Weber County Republican Party Blog: April 2009

State Central Committee Meeting - Dixie Center - St. George

By Ricky Hatch
Legislative Chair, District 6

The weather couldn't have been nicer as we shuffled into the large windowless conference room at the Dixie Center in St. George. But the first SCC of 2009 was definitely worth it. Here's the scoop:

Chairman Stan Lockhart gave an open and even personal Chair Report, which was well received. He referred to a couple of well-written emails that he had sent out over the past couple of weeks.

Lowell Nelson submitted some proposed Constitution and Bylaws changes, which will be on the agenda at the Q2 SCC meeting.

Business: Two resolutions were passed. The first related to Employment Verification, by Don Larsen and Robert Wren. It basically supported a recommendation that Utah employers be diligent in verifying the legal status of potential employees. This was a much nicer and cleaner resolution than one written back in February. It passed by about 80% to 20%.

The second resolution gave official support the HJR8 (Here's a short refresher for those of you who are as ignorant as I am: A resolution is basically a statement of principle – it doesn't really do anything other than that. “HJR” stands for “House Joint Resolution” which means that the House and the Senate worked on this resolution together. It lends a little more credibility to the resolution.) It appears that labor unions spent about $1 Billion on national elections in '08, and now they're looking for payback. If someone wants to form a union at a business, they need to get 30% of the employees to state that they want a union, and then all employees vote by secret ballot to create a union or not. The national union leaders and our donkey friends want to replace the secret ballot with a very non-secret “Card Check,” which puts pressure on employees to vote for a union, so they don't get their shins bashed in if they vote against having a union (OK – I am kidding – those days are long gone, unless your name is Nancy Kerrigan). The bill that the Dems are trying to pass is called the “Employee Free Choice Act.” Don't be fooled by the flowery words – this “Card Check Bill” promotes anything but Free Choice. I'm guessing Tonya Harding's boyfriend supports it. The Utah State House and Senate passed, along party lines, a resolution opposing this bill, during the '09 session, and the State Republican Party wanted to demonstrate their support for the resolution by passing their own resolution. And they did – 52 to 1.

National committeeman Bruce Hough was not present, due to Party business. He's been placed on the Governor's Commission on Democracy, and National Committeewoman Enid Mickelsen was also excused, because she was on assignment for the party. Actually, most every elected official was not at the meeting. But Gary Herbert was. Here's what he had to say:

He reaffirmed that the State is in good shape. They cut the budget by the same amount that unions spent on the national elections (Ha! I knew you'd have to go back and look.) without having to touch the Rainy Day fund. He felt that this was one of the best legislative sessions that he remembers. Although there was a 9% overall cut in the budget, education only got a 5.2% decrease. He ended his legislative comments by saying, “Give your Republican legislators a hug.” Kerry and Scott, will you settle for a handshake and a pat on the back? Seriously, our elected representatives did a great job – thank you!

Lt. Governor Herbert feels that the US populace, in general, is right of the center, but that Washington and the media either don't or won't recognize that. He said that President Bush's record has been “significantly maligned and distorted,” and he listed 5 myths about Bush's term, and why they are myths. You want them in detail? Go get elected and come to the SCC meetings, or just come anyway – everyone is welcome, even the press. The 5 myths were about the economy, tax cuts, foreign policy, and the environment (I know, that's only 4 topics. I can't remember the 5^th one. So sue me.).

Only one Auxiliary report: Ed Cox is graduating, so a young man named Randy is the newly elected chairman of the Young Republicans. He said that the age range for Young republicans is 18-40 years. They have their own new Facebook page with almost 200 members already (although Mark Shurtleff is a member, and I think he just might be a little over the age limit).

Phil Fauver from Emery County presented some interesting statistics: of the 6,436 registered voters in Emory county, 2,824 were registered Republicans, 337 were Democrats, and 3,185 were unaffiliated. He suggested we obtain the voter registration documents from our own counties and check them out – we might learn something.

There was some discussion about a reallocation of delegates. The number of delegates representing rural areas is decreasing, and some ideas were tossed around about how to ensure that these important areas are properly represented in the State Party. No decisions were made, except the decision to discuss it more in the future.

The meeting was adjourned and Stan Lockhart held an open, honest Q & A session. Then several candidates for State Chair, Vice Chair, and other state party offices introduced themselves. Then we were back out in the sweet Southern Utah sun.
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Carpe Diem

Labels: State Central Committee