Recently Elder Oaks delivered a forum address at BYU-Idaho expressing his concern about the erosion of religious freedom. He was referring to the effort on the part of some same-sex marriage advocates to force the LDS Church out of the same-sex marriage debate.
This is not an idle concern. Elder Oaks quoted one of the spokespersons for the same-sex marriage advocates as saying "My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims." On one of his recent programs, Keith Olbermann gave Elder Oaks his "worst person in the world" award and commented that the Church should shut up on this issue.
It would be a tragedy if gay rights advocates, in seeking to obtain gay rights, became party to an effort to rob others of another set of rights - the right to participate in public debate about public policy issues in accordance with personal religious views. Those rights should be sacrosanct in a democratic society.
When I was growing up in Utah, Calvin Rampton and Scott Matheson were our Governors, Frank Moss was one of our Senators, and Gunn McKay was our Congressman. All were Mormon Democrats. My father was a steelworker who believed that the Democrats were the party that ended the Depression, won the War, and fought for the rights of working people.
Evidently many Utah Mormons agreed with him. It was not until the mid- to late-1970s that the Democratic party fell out of favor among Utah Mormon voters. That shift resulted, I believe, because the public debate about morality became more narrowly focused on sexual issues like abortion. But the Mormon retreat from the Democratic party has been detrimental to both the party and the LDS Church. Furthermore, there are moral issues that, I believe, are better represented by the Democrats than by Republicans.
At election time each year, a Church statement of political neutrality is read in LDS congregations throughout the nation, which "affirms [the Church's] neutrality regarding political parties, platforms, and candidates." Importantly, it also stresses that, "principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties." Implicit in this statement is the notion that gospel truth may be found in the Democratic party's platform.
In an interview in 1998, Elder Marlin Jensen, a Mormon Democrat, spoke of the need for political diversity in the Church. Jensen outlined three main concerns Church leaders have with the misconception that the Republican party is the Church party: First, the Church's reputation suffers with the waxing and waning tides of national political fortunes. "There is a feeling that even nationally as a church, it's not in our best interest to be known as a one-party church," stated Jensen.
The late Elder James E. Faust, also a Mormon Democrat and a counselor in the First Presidency, reiterated this point: "It is in the interest of the Church to have a two-party system . . . . Both locally and nationally, the interest of the Church and its members are served when we have two good men or women running on each ticket, and then no matter who is elected, we win."[1]
On September 26, the state Democratic Party Central Committee met at the Provo Library. Party Chair Wayne Holland asked me to welcome the participants and give a report on what we had been doing in Utah County. It was a pleasure to tell the other party chairs and vice chairs what we had accomplished over the past couple of years. It reminded me of how far we have gone in such a short time.
I told them we were building an organization across the county with the election of legislative district chairs and vice chairs, as well as precinct chair recruitment.
I mentioned that we were holding precinct chair training to help each precinct chair better understand how important they are to the party organization and the election of candidates.
They heard about how much we had gained electorally in 2008 -- recruiting 13 candidates, getting over 40,000 votes collectively, winning 16 precincts and getting 40 percent or more in 57 precincts, and having three of our candidates get in the 40 percent range. This was a success record that hadn't been accomplished since Bill Orton served in Congress.
I wanted to thank all of the hundreds of people who have been active in making those accomplishments possible. We have achieved a lot together.
We're already gearing up for the 2010 campaign. We need to build on the foundation we established in 2008.
How can you help right now?
Offer to help your precinct chair with your own precinct organization.
Attend the party events. Show your support.
If you're a precinct chair, attend the training.
Sign and circulate one of the petitions for ethics and fair boundaries.
Working together, we can bring change in Utah County.
Why we need the ethics initiative: a case in point
Written by Richard Davis
Monday, 19 October 2009
During the early summer of 2007, the Utah County Republican Party was in need of a float for the parade season coming up. Senators John Valentine and Curt Bramble asked Mountainlands Applied Technology School administrators if the school could build a float for the Republicans. This conversation took place in the middle of a meeting discussing the school's funding. That funding is determined by the state legislature and, at that time, Valentine and Bramble served, respectively, as Senate president and majority leader.
Not surprisingly, the president of the school, Robert Brems, recruited the school's instructors to work full time on building a float for the Republican party. After it was finished, Representative Becky Lockhart picked up the float.
When word of this breach of legislative ethics and improper use of taxpayer resources leaked out, the chair of the board of trustees for the school quickly paid for the float out of his own funds. An internal investigation by the Utah Board of Regents found that Brems had acted improperly. He resigned under pressure in the wake of the float controversy and other improprieties. Even though three state legislators were involved in the improper use of state funds, including two of whom actually initiated the request, only the school's president was punished.
This past week Brems was re-hired as president by the school's board of trustees. The action prompted William Sederburg, Utah commissioner of higher education, to criticize the school's board for not disclosing the names of finalists, which is required by state law.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the UCAT board members felt that Brems had been unfairly treated two years ago. They have a point. Taking the float issue alone, Brems was singled out when those who unethically made the request in the first place got off scot-free. Despite their role as the instigators of this abuse of the neutrality of the state's educational system, Bramble and Valentine were not punished or even investigated. Due to their positions as legislators, only the Senate ethics committee could investigate them. Not surprisingly, the ethics committee did not conduct an investigation of the president and the majority leader. This despite the fact that both were implicated in the report of a state audit committee.
As citizens consider whether they should sign a petition to place an ethics initiative on the ballot -- one that will take investigation of legislative ethics out of the hands of the legislators themselves -- they should remember the float issue and how well our current system of legislative ethics monitoring works.
Our Republican friends and healthcare reform
Written by Richard Davis
Monday, 12 October 2009
Recently I was at a restaurant talking to a very strong Republican. He is an adamant opponent of the Democratic-led health care reform effort. While we were talking, the waitress came to take our order. After she left, he commented on the fact that she needed dental work. He said that long ago she should have gotten the necessary dental work to straighten her teeth. I said her family was probably too poor to pay for the dental work. He said it is a shame that someone would have to go through life without getting necessary dental work.
Unfortunately, this reaction is far too typical. Republicans often want to help the individual who is right in front of them but miss the fact that there are so many other people they don't see who also are in need. They don't understand that health care reform is designed to aid people just like this waitress. Health care reform under consideration now by Congress means this woman and many others like her will be able to have access to health care they need.
Government cannot solve everyone's problems. But government can play a role in problems that the private sector cannot resolve. For example, on their own, health insurance companies will leave many people behind. They're in business to make a profit. People who are most in need of health care are the last ones they want to insure. Republicans would attempt to help these people one by one as they learn about them. They would raise money for an individual and feel good about providing money to that single individual to get an operation. That is well and good. These efforts indicate they want to help. But they're woefully inadequate. Many times when we work together as a community - sometimes using government as our tool - we can solve problems better than taking a case by case approach.
This has been the case with Social Security and Medicare. Imagine what life would be like without these two programs. How many bake sales and individual or small group fundraising campaigns could raise the hundreds of billions of dollars necessary to provide a decent standard of living for the elderly poor? Instead, senior citizens need not rely on the generosity of their immediate neighbors (which may or may not be there).
When we talk with our Republican neighbors, understand their point of view. Don't suggest that they are necessarily heartless or cruel because they oppose health care reform. Rather, help them see that there are some problems that are larger than an individual to individual effort. That's where government role in, and regulation of, the health care industry can play a positive role for all.
Ethics reform alone not enough
Written by Richard Davis
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
Is it possible we'll get real ethics reform in Utah? The lieutenant governor recently approved the language of the ethics initiative sponsored by Utahns for Ethical Government. It is noteworthy that Greg Bell, our new lieutenant governor, sponsored ethics reform legislation himself when he was in the state legislature. But now that he is working with Gary Herbert he needs to be careful what he says and does on ethics reform. Republican party leaders in the state aren't too keen on ethics reform. They know it could place limits on the size of their campaign war chests, the gifts they receive, and their overall relationships with lobbyists. "Business as usual" may now become illegal.
However, the problem is the ethics initiative is not enough, even if it passes. Since the initiative is a statute, it can be overturned by the legislature at any time. The Republicans likely will attempt to do that.
We need not only ethics reform for legislators, but also brand new legislators!
The candidates we ran last year all supported extensive ethics reform. They were not going to conduct "business as usual." The candidates we will run next year will be much the same. Unlike their Republican counterparts, they won't bad-mouth the ethics initiative, claim they've already done yeoman work on ethics reform, or whine that they can't understand why people are questioning their ethics!
We need to vote in ethics reform next November. But in order to make it stick we need to vote out the Utah County Republican legislators who have dragged their feet on ethics reform for years. Only with a change of personnel in the legislature will we get permanent ethics reform.
Recently Elder Oaks delivered a forum address at BYU-Idaho expressing his concern about the erosion of religious freedom. He was referring to the effort on the part of some same-sex marriage advocates to force the LDS Church out of the same-sex marriage debate.
When I was growing up in Utah, Calvin Rampton and Scott Matheson were our Governors, Frank Moss was one of our Senators, and Gunn McKay was our Congressman. All were Mormon Democrats. My father was a steelworker who believed that the Democrats were the party that ended the Depression, won the War, and fought for the rights of working people.
