What an exciting year we have ahead!  Sixteen Democratic candidates from Utah County will be on the November ballot.  By contrast, there were 13 candidates in 2008.  We have candidates running for the county commission, the state house, the state senate, and Congress.  I am pleased that so many good people from Utah County have stepped forward to make a difference in county, state, and federal government.  

These Utah County Democrats cover nearly every house district, every Senate district, both county commission seats up this year, and the 3rd District Congressional seat.  We'll be running aggressive campaigns across the county.  Let me introduce our county wide candidates.

Karen Hyer is running for the 3rd District Congressional seat currently held by Jason Chaffetz.  Karen is a former rancher, business consultant, and university professor.   She is not a career politician.  She's a citizen who has become fed up with partisan gridlock and the antics of our current member of Congress.  Unlike her opponent, she has the maturity and experience to be a member of Congress.  She represents Utah County values of hard work (not showmanship), reasonableness (not extremism), bipartisanship (not shrill partisanship), and action (not rhetoric).

The caucus race is demonstrated in chapter 3 of Alice in Wonderland. I have, unfortunately, not had the opportunity to see the new movie production of the Lewis Carrol classic so I cannot say whether "caucuses" will get much popular recognition by movie-goers.

I have been trying to decide if Mr. Carrol's portrayal of the caucus race had any relevance to the caucuses that will be held all over Utah later this month. I decided there was a loose connection. It is that everybody wins. And what they win probably comes out of their own pocket!

I think we all understand that we are doing our patriotic duty by electing wise leaders who will represent us well in government. However, if you think you are doing your patriotic duty simply by voting in November, you are only partly right. Your participation in the caucus meetings is where democracy begins and where you have the greatest influence on public policy.

Several Utah County Democrats filed on Friday as candidates for the
county commission or the state legislature.  More will be filing this
next week. Our thanks to them for stepping forward to serve.

As of this writing, we've had several candidates announce they will be running this year:  

Don Jarvis announced first that he would run again in House District 63.  Steve Clark is not running again, which creates essentially an open seat.  That levels the playing field since Don won't be running against an incumbent who has gone through an election in the district.  

Steve Baugh announced he was running again in House District 58.  Steve won 41 percent of the vote last year against Stephen Sandstrom.  Like Don, Steve will be working hard to win this year to retire Sandstrom so the issues of jobs and education that voters care about can be addressed by their representative.  That shouldn't be such a novel concept for a legislator to represent all of their constituents rather than just a small number of delegates from one party, but unfortunately it has been in Utah County.

Deon Turley also announced she is running again in House District 61.  She has learned alot from the experience and, like Don and Steve, will approach this campaign as a seasoned candidate who knows how to win.

The Central Committee of the Utah County Democratic Party will convene its annual meeting on Thursday, March 11, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., at the Provo City Library (room 201), 550 N. University Avenue. 

County Chair Richard Davis will present a State of the Party presentation and provide time for discussion and input from the Central Committee.

Central Committee members include the Executive Committee, Steering Committee (Exec Committee and district chairs), precinct chairs, Utah County residents who are current and previous public officials who have won election as Democrats to public office in Utah County, and currently-nominated Democratic Party candidates for public elected office in Utah County. Precinct chairs who cannot attend are invited to send their precinct vice chairs to represent them. 

Those who are not members of the Central Committee are also invited to attend but will not be permitted to vote on business.