Liberal or Progressive, Same Old Nonsense

George Will has weighed in on Utah's voucher vote next Tuesday.

Liberal or Progressive, Same Old Nonsense

Utahns Can Vote For School Choice Tuesday

FYI, John Stossel weighs in on Utah's voucher vote.

Utahns Can Vote for School Choice Tuesday

Scott Briggs Signs No Tax Pledge

Scott Briggs, candidate for NSL City Council, has signed a pledge not to raise taxes. While a breath of fresh air, I hope that Briggs will not sacrifice the perfect for the good in other areas if he wins. Remember, Ron Paul is considered strong as a fiscal conservative by the Club for Growth, but also ineffectual at getting his ideals implemented.

That said, the gauntlet is down for other candidates to show similar spine as Scott Briggs. My thoughts are that none of the NSL candidates should have any hesitation to sign the pledge.

Joint Press Release

October 29, 2007

Contact: Scott Briggs, 801-699-5758

Contact: Ronald Mortensen, 801-927-7916

CitizensForTaxFairness.org

Briggs Signs CitizenForTaxFairness.org Taxpayer Protection Pledge,

Refuses to Accept funding from Special Interests


Scott Briggs, candidate for North Salt Lake City Council has signed the CitizensForTaxFairness.org Taxpayer Protection Pledge."

Upon signing the pledge, Mr. Briggs stated, "I have constantly told the voters that I oppose taxes so I only found it natural to sign this pledge. Now voters have my word in writing and can hold me accountable if I break it, which I won't."

Mr. Briggs also emphasized that he has refused to accept any donations from special interests. "This puts me at a real disadvantage from a financial standpoint," he said, "but I want to be totally independent to make the best decisions for my constituents in all cases without any possible perception of impropriety."

Ronald Mortensen, CitizensForTaxFairness.org, co-founder noted that Mr. Briggs contacted him and asked to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. "We make the Pledge available to all candidates but during this election cycle we have not aggressively pursued candidates to get them to sign it," said Mortensen. "In Bountiful for example, all candidates have publicly come out in support of tax increases which makes them ineligible to sign it."

When asked what he would do in case of a major emergency impacting North Salt Lake, such as an earthquake, Mr. Briggs responded: "Should a major disaster strike that is exactly the wrong time to raise taxes. How do you raise taxes on families that may have lost everything and are trying to put their lives back together?"

In 2006, when CitizensForTaxFairness.org asked Davis County Commission Candidates to sign the Pledge, all refused.

"Based on our experience with the County Commissioners, it seems that a refusal to sign the P ledge is a good indication that candidates are inclined to vote for higher taxes," said Hugh Williams, a co-founder of CitizensForTaxFairness.org.

Quote of the Day: Virtue and Faith

"I do not think America's condition is hopeless; an alliance in the cause of virtue is still possible. By linking arms with all those who believe in God or adhere to high moral standards, the Saints can help preserve the Constitution and free agency. But it is more important still to nourish the ground from which these men and women of America spring, that ground of faith and conviction from which virtue ultimately grows. The highest kind of political activity, then, is to teach virtue and faith. Ultimately there is no other way to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the freedom which it was established to protect."

Richard L. Bushman --Virtue and the Constitution
"By the Hands of Wise Men" --Essays on the U.S. Constitution

Socialism; Quote Of The Day

I was reminded by one candidate of this quote I had, one time, posted to my blog. It bears repeating.

"Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task."

--Frederick Bastiat, 1850 The Law

Suggestion Box: South Davis Candidates

This post is for those who are either running for office, or know someone who is running for office, to get a chance to step up and say why the candidate should be elected. I clearly don't have the time or inclination to investigate fully all candidates that should be under the purview of this blog. It is an unfortunate corollary to living in NSL that I will devote most of my energy to the campaign here.

I do, however, care about the other races. So, if you will leave your comments to this post, we'll see what impact we can have on the election here.

Some suggestions on items you can also leave in the comments include candidate website links, email addresses, and phone numbers for the campaigns.

NSL Meet The Candidates Night Thoughts

After attending the meet the candidates night tonight, I thought I'd be prepared to give my endorsements.

Frankly, I'm not entirely clear on everyone who will get my vote.

In the Mayoral election, I'll be voting for Schaefermeyer. That, despite the fact that she could not attend tonight. I've paid attention to what she's done as Mayor, as well as her opponent since his unsuccessful run for the county commission. The fact is that the current Mayor is a firebrand and has proven to be a great advocate for this city. She's been in the minority of mayors in this county to oppose excessive taxes and measures that don't benefit North Salt Lake specifically.

I have no doubt that I'll be voting for Ron Gordon. I think his leadership experience, and grasp of logic will be an asset to the city. I don't view him as much of an ideologue-rather, he's someone that holds judgment until he has enough data to act. (Full disclosure: I've had one individual close to Gordon guest blogging for me here on Davis County watch, although they were specifically chosen because they often hold a contrary positions as myself. Guess who?)

I'm also leaning towards Stan Porter. I think we should pick his brain, win or lose, regarding the layout of the city website. For my reasons for this check out his campaign website. If you like parks and trails to be done right, he's your man. He's chairman of the Parks, Trails, and Recreation board. I think he'd be responsible about how city money is spent in this regard. I think it's important to keep the city beautiful, but not to break the bank in the process.

My third choice is the most difficult. I'm shying away from the two retired police officers, Kelly Davis and John Herndon. My impression, I hope is coincidental. (I don't think I have anything against law enforcement.) My initial thought is clouded by the way a question was answered that by each candidate tonight. It was, 'what should the city council do regarding home owners who won't maintain their own property'? The two candidates mirrored each others response stressing, I thought, a bit too much that local ordinances should be enforced, and perhaps enhanced. The other candidates seemed to have a different tact that respect more the property owners prerogative to keep their own place. I think this is an area in which the government should have as light of a touch as possible with respect to individual rights.

More importantly, I don't think Davis or Herndon have enough leadership experience to be effective in their term. Davis described his career in West Valley as being that of a 'worker bee'. I have respect for the work that he's done, and he was quite charismatic when I spoke to him, but I still have doubts. The pamphlet that Davis distributed tonight had a photo of him in his police uniform. It rubbed me the wrong way because I recall Sheriff Cox getting chastised once for campaigning for Sheriff in uniform. I've heard from two individuals that Davis has also been caught inappropriately placing campaign signs prior to 30 days from the election.

That's a violation of city ordinance, by the way.

The youngest candidate was Scott Briggs, weighing in at age 28. I'm quite impressed with his enthusiasm, and charisma, but I wonder if he is going to leave enough of an impression on the electorate to win. He shares the name of a recent, effective, and popular mayor. That could put him in by default, except that I don't think he has put his own name out there enough. He has self-funded his campaign, accepting no donations. If he ever pulls this stunt running for a larger office, then he'll be toast. Donations are one way of demonstrating a candidate has support, although it might give the impression of a candidate encumbered by special interest. That is the cost of running, however. I think politicians can counter that by being virtuous in their personal lives.

You might have guessed that it was Briggs that had lauded Ron Paul, and had led me to worry that Briggs actually thought Paul could win. I really don't think that Briggs is deluded about Paul's chances for the Presidency, but his idealism does give me pause.

Lastly, my first impression of Brian Horrocks was that of a deer in the headlights. The only reason that I suspected that he was a candidate was that he was wearing a suit. When I approached him and introduced myself, I wondered if he was going to slink away after my introduction. He did, however, thoughtfully answer my questions. I think he is plain spoken, I hear he is very conservative, and I sense he is very stable. Predictability is a plus in my book. Some of his activities on the Planning commission are available via google.

Announcing: NSL Meet The Candidates Night

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council and the Adelaide PTA/Community Council will be hosting a Meet the Candidates Night on Thursday October 18th at 6:30 p.m. at Adelaide Elementary.

Election 2007: Local Candidates List--Rough Draft

North Salt Lake

• Shanna Schaefermeyer (mayor)

• Lynn Ballard (mayor)

• John Herndon

• Kelly Davis

• Scott Briggs

• Ron Gordon

• Brian Horrocks

• Stan Porter

Woods Cross

• Rick Earnshaw

• Jill Evans

• Cory Green

• David Hill

• Gary Sharp

• Ryan Westergard

Centerville

• Ken Averett

• Paul A. Cutler

• Lawrence Wright

Bountiful

• John M. (Marc) Knight

• Richard L. Higginson

• Scott C. Myers

• Beth Holbrook

---Some of the below candidates have been whittled down via a primary.

West Bountiful

• James Bruhn

• Alan Malan

• Kenneth Romney

• Jeff Tingey

• Brad Hansen

• Troy D. Larsen

• Joseph Child

• Valerie Shaw

• Roger Wray

10/10 Updated links.

Ron Paul: Beacon Of Fiscal Discipline

I spent more than an hour last night on the phone with a candidate running for city council in North Salt Lake. All considered, I was quite impressed. That is up until he began to cite Ron Paul as an example of what philosophy should be taken in regards to the cities fiscal discipline.

Ron Paul?

"You do realize that Ron Paul doesn't have a chance of winning this election?", I asked. I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't nuts.

He told me he might vote for Paul, but the state was going to vote for Romney anyway, so it wouldn't matter.

True enough.

Quote Of The Day: UTA Tax

"I just feel like UTA is already a tax-generated agency, and here we are creating a county tax that supplements something we're already taxed for, which in general, is something I think is bad government."

North Salt Lake City Council Member, Matt Hardy

Hat tip: Deseret News