Democratic Candidate for Attorney General
As an educator and a first time candidate for a statewide office, I find the campaign process to be a fascinating learning opportunity—one that should be shared for future aspirants to public service. As a part of a shared learning process, I will try to at least occasionally post some observations from the campaign trail.
While on the trail this week, I have been inundated with voice and emails of support. The kind words of so many friends and colleagues have been inspiring, and much needed as a face the, at times daunting, task of both raising $1,000,000.00 (so many, many zeros) and doing research on issues.
Thus far, the research portion of campaigning is my favorite part. Case in point: yesterday, a typical spring day that kept teasing me with moments of worth amidst gray skies, I walked to Crossroads Urban Center to meet with its director. In an hour of great import, I filled in several gaps in my knowledge about pay day lenders and the effect these extremely profitable businesses have on their far less prosperous clientele. Imagine paying anyone 10% PER WEEK interest on a loan. Times that by 52 weeks in a year, and you pay a whopping 520% interest in one year. Remember those early lessons in credit card debt that showed it would take the rest of your life to get out of credit card debt at 17% if you just made the minimum payment? Yet somehow a pay day loan at 520% is supposed to be a benefit to low income individuals.
What is less well understood, but potentially more costly to society at large, is the pay day lenders commitment to getting paid. A court in one city indicated to Crossroads that it had to hire three full-time employees just to handle the pay day lender collection cases; cases which make up 87% of the court’s cases. Those three employees are paid by taxpayers, as is at least one judge whose time is spent hearing pay day loan cases.
My meeting at Crossroads addressed other issues as well, and convinced me again of the very real need for an attorney general who will focus on people, not politics and do something to curb usury (charging outrageous interest rates on loans) in Utah (one of very few states that does not regulate pay day lenders in any substantive manner).
As an educator and a first time candidate for a statewide office, I find the campaign process to be a fascinating learning opportunity—one that should be shared for future aspirants to public service. As a part of a shared learning process, I will try to at least occasionally post some observations from the campaign trail.While on the trail this week, I have been inundated with voice and emails of support. The kind words of so many friends and colleagues have been inspiring, and much needed as a face the, at times daunting, task of both raising $1,000,000.00 (so many, many zeros) and doing research on issues.
Thus far, the research portion of campaigning is my favorite part. Case in point: yesterday, a typical spring day that kept teasing me with moments of worth amidst gray skies, I walked to Crossroads Urban Center to meet with its director. In an hour of great import, I filled in several gaps in my knowledge about pay day lenders and the effect these extremely profitable businesses have on their far less prosperous clientele. Imagine paying anyone 10% PER WEEK interest on a loan. Times that by 52 weeks in a year, and you pay a whopping 520% interest in one year. Remember those early lessons in credit card debt that showed it would take the rest of your life to get out of credit card debt at 17% if you just made the minimum payment? Yet somehow a pay day loan at 520% is supposed to be a benefit to low income individuals.
What is less well understood, but potentially more costly to society at large, is the pay day lenders commitment to getting paid. A court in one city indicated to Crossroads that it had to hire three full-time employees just to handle the pay day lender collection cases; cases which make up 87% of the court’s cases. Those three employees are paid by taxpayers, as is at least one judge whose time is spent hearing pay day loan cases.
My meeting at Crossroads addressed other issues as well, and convinced me again of the very real need for an attorney general who will focus on people, not politics and do something to curb usury (charging outrageous interest rates on loans) in Utah (one of very few states that does not regulate pay day lenders in any substantive manner).
