie Biskupski, Rebecca Chavez-Houck, Janice Fisher, Lynn Hemingway, David Litvack, Carol Moss, Phil Riesen, Jennifer Seelig, Karen Morgan, Pat Jones, Scott McCoy, and Ross Romero. Read the report The Karen Shepherd Fund is accepting applications for upcoming campaigns. The fund provides stipends to interns for Democratic candidates running in local, state, and federal campaigns in Utah. Contact administrator Ann Floor at 355-4441 or ksf@xmission.com for more information. The fund's Web site is www.karenshepherdfund.org. WANT A BLUE STATE? | THEN ACT BLUE ActBlue is more than just an online fundraising tool for Democratic candidates; it is also a way for grassroots activists to participate in the political process. Because money makes our political world revolve, ensuring our Democratic candidates have enough is very important. Everyone in our party can be an effective fundraiser. ActBlue has the tools to show you how by creating a page and raising money for the candidate(s) of your choosing. Please visit their website at www.actblue.com to learn what you can do to get more Democrats in Utah elected. Also, Utah native and current ActBlue employee, Darci Larsen will be at the State Convention on May 10th to talk about how everyone can get involved in raising money for our candidates from the wealthiest of donors to grassroots activists. For any questions regarding this presentation, please contact Megan Risbon at mrisbon@utdemocrats.org. THE BLOG OF UTAH DEMOCRATIC PARTY • In the coming weeks and months, Republicans in Utah will launch a $400,000 ad campaign designed to distract us from uncomfortable facts about the U.S. and Utah economies, offering excuses, feel-good platitudes and rosy scenarios for a distant future. The first broadside was served up by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr at his elite economic summit on March 20. "As participants in this great (state) economy, we must not let the negativity of what we're hearing about throughout the nation become a self-fulfilling prophecy ... We're doing OK." Meanwhile, the reality is beginning to set in. • Utah's neighbors to the south, west, and north have gotten serious about alternative energy as one way to boost their job-starved rural economies. But Gov. Jon Huntsman's Republican-dominated Legislature recently stymied similar efforts and remains silent on what to do in wake of the La-Z Boy plant closure in Tremonton that will cost 630 Utahns their jobs. Ironically, members of the governor's family could actually put some of those workers back to work ... in Idaho. Huntsman's brothers David and Paul are pumping millions into that "spuddering" economy to develop "unparalleled luxury living" on the western flank of the Tetons in Driggs. (Wouldn't that be similar to workers from Mexico coming to Utah for work? Of course, in this case Utahns would be the ones crossing a border, we wouldn't have to hop a fence, and the Idaho government has not declared us "illegal" or "alien." At least, not yet.) • To mix a few metaphors, the buck does not stop with Utah’s 1st District Republican Congressman Rob Bishop. When it comes to one of his former clients, Envirocare (which has morphed into EnergySolutions), Bishop punts. • If the kind of perspective offered the past few days at the Sutherland Institute’s ExxonMobil Earth Week 2008 did not have an impact on environmental policy and economic development in Utah, it would be easy to dismiss it as just another stop of The Circus of Flat Earthers, as The New York Times and The Washington Post implied in their coverage of a similar conference held last month. We could dismiss it as a marginal tactic in the multimillion dollar, multiyear “disinformation” campaign funded discreetly by the one of the world's biggest, most profitable multinational corporations to reverse perceptions on the virtual consensus surrounding human-caused climate change. Read more of these and other posts 2ND DISTRICT UPDATE | Congressman Jim Matheson Matheson Bill to Boost Emergency Care for Kids OK'd Washington D.C. — Congressman Jim Matheson’s legislation to continue a unique federal program credited with saving children’s lives by improving emergency medical services passed overwhelmingly in the House Tuesday. Matheson’s bipartisan bill—HR 2464—reauthorizes the federal Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program. Matheson is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and he serves on the Health Subcommittee. Also called the “Wakefield Act”, the bill allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states or schools of medicine to support projects to expand and improve emergency medical services for children needing trauma or critical care. The program has provided seed money to every state and US territory since its inception in 1984. “This program has saved children’s lives by helping emergency care providers deliver services appropriate to the needs of these small patients,” said Matheson. “There are over 30 million child and teen visits annually to our nation’s emergency rooms. Only this program—EMSC—exists to promote improvements among health care facilities and staffs that handle trauma cases for severely injured children.” Visit the congressman's Web site GET INVOLVED | Mark your calendar APRIL 26 • Salt Lake County Convention, Jordan High School, 95 Beetdigger Blvd. (9880 South), Sandy. Registration begins at 1 p.m.; caucuses begin at 1:30 p.m. (NOTE: The convention had been scheduled for April 12 but was changed because of scheduling conflicts at the school.) Take TRAX to the 10000 South Station. • Cache County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Meet candidates during the social hour. Keynote speaker will be 2nd District Congressman Jim Matheson, who will be introduced by Utah Democratic Chair Wayne Holland. A live auction follows. For more information or to buy tickets e-mail Kathy Snyder at kathysnyder@digis.net MAY 9,10 • The Utah State Democratic Party’s annual convention and Jefferson/Jackson Celebration will be Friday, May 9, and will continue through Saturday, May 10. After the election of delegates to the national convention in Denver on Friday, the state party will hold its annual Jefferson/Jackson Celebration. Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, pictured at right last year with Jay Seegmiller, will be the keynote speaker at the JJ Celebration. Schweitzer is a leader among Democrats in the Western United States and has been a good friend of Utah Democrats. Seegmiller is challenging Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis for District 49. Both events will be at the Cal Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. For more information go to www.jjutah.org. For booth information, contact Tika Beard (for JJ), 328-1212, ext. 204, tbeard@utdemocrats.org, or Craig Axford (state convention), 328-1212, ext. 207, caxford@utdemocrats.org. AUGUST 25-28 • The Democratic National Convention will be Aug. 25-28 in Denver. For more information go to www.demconvention.com. PREVIOUS MESSAGES
The Democratic Party of Utah 455 S. 300 East, Suite 301 | Salt Lake City, UT 84111 | 801-328-1212 www.utdemocrats.org Support your Utah Democratic Party through ACT BLUE www.actblue.com/page/utdemocrats THE MESSAGE is published and compiled by the staff of the Utah Democratic Party as a way to build a community of Democrats committed to political reform and common sense solutions to public policy. Submissions related to events, facts, figures, trivia, and idle chit-chat are welcome. Please contact Bill Keshlear, communications director, at bkeshlear@utdemocrats.org. Call (801) 328-1212, ext. 206 or (801) 699-7773. Paid for by the Utah Democratic Party, www.utdemocrats.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidates' party. |