The quarterly Utah County Republican Party Central Committee Meeting was held on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at Lakeridge Junior High.  Our legislative district, LD60, was recognized as having the most attendees by County Party Secretary Lisa Shepherd.

Much happened at the event. Most worthy of note, the Central Committee:

• approved a draft of the 2010 County Party Budget
• selected three nominees for the office of Utah County Recorder (interim position)
• elected the seven members of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee
• elected the five members of the Audit Committee
• elected the legislative district leadership for the county’s 13 legislative districts

The results can be viewed on the revamped Utah County Republican Party Website by clicking here. To view the meeting agenda, click here.

Our own LD60 race went to the challengers in two of the three positions (Chair and Vice Chair).  The Education Officer seat was open due to a resignation. The results were as follows:

Chair Race
Linda Houskeeper – 16
Ivan Keller (I) – 15

Vice Chair
Nelson Abbott (I)  – 9
Richard Jaussi – 22

Education Officer
Elaine Millet – 7
Chris Shelley – 24

I was most impressed with how the candidates conducted themselves. Thank yous are also in order to both Ivan Keller and Nelson Abbott for their service to our district and Party, and congratulations to the newly elected officers. Contact information for the new officers is as follows:

Chair
Linda Houskeeper
801-494-7305
houskeeper4utahhouse@yahoo.com

Vice Chair
Richard Jaussi
801-647-0580
rjaussi@gmail.com

Education Officer
Chris Shelley
801-615-1721
chris.shelley@utahcountygop.org

Now, let’s get to work. 2010 is going to be a ride!

Thanks, Molly!

===============> Notes Begin <===============

Congratulations to Kip for winning a spot on the state central committee!  I took notes at the meeting today, so I thought I’d share them with you since you all couldn’t make it.  

*Report of County Convention 4-26-09*

Welcome, call to order – Mayor Lewis Billings

Invocation – Randy Covington
Presentation of Colors – 142nd military division
Singing of National Anthem – Abraham Lincoln & wife (impersonators)
Pledge of Allegiance – Kris Poulsen
Introductions – skipped long intros at chairman’s request, showed elected official video collage

Motion made to allow party office candidates 5 minutes instead of 3 minute speeches failed.

Motion to approve the rules of the convention passed, the rules were posted on website for two weeks prior to the convention.

Credentials – 1234 delegates, 7 unassigned, 805 checked in with 13 minutes remaining.  Auditorium seats 800.

Treasurer’s report – $44900 in bank plus $800 postal credits, plus $27000 uncollected from Lincoln Day dinner = $73000 in assets.  Office / post office box paid through 2010.  Motion to accept this report passed.

Audit showed no irregularities, motion to accept this report passed.

Chairman Marian Monnahan – purpose of party is to elect republicans.  Money raised at Lincoln Day Dinner fundraisers is given to republican candidates.  Money from precinct caucus night is to run the party.  It is an all-volunteer party.  They will protect the personal emails.

Clayton Holbrook put forth a motion to put the state central committee after the party office candidates have been voted on and results tallied.   This was because some of the party office candidates will automatically get SCC positions, and it didn’t seem fair to waste two votes on that.  Plus it’s nice to hear from the office candidates before voting on SCC, as some were also running for that. Curt Bramble put forth a substitute amendment to vote for 22 SCC members instead of 20.  That motion did not pass, and neither did the original motion.

A motion was made to move the party office voting first, then vote on SCC.  This motion passed.

Speeches by the party office candidates were heard, followed by delegate voting.

State Central Committee members were presented, followed by delegate voting. 

The two changes proposed to the party platform were accepted by the central committee meeting, with a few slight changes.  The delegate body ratified these changes by a great majority.

Remarks:
Lt. Governor Gary Herbert
Likes the grassroots efforts and hopes we don’t depart from the delegate system, it gives more equal footing for voices to be heard.  He appreciates those who stick their neck out to volunteer or speak up.
The state is financially stable.  It is the best managed state in America.  It is the best place to business.  We want to empower the private sector to create wealth.  Currently there are 125 entities looking to locate in utah.  ALEC report says that Utah is #1 on the list as best poised to recover economically.
Things promised to do as a government:
1.  Live within means
2.  Empower the private sector; government offers problems, not the solution
3.  Education & hard work are the gateway to economic success
4.  Traditional family is bedrock of our country, and we must promote it
5.  Principles are the important thing to keep us focused on the straight and narrow.  They guide us.  They are embodied by the republican platform.

Mark Shurtleff
Thank you for your support – got 70% of the vote with one leg tied behind his back.
Report of his office – they’ve been busy & successful.
John Walsh came for a fundraiser – said “when it comes to protecting kids, shurtleff is kick-butt”
March Madness/April Fools – arrested 24 internet predators
www.donotcontact.com – sign up to protect from unwanted emails. (NOTE: I don’t believe this is the site intended.)
90% reduction in meth labs
Working on decreasing prescription drug abuse
SB81 – will uphold
AG’s strikeforce created to go against criminal aliens.  Using federal stimulus moneys that the federal government wouldn’t use to protect against them.
Utah constitution absolutely prohibits same sex civil unions.  There should be no further questions on this.
Tax day tea parties – the Americans won’t be lulled into government security, they must do something.
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere – “A cry of defiance, not of fear.”

Stan Lockhart
Thank you, it’s good men and women rising up that allows us to protect the constitution.
Utah county is th best republican county.  But it wasn’t till 1996 that all offices were held by republicans.
Party chair’s duties:
    1.  To get republicans elected
    2. Organize the party so it’ll happen
    3.  Raise money to help them get elected
For the new leadership:
    1. The standard is not perfection, when mistakes are made lift them up rather than complain
    2.  Understand this is difficult
    3.  Share your views with others – blogs, neighbors, social networking, letters to the editor, cottage meetings, etc
The Utah county delegation in legislature led the charge to not raise taxes. 

Jason Chaffetz
Welcome fellow terrorists!
Most conservative speaker gives the shortest speech
Went to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait – we should thank, help & support the troops, no matter where we stand on the war issue.
Thanks to the party leadership & delegates. 
He remembers that we need to represent Utah in Wash. DC, not the other way around.
The challenges are huge, your involvement makes the difference.
No president should ever apologize for Americans. 
No more bailouts, stimulus packages, or socialism!

Bob Bennett
All the best cheerleading lines have been done, so he’ll be a truth teller.
The media reported for the first time in 5 years that the majority of Americans feel we’re on the right track.  We must face that reality.
When George Washington was general of the continental congress army, he had a ragtag army vs. the most powerful army in the world.   We had many defeats.  But all you have to do is be smarter than the general you’re opposing.  The British couldn’t win while the continental congress existed, so he looked for points of weakness to win.  He found it in Yorktown.
We need to find the right battles that we can win.
Obama’s cap & trade is heading for the cemetary.
For the budget, we couldn’t defeat it, so we picked a few spots to change – like charitable contributions.
More spots of weakness – guns, public land leasing.
Ronald Reagan was one of the most transformational presidents of our time because:
1.  Unfailingly optimistic (which is a republican trait)
2. Patriotic – believed we can because we’re Americans
3.  Offered sound solutions (he was a pre-keynesian economist)

Orrin Hatch
Gordon Smith was an LDS senator from Oregon who lost his recent race to a very liberal democrat.  He lost by 40,000 votes.  Because the “far right” candidate (constitution party candidate) got 85,000 votes.   Gordon sometimes voted moderately.  He voted for TARP.  They need 41 votes in the Senate to stop bad legislation.

Hatch told Obama that the stimulus package is a piece of crap.

Hatch’s wife goes to the temple twice a week.  She says she gets to go to heaven twice a week, but Orrin has to go to hell every day.

Budget deficit is 3.6 trillion, in 5 years it’ll be 10 trillion.

The administration spends too much, borrows too much and taxes too much.
50% of people pay 97% of taxes.

Hatch introduced a bill to limit spending to 20% of the GDP (except in times of war).  That’s been pretty historical.   Today it’s 28% and going up to 38% of the GDP. 

Republicans are on the verge of coming back.   People will start to wake up and come back. 

In 30 years when intelligence papers are released, people will realize what a great president George Bush was and realize their mistake in judging him.

Hatch has been 33 years in senate and is trying to save our power.  There hasn’t been one day when fiscal conservatives were the majority in the senate. 

Motion to pass resolution put forth by Don Larsen, “Resolution opposing the hate American, anti-Christian, open borders cabal” was considered, with two people each speaking for and against.  The resolution vote was fairly close, a call to division was made.  The resolution did not pass.

Final credentials report: 847 delegates, or 69% reported.  Nearly double over last year’s attendance.

Election Results:
Chair                 Diamond, Steve  391
*Chair     Oldroyd, Taylor  441    

Vice-Chair     Nelson, Lowell 405
*Vice-Chair     Cluff, Mark      415    
Vice-Chair     Larson, Don    

Secretary     Thompson, Matt  307      
*Secretary     Shepherd, Lisa     484      
Secretary     Kuder, Keith           32    

Treasurer     Smith, Ben     236    
*Treasurer     Taylor, Lynn     592

State Central Committee
Bramble, Curt    
Bramble, Susan    
Cluff, Mark    
de Gaston, Jackie    
Diamond, Steven    
Holbrook, Clayton    
Jenkins, Brian    
Larsen, Don    
Lockhart, Becky    
Lockhart, Stan    
Meacham, Kip    
Monnahan, Marian    
Nelson, Lowell    
Oldroyd, Taylor    
Shepherd, Lisa    
Smith, Ben    
Storrs, Sharon    
Taylor, Lynn    
Thompson, Matt    
Thompson, Mike    
Valentine, John    
Valentine, Karen    

–
Molly Christensen

I have also assembled a list of links to Wasatch Front newspaper coverage (and reader comments on each of the articles) of the event below:

• GOP Convention swells of attendees (Daily Herald, see reader forum comments here)
• Utah County GOP chooses new leadership (Deseret News, see reader comments here)
• ‘Godless’ cabal resolution fails (Deseret News, see reader comments here)
• Utah County GOP picks realty exec as new chief (Salt Lake Tribune, see reader comments here)
• Utah County Republicans reject ‘Satanic’ resolution (Salt Lake Tribune, see reader comments here)

Your comments and observations are welcome here.

Details of a special Utah County Central Committee Meeting are out for the attendees. The agenda will cover the “Proposed Bylaw Changes” (see “Bylaw 5 revisions“) and a Constitution and Bylaw change regarding Education Officer Election.

This meeting was called because of a motion I placed before the Central Committee before the last meeting (held at the Provo City Council Chambers on Saturday, February 21, 2009) so there could be ample debate and discussion on the proposed changes. In the absence of this special meeting, the Central Committee would have been relegated to one hour of discussion before the start of the Utah County Organizing Convention scheduled for Saturday, April 25, 2009 at Canyon View Jr. High School, 655 East 950 North, Orem.

There’s simply not enough time to vet the implications of passing these changes. I’ll comment about my concerns and position on Bylay 5 revisions in greater detail in a subsequent post. For now suffice it to say, I have SERIOUS concerns about this.

Anyway, the meeting details as follows:

Event: Utah County Central Committee Meeting
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Time: 9:00 am
Agenda: Constitution & Bylaw Review
Location: Canyon View Jr. High School, 655 East 950 North, Orem

I’m glad the meeting is being held. If you’re one of the following ( emphases added):

Constitution Of the Utah County Republican Party
(as amended April 29, 2006)
Article III – Organization and Powers, Section E, Subsections 3 and 4

3. The Central Committee shall consist of the Voting Precinct Chairs and Vice-Chairs ; the Party’s Elected County Officers ; the Party’s Appointed County Officers ; the Legislative District Chairs , Vice-Chairs and Education Officers ; all past full-term County Chairs who served to the end of the term to which they were elected or to which they succeeded as County Chair and served a minimum of six months; and all County, State and Federal Elected Officials .

4. Both the Executive and Central Committees may also include, as nonvoting members, a representative from each Allied Organization that has been approved by a 2/3 vote of the Executive Committee or a majority of the Central Committee. Such membership is to facilitate communication and coordinate action with the represented Allied Organizations and shall not be construed as Party endorsement, authorization, or responsibility for the actions of those organizations. The represented Allied Organizations are separate bodies with no authority to act for or in behalf of the Party.

then get there!!!

Here’s the latest communication (via the State Party e-mail control/filtering system) from Todd Weiler, Utah Republican Party Vice Chair:

Utah Democratic Party Chair Wayne Holland has recently authored an Op-Ed endorsing the so-called “stimulus” package and defending Rep. Jim Matheson’s vote for the bill. He first argues that the bill is necessary because the nation’s infrastructure is crumbling, but fails to mention that less than five percent of the stimulus money is dedicated to that cause. He next alleges that Utah school children would benefit from new schools and computers. But the final version of bill eliminated $20 billion in school construction projects.

Providing false hope under the guise of spending for job creation is disingenuous. The Greatest Generation sacrificed themselves for their children’s future. With this bill, however, the Democrats have mortgaged the economic future of our nation’s children to buy a little short-term job relief and a whole lot of pork.

I have great concerns about the details of the soon-to-be Stimulus Law and laud Vice Chair Weiler’s efforts at pointing out its deficiencies, I’d sure welcome the opportunity to discuss those concerns with the Party Leadership and see what we can do as a Party to create a lively, conservative vision of the future for the electorate to gravitate towards, Vice Chair Weiler’s contact information is nowhere to be found (nor anyone of the elected Party leadership for that matter) on the Official Party Website.

I even went to the Party’s Leadership that Delivers Blog hoping to find some information about the Party Leadership, but alas…

And I have to say I don’t count the fact that Weiler is Twittering on behalf of the Utah GOP a replacement for an e-mail address.

Our State Party Leadership seems to be a bit of an Orwellian Dinosaur…

Dinosaur-like as they seem to be living under the false hope for a return to a highly controlled past life/message, while unwilling to accept the realities of the twenty-first century digital landscape. (My heavens, you’re elected by the Party members, make yourself available!)

Orewellian-like as they seem willing to assert “Big Brother”-like control by using select portions of the technology to control who hears/reads/forwards messages from the Party.

But you’ve already heard my “catch the fire and imagination of the upcoming generation” speech before. I wish the Party would think a bit more about that…

The Democrats sure are.

Because of scheduling and the size of other events at the Tahitian Noni Internation Building tonight, we are moving our meeting with the Utah House of Representatives Legislative District 60 seat Republican candidates Brad Daw (incumbent) and Linda Houskeeper (challenger) to another room IN THE SAME FACILITY. We’ll be meeting in the Emerald Room rather than the Auditorium. Note the Emerald Room is directly across from the Auditorium, so it should not be too difficult to find.

For convenience, I’ve included the invitation and agenda again below (see the change in BOLD):

Date: Wednesday, 4/16/08
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Place *** NOTE ROOM CHANGE ***: Tahitian Noni Auditorium Emerald Room (click here for directions to the Tahitian Noni Building in Provo)

Agenda:

1. Coin toss – winner chooses to go first with either opening statement or closing statement

2. Candidate 1 introduction (10-15 minutes)

3. Candidate 2 introduction (10-15 minutes)

4. Questions from the attendees directed to individual candidates or to both–giving both candidates an opportunity to respond or comment on the questions (55 minutes)

5. Candidate 2 conclusion (2 minutes)

6. Candidate 1 conclusion (2 minutes)

Again, I will be moderating the meeting.

Candidate Questions

If you are interested in asking the candidates specific questions, I still have some time to get your questions onto the list if you can get them to me before 3pm today. If you would please submit your questions by e-mail to:

kip dot meacham “at” comcast dot net

When submitting your question, please include the following information:

• Your Name

• Your Precinct

• Candidate to Whom the Question is Directed (Daw, Houskeeper, Both)

• Body of the Question

If you have any additional questions about the event, please direct them to either me or to Ivan Keller (three five eight ivan “at” gmail dot com), LEG 60 Chair.

We look forward to a great discussion of the issues that affect the future of our Legislative District, County, and State. The public is invited to attend.

The e-mail address I used for both messages is: info@utgop.org. This is the common e-mail address listed on the State Republican Party Leadership Web Page for Chairman Stan Lockhart, Vice Chairman Todd Weiler, Treasurer Mike McCauley, and Secretary Patty Johnson.

I’d sure like to have the same access to the State Party Leadership as I have to the State Party Staff as the Party Web Site lists only the staff members’ e-mail addresses on the “Contact Utah Republican Party” Web Page.

Meeting date, time, and place are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, 4/16/08
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Place: Tahitian Noni Auditorium (click here for directions)

Agenda:

1. Coin toss – winner chooses to go first with either opening statement or closing statement

2. Candidate 1 introduction (10-15 minutes)

3. Candidate 2 introduction (10-15 minutes)

4. Questions from the attendees directed to individual candidates or to both–giving both candidates an opportunity to respond or comment on the questions (55 minutes)

5. Candidate 2 conclusion (2 minutes)

6. Candidate 1 conclusion (2 minutes)

The meeting will be moderated by Kip Meacham, OR27 Precinct Chair.

Last Call for Questions

If you are interested in asking the candidates specific questions, please submit your questions by e-mail to

kip dot meacham “at” comcast dot net

before 3pm tomorrow. When submitting your question, please include the following information:

• Your Name

• Your Precinct

• Candidate to Whom the Question is Directed (Daw, Houskeeper, Both)

• Body of the Question

If you have any additional questions about the event, please direct them to either me or to Ivan Keller (three five eight ivan “at” gmail dot com), LEG 60 Chair.

We look forward to a great discussion of the issues that affect the future of our Legislative District, County, and State. The public is invited to attend.

Some of the article’s quotes include:

Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhart: “The integrity of the delegate database is extremely important to us.”

Utah County Republican Party Chair Marian Monnahan: “The state first told us not to give out those addresses, then later told us it was up to the counties to decide.”

Jacqueline deGaston, attorney and one of two GOP challengers to Bramble in District 16: “The party insiders control things to protect the seats of incumbents… That’s why there’s no turnover in Utah County.”

District 16 State Senator Curtis Bramble (R-Provo): “My opponent is trying to make this a conflict of interest thing.”

Chris Cannon Campaign Manager Ryan Frandsen: “E-mail is one of the most flexible and fastest ways to communicate with delegates. So we pursue those heavily.”

It also quotes me discussing my concerns with McKitrick: “These policies look – at best – oily, corrupt and back-roomish.”

I wish the article would have delved more into the privacy concerns about the State Party’s policy decision and my letter to the State Party Leadership about the same.

===========> Letter begins <===========

Dear Mr. Lockhart, Constant Contact, the Party now has at its disposal lots of resources to manage e-mail communications including email templates, along with tools to build, manage and secure e-mail lists.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kip Meacham, and I am the Republican Precinct Chair residing in Orem Precinct 27 (OR27). My purpose in writing you is to express my concerns with manner in which the State Republican Party is trying to increase candidate-to-delegate e-mail communications. While I laud the efforts of the Party, I believe the chosen approach will create serious freedom of speech, equal access, and privacy concerns you may not have foreseen in making your policy decisions.

By employing the e-mail management software from

What it also now has is the ability to track and generate reports about the success/failure of e-mail delivery efforts, the number of e-mails opened by the delegates, etc.

So, while the software gives the delegates the following benefits:

1. It preserves the privacy of the e-mail address lists from the candidates.
2. It gives the delegates the option to “opt out” of receiving these e-mail communications.

It creates a whole new dimension of freedom of speech, equal access and privacy concerns for the delegates by:

1. Centralized distribution of messages through the Party. There are no direct e-mail communications from the candidates. Instead, the Party sees them first, lays the mail messages out for distribution, and has all control of the distribution.
2. An order of magnitude increase in delegate privacy compromise. The delegates’ privacy is compromised in that the Party can (by means of the Constant
Contact software’s web analytics features) see which delegates are actually opening the messages, and if they’re forwarding them on.

For your review, I cite the following on what the Constant Contact Website says about the software’s e-mail tracking and reporting capabilities (text in [bold] italics):

Email Tracking and Reporting
Learn more about your contacts with eye-opening reports

Real-time email tracking and reporting lets you know how many emails were delivered, which addresses bounced, and why-within minutes of sending your email campaign. You also get reports on who opened your email, which links generated the most interest, and who clicked on each one. This valuable information will help you to determine your contacts’ interests, the best day and time to send your email campaigns and much more!

See who opened your email campaigns, and what they clicked on
• How many emails were sent and delivered
• What percentage of your contacts opened

See how your email list is growing and who is opting out
• How many contacts opted in or opted out
• How many contacts forwarded emails to a friend

Compare past email campaigns, get information on bounces, and more
• Identify emails that bounced
• Compare results from your three most recent campaigns

So, in a noteworthy effort to answer privacy concerns about e-mail address disclosure, the Party–not the candidates–will have all the information on how these e-mail communications were delivered, opened, and clicked on by the delegates.

By using e-mail management software, what the Party has done is increase the privacy exposure for the delegates as the Party will now know which delegates are opening these e-mails and how the delegates are using the e-mail messages–including knowledge of which e-mails the delegates are forwarding on to others.

If you consider the useful life of these e-mail addresses for a particular candidate versus the uses of the Party, I believe we have a much larger privacy concern by this centralized party control of the message flow–and the means for the Party to check up on the delegates’ e-mail reading habits. I know that’s not what I signed up for when I gave my e-mail address to the Party.

All this notwithstanding, there are alternatives to this approach that will enable the preservation freedom of speech and equal access for the candidates and the preservation of e-mail address privacy for the delegates without the potentials of analytics-based abuse by the Party (emphasis on the word potentials here). The possibility of impropriety is sufficient cause to reverse this policy.

I’m sure there are those in the County and State leadership who will see my raising of these concerns as obstructionist behavior or personal attacks. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not from the Party’s “lunatic fringe,” and I have no personal axe to grind.

My motives are simply these: I believe if the Republican Party is going to catch the fire and imagination of the upcoming generation, it must operate according to the rules of information flow in the twenty-first, Internet-based world we live in. Information must flow with complete transparency. The Party needs to understand the importance of this transparency to the next generation.

The old days of traditional public relations (which I have worked in professionally) and control of the message and messengers has long since past. The Internet took this from the public and private sectors years ago. If the Party continues to operate to this antiquated model, the Party will be perceived by the upcoming generation as oily, corrupt, back-room dealers, and it will die from a lack of new blood from today’s youth destined to become tomorrow’s leaders.
In my professional opinion, this “centrally-controlled e-mail distribution policy” is an instantiation of the behavior driving the next generation away from-not towards-the Republican Party.

As a 20+ year high-tech sector marketing and public relations professional, I offer my assistance in helping the Party address these concerns.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss this using my contact information below; and in the spirit of transparency, please feel free to forward this e-mail message on to whomever you choose.

Sincerely,

Kip Meacham
OR27 Precinct Chair

===========> Letter ends <===========

I am hoping for a response, and for the opportunity to help solve the problems I see with this approach.