Categories
politics

Thoughts On Caucuses

The following snippet from a comment this morning (thanks Scott) really got me thinking.

{Republican} Caucuses are the domain of grass roots Republicans. They are dominated by politically informed people that consider themselves conservatives. Primaries are far more open.

One of the things that I have long thought would improve our country was if people had to invest themselves more to participate in the political process. It’s a  tough balance to strike – even in my mind – because the process should be open to any who want to participate, but if the threshold for participation is too low voters will not take their participation seriously (less than 50% participation in most elections is evidence of that to me). Caucuses require a time commitment and therefore the people who participate in them don’t take their participation lightly.

I’m not declaring that all our voting should be through a caucusing process, but I am wondering if we might learn something from this to help find a way to raise the threshold for participation (especially in primaries) enough to make people take their role seriously while keeping it low enough that anyone can participate who is so inclined.

Thoughts?

Categories
culture life politics

Polls Are Open

“I Voted”

If you are registered and you haven’t yet – do. If you have already – encourage others to vote as well.

Categories
National politics

The Real Standings

I can’t stand the way that the media has been talking up the Republican race is if it’s McCains to lose. The facts point to a race that is far from decided and less favorable to McCain than the news lets on. The current delegate counts are 97 for McCain and 92 for Romney with 1191 needed to win the nomination. It’s also rather pitiful to read the professions of the Huckabee campaign that they are in a close race with the front runners – they have 29 delegates.

Of the 8 nominating contests so far the results for each of the 4 remaining candidates are:

  • McCain
    • 3 wins
    • two 2nd place finishes
    • one each of 3rd, 4th, and 6th place
    • delegates from 5 of the states
  • Romney
    • 4 wins
    • three 2nd place finishes
    • one 4th place
    • delegates from 6 of the states
  • Huckabee
    • 1 win
    • one 2nd place finish
    • two 3rds, three 4ths, and one 5th place finish
    • delegates from 5 of the states
  • Paul
    • one each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th place
    • four 5th place finishes
    • delegates from 2 of the states

Don’t be fooled by the message of the media – Romney has every bit as good a chance at the nomination as McCain if not better. And don’t be fooled by the bravado of Huckabee – his best opportunity is to be a spoiler for Romney (those who still support him are unlikely to support McCain).

Categories
life politics

Crunch Time

January was a very nice month for me as I was able to write every single day. Plenty of things have been happening in politics as the presidential primaries have twisted and turned on the path to next Tuesday. I’ve also had final opportunities to comment on the Mountain View Corridor and the opening of the 2008 legislative session to keep my mind occupied.

Having things to write about was obviously not a problem, but having time to write was surprising. things have been building up at work towards a new product launch. I have spent this last week working 12+ hour days in preparation for that event. It’s now crunch time in our product launch, at the same time as political crunch time for people to get serious about making a choice about where our nation should be headed politically. The primaries are the best time to make an impact in the voting booth – after that your options are much more limited.

Categories
National politics

Primary Season

The New York Times has a prime example of voters approaching elections the wrong way:

Senator John McCain has long aroused almost unanimous opposition from the leaders of the right. Accusing him of crimes against conservative orthodoxy like voting against a big tax cut and opposing a federal ban on same-sex marriage, conservative activists have agitated for months to thwart his Republican presidential primary campaign.

That, however, was before he emerged this week as the party’s front-runner.

Since his victory in the Florida primary, the growing possibility that Mr. McCain may carry the Republican banner in November is causing anguish to the right. Some, including James C. Dobson and Rush Limbaugh, say it is far too late for forgiveness.

But others, faced with the prospect of either a Democrat sitting in the White House or a Republican elected without them, are beginning to look at Mr. McCain’s record in a new light.

Once the parties have chosen their nominees (meaning not yet) it is important for voters who lean toward one party or another to look at the candidate for their chosen party and decided if that candidate represents them enough to earn their vote. The problem in the above example is that this should not be happening before the nominee is chosen. During the primary elections is the nest time to go vote your conscience. That is the time to speak up and cast your vote for someone you can support. If the eventual nominee was not someone you could support in the primaries then it is time to take another look and decide if they might be “good enough.”

Settling for good enough too early is what leads to elections where 60% of voters feel like they are choosing the lesser of two evils when they go to the ballot box.

I don’t have to hate John McCain (and I don’t) to oppose him in the primary election. He does not represent me close enough to earn my primary vote. That does not mean that I could not vote for him in November if he is the nominee (that depends on who his opponent is) but my vote is wasted if I give up now. If I vote for the front runner in the primary contest when only 10% of the delegates have been awarded merely because they are the front runner then I am guilty of letting other people choose how I will vote. If I am not going to choose how I vote then I have no business participating in the political process.

Categories
National politics

A Voters Guide

I know everyone has been waiting anxiously for me to offer a voters guide to Utah’s presidential primary next week. Here it is.

First and most importantly – go vote. Even if you have no particular interest in politics you should get into the habit of participating in this “government by the people.”

Second – if you are going to  vote you need to pick a single candidate because we don’t have instant runoff voting. For those who still need to pick a candidate – here are your four candidates and two dividing issues to help you choose. (If you don’t want to vote for one of these four you should have already made your choice.)

The two choice issues are party compatibility and change vs status quo.

If you prefer the Republican view your choices are Mitt Romney or John McCain. If you lean Democratic you may choose Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. If you want to see a change you can choose Mitt Romney or Barack Obama (not that the change of Mitt Romney is the same change as you would find with Barack Obama). If you like the status quo you can select John McCain or Hillary Clinton. So now, in alphabetical order, here are the individual candidates and what they offer.

Hillary Clinton – she would bring all the advantages of having a woman in power (I don’t see what advantages are related to one gender over the other, but that’s what she offers). Her baggage includes her husband who has demonstrated a willingness to insert himself into the public discussion and a penchant for breeding divisiveness (as if we didn’t have enough divisiveness already). Hillary not only represents the status quo, but she guarantees – by virtue of her name – that most of the country won’t leave the partisan rancor that we have seen for more than a decade.

John McCain – he brings the advantage of serving 26 years in federal office. He knows how our political system currently works. His baggage is that he has spent 26 years in Washington D.C. Chances are pretty good that he has friends there who are invested in keeping the current system.

Barack Obama –  he has the advantage of not serving 26 years in federal office. He also has an impressive ability to inspire people and look towards the future. His baggage is that “he doesn’t have enough experience.” He has been a U.S. Senator for only four years. I’m not sure why the senate is such a guaranteed training ground for a president other than it gets you close to the action to know how things work. It seems to me that if you can’t figure it out within four years I have no confidence that you can figure it out in 8 years, or 26 years either. By the way, I think that the way Barack Obama canceled his campaign appearance in deference to president Hinckley’s funeral and personally offered his condolences to President Monson was very dignified. Many candidates would have simply expected a smaller crowd or silently called of their event.

Mitt Romney – he has the advantage of a wide variety of experience with positions of authority and no excess of experience in government. His baggage is that some people don’t trust him, some people associate him with the current administration (based on party affiliation), and some people dislike him for both of the preceding reasons.

There you have it. Make your choice. I think it’s obvious that I favor change over the status quo. I hope you do too. It would be a nice change if we had high voter turnout on Tuesday.

Categories
National politics State

And Then There Were Two (Each)

The results of Florida’s primary have functionally whittled the Republican field to two candidates. no longer is there the possibility that Giuliani will suddenly jump back into the front runners circle. No matter what other candidates may hang around there are really only two candidates among the Republicans – Romney and McCain – who have a reasonable expectation of getting the nomination. Similarly, the Democrats buried any hopes of Edwards rising as a contender after his dismal third place finish in South Carolina leaving only two candidates – Obama and Clinton – with any legitimate shot at the nomination.

It’s time to start pushing for Obama here in Utah since there is no Republican contest in Utah’s primary.

Categories
National politics

Democratic Primary Done Right

Congratulations to Barack Obama – hands down the best candidate among the Democrats. This is what all the democratic contests should look like.

South Carolina results - democratic primary

Categories
National politics

Uncommitted in Michigan

In case this election cycle was not convoluted enough already we now get to approach the Michigan primary. The combination of having an open primary and having the DNC strip the delegates from Michigan for moving their primary into January meant that we faced the prospect of Democrats in Michigan voting in the Republican primary which does nothing to make the Republican contest any clearer. All the major Democratic candidates promised not to campaign in Michigan and Obama and Edwards went so far as to leave their names off the ballot in Michigan so the only major choice on the Democratic ballot there is Clinton. Now comes the news that Obama and Edwards are encouraging their supporters in Michigan to vote “Uncommitted” rather than allow Clinton to sweep that state.

From the sound of things, having all their delegates stripped by the DNC does not actually indicate that they have no delegates. I’d love for someone to explain how that works for me, but NPR reported that if “Uncommitted” receives 15% or more in a district then those delegates could later support Obama or Edwards.

If Michigan Democrats take this course there would be more confidence in the Republican results there. If they don’t then it really makes you wonder how satisfying this “victory” would be for Clinton. It reminds me of the Iraqi elections under Saddam Hussein – Mr. President-for-Life just loved getting 99.9 – 100% support as the only candidate on the ballot with citizens being required to “participate.”

Categories
politics State

Bloggers – Turn Out Utah

Earlier today, before significant numbers of ballots had been counted, the news coming out of New Hampshire was that turnout was way up and some precincts were requesting more ballots. In response to that, JM Bell and Misty Fowler each suggested that we’d love to have that problem in Utah. The more I think about that the more I am convinced that not only would we love to have that “problem” but have four weeks to actively work to achieve that in our state.

I’ve suggested before that any election with high turnout is a good election. Let’s make this into such an election. Starting now, let’s light up the Utah Political Blogosphere with ideas and thoughts to inspire people to turn out and vote in the primary election. Misty has set a good example by posting reminders about registration deadlines and information about how to register. What else can we do to encourage people to participate?

People all around the country have wondered why Iowa and New Hampshire should have so much influence on our elections – let’s show that Utahns can be as politically involved as Iowans.

If you are interested in pushing for this let me know – share your ideas of how we can encourage people online and offline to get to the polls. If you don’t think that higher turnout is valuable, convince me that low turnout has any benefit to our state or our nation.