Candidate Spotllight

Deon Turley

Deon Turley stepped forward in 2008 to run for the State Legislature.  The campaign provided an excellent learning experience.  Shortly after the election, she was asked to fill the position of secretary to the Utah County Democratic Party and was officially elected to that position in the spring of 2009.  She relinquished this position a year later when she decided to mount a second campaign for the State Legislature.

Deon Turley is a Provo wife and mother of seven children. She has been an active volunteer in many organizations, mostly dealing with children and education. She served as Family Life Commissioner for the Utah State PTA. The term of this office just ended in June of this year. She continues to serve as Legislative Vice President in the Provo Council PTA, a position she was elected to following her term as Provo Council President. She also has served as secretary to the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, which is a non-profit organization serving colleges and universities in Utah, and volunteers occasionally with that organization.

Candidate Spotlight

Jim Greer

James “Jim” Greer and his wife have been residents of House District 59 in Orem for twenty years. Their four daughters attended public schools here in Orem, including Mountain View High School where his wife, Dr. Mary Ruth Jaeger Greer currently teaches AP Statistics, Biology, and Biotechnology.

As the spouse of a public educator, Jim has seen firsthand the challenges of adapting to the fluctuating financial support of the Legislature. He is committed to restoring funding to public education that has been siphoned from the state budget under the guise of tax breaks for big business and the wealthy. Jim will work toward establishing an educational endowment to augment annual state budgets and provide continuous funding to our public schools, regardless of national or local economic fluctuations.

We've all heard the news reports about how the governor meets with various corporations and groups, receives campaign donations from them (often in the tens of thousands of dollars), and then they get awarded some government contract.  The governor claims there is no hanky-panky going on.

I'd like to believe him.  But I don't.  

Unfortunately, the problem is wider than Governor Herbert.  Here are just a couple other examples:

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, during the voucher fight Senate Republican leaders, particularly Curt Bramble, threatened lobbyists they wouldn't get their legislation passed that year if they didn't contribute to the anti-voucher campaign.  

Republican governors have a practice of holding a fundraiser for their campaigns right before the beginning of a legislative session.  Just as governors and legislators are considering legislation affecting businesses and various interests, these business representatives are expected to give to the governor's re-election campaign.

If you are politically interested, think about the media you pay attention to.  Is it cable news network programs?  Do you follow national politics closely?  Do you know alot about what President Obama or Congress is doing?  Do you think alot about who will control the Congress next year and whether the president will be stymied in his policy initiatives?

At the same time, how much do you hear about what your state legislator is doing?  How much do you hear about what is going on at the state or local level?   Aren't the headlines and and the stories of the press primarily directed at the president and the Congress and national elections?

We have a national media that covers politics and government extensively.  With 24 hour cable network news and talk radio programs and Internet news, in addition to national newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, there is quite alot of attention to what is going on in Washington.