Thursday, April 03, 2008

Senate District 23: Rat Race

I attended with my wife a meet the candidates night for Senate District 23. We have eight republican candidates running. Here they are in order as they appear on the State website.

  1. Lisa Watts Baskin
  2. Beth Beck
  3. Ernie Cox
  4. Dan Liljenquist
  5. Ronald Mortensen
  6. Jim Nielson
  7. Kent M Parry
  8. Lamont R. Peterson
My top three picks in descending order are Ronald Mortensen, Ernie Cox, and there is a tie between Lisa Watts Baskin and Jim Nielson. I don't think that Liljenquist Parry or Peterson have the political chops to make it based on their comments last night. The rest are experienced and skilled campaigners.

It should be an interesting show.

Update: Parry was a no-show--well, he showed up as it was concluding so he never had a chance to speak. Both Peterson, and Liljenquist expressed an interest in issues that I don't think will sway delegates. Utopia and Health care reform. They spoke almost the entire time about their pet issues and had nothing new to offer on education, taxes, or immigration of which last nights group seemed most interested. In the realm of 'knowing your audience', I'd give them a C-.

3 comments:

gadd37 said...

I am really sorry that I missed the 'Meet the Candidates". I agree with your assessment of the candidates.

I have spoken to Ron and Lisa - if I could roll them into one candidate, they would have my vote. Both have experience on the Hill and seem to be able to leave their ego at the door.

Dan Eastman has given his support (weakly given) to Dan Liljenquist or Kent Parry - so not alot of confidence there. (See Deseret Morning News article - March 19th) There are other big names with clout behind Dan Liljenquist also, so I'm not sure if he will have to do much if they make themselves public.

I feel Lisa is strong on the education issues and Ron is strong on the immigration and tax issues. I think both would be accessible to the public.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see just what the delegates will do.

Tyler Farrer said...

I have to agree with you that Ron is strongest on immigration and taxes, but I would not discount his knowledge or expertise on education either. I've heard some of his ideas on education and while I think they are bold, boldness is going to be necessary in Utah to keep funding for Education a priority.

Lisa was in favor of making Teachers 'independent contractors', and I am intrigued by that idea. That puts her in the running in my book, but I'll never forgive her for trying to change the name of North Salt Lake to 'Orchard Hills'! :|

gadd37 said...

Shame on you, Lisa.

Ron admitted that he supported vouchers - I strongly disagree with that - along with 62% of the Utah voters. He says he would never resurrect the issue and would not support it at this time. It will come back.....

Ron is still at the top of my list.

For you bloggers out there I hope you are clicking on to utahpolicy.com. Very interesting site. Check out the first article on the retiring Legislatures and the truckload of money that they are sitting on and may spend any way they see fit.