So, These are the good guys?
Republican state legislators are the "good guys," according to Stan Lockhart, Utah County Republican Party chairman[actually, he's the state chair, but what's the difference]. Nobody believes that.
The reality is that good and bad cross partisan lines. But it is worth noting what the "good guys" in Utah County have done, just in the past year.
Senate President John Valentine of Orem and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble of Provo "persuaded" publicly funded Mountainlands Applied Technology College to build a float for the Utah County Republican Party.
At first, college President Clay Christensen said he was pressured by the legislators to build the float, but then he recanted after a phone call from Bramble. I wonder what "good guy" Bramble said on the phone to make Christensen suddenly go silent.
When Bramble's actions became public, he blamed Rep. Becky Lockhart of Provo for the incident. "Good guy" Lockhart was involved, but not alone.
And then there's Rep. Aaron Tilton of Springville. He's the "good guy" who failed to declare he had a conflict of interest on the nuclear power issue for months while he served on the legislative committee that regulates nuclear power in Utah. In fact, Tilton still has power over regulating the nuclear power industry while he financially benefits from those regulations. The "good guys" really showed how "good" they were on the voucher issue. Remember, it was last February that the "good guy" Republican leadership passed two bills on vouchers. The second one was mere housekeeping for the first one, they claimed.
The reality was they wanted vouchers to become law even if voters rejected them in a referendum. Their arrogance continued when several "good guys" in the Republican leadership - Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, Valentine and Bramble - threatened freshman Rep. Steve Sandstrom of Orem with loss of any substantive role in the Legislature unless he supported vouchers. So "good guy" Sandstrom reneged on his promise to voters of his district to oppose vouchers.
During the voucher referendum campaign, "good guy" Bramble declared that the state legislators might ignore a statewide voucher vote if vouchers passed in their districts. (Fortunately, vouchers were defeated in most of the legislative districts in Utah County.)
And then he bullied business leaders into opposing the referendum by threatening to scuttle their legislative issues.
Lockhart says that the "Republicans represent the morals and ideals of Utahns." The state Republican Party chairman insults all Utahns with such a statement. But it is particularly insulting to the citizens of Utah County.
Their arrogance and unethical behavior don't represent the morals and values of Utah County citizens or Utahns generally.
All of this doesn't even address the policy failures of these same "good guys." For example, while the traffic problem has worsened in Utah County, Republican leaders (both state and county) have dragged their feet on finding solutions or options.
Instead of raising teachers' salaries adequately, they criticize teachers for opposing vouchers. And they sit by while the state potentially becomes a nuclear-waste dumping ground.
That Lockhart has to assure us that GOP legislators are the "good guys" is indicative of his concern that voters are starting to catch on to how their lawmakers fail to represent their values and ideals. It's time for a change; Utahns clearly deserve real good guys.
* RICHARD DAVIS is Utah County Democratic Party chairman
7 comments:
The political history of Eagle Mountain is another perfect example of the sort of corrupt Republican leadership you get in Utah County.
Here are some of the comments on the Trib site...
GalleySlave: 1/6/2008 4:18:00 AM
Wow. That is a bitter collection of lies and half-truths. Somebody better give Richard Davis a Cat Stevens album and a hug.
Bart: 1/6/2008 5:23:00 AM
I know--I know, the truth really hurts. Watch the spin machine go into overdrive.
Kurt G.: 1/6/2008 8:14:00 AM
Who is the liar GalleySlave....maybe you could point out some specifics?....I won't be waiting....
GalleySlave is obviously one of the Republican Good Guys.
ds7: 1/6/2008 10:33:00 AM
being the democratic chairmen of utah county is akin to being a fire hydrant in a dog park...
Daryl: 1/6/2008 10:37:00 AM
Being ds7 on the SL Trib is like being a pooper scooper in a dog park (outside of Utah of course).
ds7: 1/6/2008 10:48:00 AM
daryl: "...Being ds7 on the SL Trib is like being a pooper scooper in a dog park (outside of Utah of course)...
low hanging fruit...ok, i'll go with your analogy...i'm the scooper and you're the poop...work it...anywhere, of course...
golfandjazz: 1/6/2008 10:57:00 AM
I'm firmly of the opinion that if individuals actually took time and effort to go see how their elected officials "represent" them, a legislative house cleaning would be swift. Anyone who's seen Lockhart, Bramble, Sandstrom, Curtis, etc in action (I have) would have to be embarrassed to admit they'd voted for them. These guys (and gals) couldn't reason their way out of a wet paper bag, let alone craft reasonable or worthwhile legislation. If these intellectually impotent corporate lackeys are the "good guys" I have no problem whatsoever with being a bad guy.
Wordsmatter: 1/6/2008 11:11:00 AM
Thank you, Mr. Davis, for calling it like it is.
The interesting thing is that any number of other people could write equally scathing assessments of these "good guys" and use entirely different collections of examples of Republican arrogance and self-serving cronyism.
sternocreed: 1/6/2008 11:31:00 AM
Good work, Mr. Davis. And you only mention the short list.
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will_a: 1/6/2008 9:49:00 PM
Just a few questions:
1-Dragged their feet on transportation?- they put record amounts of money into transportation...
2-Threats to Rep. Sandstrom and business leaders? Didn't happen, did you get this from Rebecca Walsh's column?
3-Passed the second voucher bill to make it referrendum proof? The Democrats ran the referendum, didn't they read the second bill, or do they not understand what they are passing?
4- Teacher salaries weren't adequately raised? What other state employees have gotten more raises since they've entered office?
5- Isn't Stan Lockhart the State Republican Party chairman, not the Utah County Party Chairman? Nice Research.
For a Professor I don't think this piece is intellectually honest or very well researched. I give it an F.
Daryl: 1/7/2008 7:41:00 AM
will: And you missed a couple yourself.
3-The Democrats read it better than the Republicans wrote it. The Republicans tried the scam of "it can stand on its own if the first one is overridden." The Utah supreme court didn't agree. You would have been closer to say that the second bill was written to clean up problems with the first after it was railroaded through, and then Utah's incompetent AG started a rumor that it could stand on its own.
4-Many teachers still haven't received a penny of the so called raise (or the bonus promised by Huntsman either). And giving someone a raise after treating them like garbage for 20 years doesn't make up for the bad treatment. Next, legislators have given themselves and their aids and the governor a larger raise than they gave the teachers. Lastly, Utah teachers are still so badly underpaid that Huntsman is trying to give them another raise so that they can at least compete with Mississippi and Arkansas.
Oh, and hopefully the legislature will release some more of the money they promised in this so called raise.
That gives you a C, maybe a D based on 2 not having anything besides an insult as an argument.
Minor Machman: 1/7/2008 9:23:00 AM All diatribes aside...and neither side has a corner on the whole truth, our elected officials are part- time and their efforts on our behalf are also "part- time"..at least that is my take on them. They often mean well without having the "means" (knowledge) to craft insightful and meaningful legislation. They rely instead almost totally upon lobbyists to smooze bills written (or drafted) by those very same lobbyists through. Good news is they are "experts" on their subject, but the bad news is that expertise is often misapplied (by the knuckle heads in the legislature) to the benefit of the special interests without consideration (ironically) to the us common folk. Some lobby groups even try to intimidate our legislators. Often graft and bribery using junkets and paid vacations are also used. Treat youself to the truth by going to dbelltax.blogspot.com and read the last three posts. The Tribune and Desert News are not getting at the truth very well, but I hope that will change soon if "we the people demand it".
will_a: 1/7/2008 10:10:00 AM -1
Daryl- Oh so now the Utah County Legislators are responsible for what legislators did 20 years ago? Even though Valentine, the oldest of the group, has been in less than 10.
Also, Legislators were not in charge of counting the number of teachers in the state. Those numbers were given to the Legislature by the education community, so don't blame Legislators. And don't worry they've already promised a supplemental fund to make up for wrong numbers given by the school district. And they are promising even more money this year. They want to give it straight to the teachers, but school districts say they can spend it better themselves.
I would like you to show me that the legislature and governor have received more raises since these Utah County legislators took office. It might be true, but you should have some evidence to back it up since you state it as a fact. And I don't think anyone would deny that education has benefited as much or more than anyone in these past few years of surplus.
You also said I didn't have any facts. So is it not a fact that transportation received record amounts? Is it not a fact that teachers got a huge raise that even the education lobbyists were happy about? Is Stan Lockhart not the State GOP Chairman? Oh and sorry i couldn't find any facts about non-bullying accusations.
Good point on the second voucher bill though. I didn't like that move. But I don't think that was a matter of good versus bad. It was a legal issue and according to the court the Democrats were right.
Daryl: 1/7/2008 11:55:00 AM
will_a: I'm trying to figure out where Utah County comes into this? My comment to you said nothing about them.
I didn't say you didn't have any facts, simply that you missed a couple.
I didn't say the legislature gave themselves more raises, though I suspect that's true as well, but that they gave themselves a larger raise. You may be correct though in that I could be wrong on that one. I'll have to look into it but I remember them giving themselves a pretty hefty raise one of the last two years.
I am also with you that the school districts want that money for themselves, so I'm glad it's going directly to the teachers. Oh, but that's not a raise that's the bonus.
will_a: 1/7/2008 2:19:00 PM
Your comments didn't refer to Utah County's good ol boys, but the article did and so did my comments, so I assumed yours did.
You said I didn't have anything but an "insult as an argument", hence the reason I got a D. So I pointed out that I had facts and deserved a better grade.
FYI: HB2 last year gave the Governor a $3100 raise, compared to the $2500 raise teachers received.
subterrane1: 1/7/2008 7:50:00 PM
its all a stereotype, plain and pure
Lockhart was pretty close. They aren't "good guys"...they're "good ole' boys".
These kind of people need to apologize for their float making or their strong-arm tactics, or they need to be voted "out of town on a rail."
Richard Davis gets upset over some pretty mild stuff. I've lived in areas where Democrats run the show, and this stuff is comparatively trivial.
Frank, I've noticed you've been working over time on these blogs (including your own) kissing up to the Left. That's OK. Just don't expect them to ever return the favor.
Don't forget Dr. Davis that the voucher bill actually passed in Rep Sandstrom's district so I guess he actually is representing his constituents.
I disagree with "anonymous" Frank.
Demanding integrity and openness from our representatives is not a "left" or a "right" issue.
Openness is something Anon doesn't know anything about. He hides behind the name "anonymous", loves the secrecy of our right-wing government, and calls every Democrat a socialist.
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