UT: Constitution Party Candidates Running for City Council

From the Constitution Party of Utah  via Third Party Politics:

I received this email with the good news that Hans Anderson is running for Orem City Council this November. Hans has been treasurer for Jim Noorlander's Congressional campaigns in the past and his father was H. Verlan Anderson who wrote some of the best books on proper principles of government.

We also have a few running for City Council in Duchesne and I am (David) running for Sandy City Council.

Hello All,

My good friend Hans Andersen (son of H. Verlan Andersen), has decided to run for Orem City Council in the election this November. He is a good, solid, patriotic man who understands limited government, liberty and the constitution . . .

The Real Deficit: Leadership

From the Reform Party of Utah:

Reform Party national chairman David Collison called the debate between Democrats and Republicans on raising the nation’s debt ceiling another reminder that the country is faced with a deficit in leadership on the most critical economic issues.

“The Democrats and Republicans continue to prove to the American people that they are incapable of addressing the $14 trillion debt they created,” said Collison. “This is a debt that has grown by over $10 trillion in less than 20 years, and neither party has a plan to make it stop. Well, it needs to stop. We cannot afford to keep raising the debt ceiling and sacrifice the future of our children and their children.”

Collison added that the Reform Party believes that the American economy cannot withstand the poor leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties any longer. “The only way America will balance our budget and end our out of control debt to China, once and for all, is through shared sacrifice by ALL Americans, an end to corporate welfare, serious across the board spending cuts and elimination of special interest budget projects, along with addressing serious structural economic issues in America.”

Collison noted that none of the current proposals by either side would do anything to keep the national debt from reaching $20 trillion in less than ten years and will not keep debt payments under $800 billion in the same time frame. Current government projections have payments on the national debt approaching 80 percent of all revenues in the coming years, which will make funding the nation’s military, social security and other key programs impossible . . .

Lawmakers for Sale: An Interview with Randy Miller, Founder of the Utah League of Independent Voters

As Utah is widely considered to be a Republican Party stronghold, most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that an outright majority of the state’s registered voters are not Republicans but rather Independents. The Utah League of Independent Voters aims to change that. Last week, Randy Miller, founder of the ULiV, decided to put his State Senator and Representative up for sale on eBay to raise funds for the organization and protest a political system that puts party above people. The action caused a small stir in the local press, the Independent political blogosphere and on Twitter, and even provoked a response from the Senator himself.  Randy was kind enough to provide a short interview via email.

TPID: What made you decide to put your state senator up for sale on Ebay? 

Miller: Generally, the GOP in Utah thinks they have been given some magic mandate from the people of Utah and they have taken a number of measures for the last 3-4 years to constrict the political process and set themselves up as a 'merchant in the temple' whereby to participate in the political process, one must go through them. And there are other ideological issues not in harmony with the people of Utah.

Three years ago or so they passed a school voucher bill. The next year it was overwhelmingly rejected by voters. Redistricting takes place in the legislature this year. 73% of Utah residents support an independent redistricting committee. The legislature refuses to consider the measure. It was not allowed on the agenda in committee last year. There were multiple bills this year to move to partisan elections for state school board positions while 78% of Utahns favor direct non-partisan popular elections for those positions.

So when a widget doesn't do what you want it to do you sell it at a garage sale if it has any salvageable value. So that is what I did. Besides it wouldn't hurt to get a little fund raising out of it for the fledgling independent voter movement I have started--the Utah League of independent Voters.

TPID: The auction has been taken down by eBay. What did you write on the listing? How long was it up on the site?

Miller: The listing was on eBay for probably 10 hours or so. I was out on a date with my wife when in was pulled, but it was getting about 100 page visits per hour. I listed Brad Wilson ($R) district 15 in a dutch-style auction and sold 3 of those for $25 a piece. One paypal transaction was completed before the listing was pulled. Here is the text of the original listing:

So the 2011 Utah Legislative session concluded at midnight last night. I need to get rid of some things around the house, so I thought I could list my representatives for sale on Ebay. I don't need them anymore. They evidently never needed me. I am selling Senator Stevenson because he voted for:

• SB270 (food tax)
• HB477 (to make the e-correspondence for the legislature and governor's office secret)
• HB229 (to tell the state school board to indoctrinate our children with the notion that we are a wepwesentative wepubwic and not a democracy etc. etc. whatever)
• SJR 9 (to make the state school board controlled directly by the guv)
• SB165 (to prohibit the use of electronic signatures on citizen candidate nominations and initiative / referendum petitions)

Buyer beware. This toy is broken. I wish it would be recalled. It is a representative that does not represent. Well, it represents its party well, but fo the people it is supposed to represetn, it just doesn't work. I will consider a trade for a representative that does represent the people of its district well.

All proceeds will be used to support and expand the outreach of the Utah League of independent Voters, a voice for the voters in Utah who aren't thrilled with the prospects of parties. We support initiatives like open primaries, non-partisan redistricting and are looking with interest at the initiative to roll back SB165.

TPID: What was the response? How many bids were there? What was the highest? etc.

Miller: I think there were 19 bids from 7 bidders, 2 of which were personal acquaintances and politicos who wanted to pledge some money even if they didn't win the bid. I got pledges for nearly $1000 and a commitment from them to be on the board and officially make ULiV a PAC. The highest bid was $305. For those who haven't bid on eBay for a while, that means that $305 was an increment just above the second highest bid--the highest bidder only has to pay slightly above the next highest bid. Their bid is automatically incremented up to be more than all second place bids until their bid is surpassed. Somebody evidently bid more than $305, how much I do not know.

TPID: Did you receive any complaints from your representative's "rightful" owners in the party, the professional lobbying industry or political class?

Miller: No, but somebody probably snitched to eBay. In fact the ksl.com article indicated he thought the gag was funny and laughed out loud. He even commented he wondered how much he was worth.

TPID: There have been a number of news articles on your action. What has been the response from the general public? Have you gotten many emails or phone calls? 

Miller: I have had a few people contact me wondering how they can volunteer. I've received a bunch of ‘atta boys’ from friends on Facebook, but I think more than anything I hit the funny bone of thousands of people who are thinking the same thing, why won't the legislature listen to the people instead of the narrow group of party delegates. The parties would naturally respond (and have) that we are all perfectly welcome to come participate in their caucuses and conventions as if that is the only legally contemplated way to participate at the grassroots level of our democracy.

TPID: One article reported that you were trying to raise awareness and funding for the ULIV. Has it been a success in that regard? Has web traffic gone up? Have you received more interest or donations etc.?

Miller: Yes. I have pledges from 3 donors totalling in the ballpark of $1000. Two of those donors, close friends and political activists are also willing to form a board and make ULiV a truly legal entity.

TPID: Before going to Ebay, did you consider other options such as Craig's List? Maybe you could have traded up for an Independent lawmaker? 

Miller: Somebody did recommend that I forget eBay, move and and make the listing on Craig's List. Truthfully, I don't know the ins and outs of craiglist very well. I'm not opposed to it, but I think the novelty of a real time auction had some real interest and appeal.

TPID: What is the mission of the ULIV? What does the organization have planned for the future?

Miller: The mission of ULiV is to open up the democratic process to the people to whom our government rightfully belongs--the people. We are not concerned about ideological differences. I am not concerned if the voice of the people goes in a direction that I think is imprudent or doesn't fit with my ideology. The mission of ULiV is to act as a voice for the nearly 800,000 strong, 51.5% plus majority of [Independent] voters in Utah. These independents no doubt are concerned about the partisan filters of caucuses, primaries and redistricting which are not legally contemplated to be controlled by factions through which candidates must pass before being presented to the voters. The folly of that arrangement has come to the forefront after this legislative session. Perhaps we are building enough political will to turn the corner and instill some equity into our governing processes.

TPID: Do you have any plans for another auction?

Miller: I am planning on listing the offending legislators on boocoo.com later tonight with some weasel words added to prevent the account from being suspended in like manner. The funny thing about eBay is that they suspended my account for one year for "selling Human Body Parts and Remains". Seriously, if somebody was really doing that I would hope they would call the police and terminate the account permanently. Hard to know what makes them tick.

TPID: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!

Readers should be sure to check out the ULIV’s main site as well as Randy’s blog.  As of this posting, the new auction at boocoo is still online. The current price for Sen. Stevenson is $0.01.

The American Political Zoo

Not too long after Randy Miller, founder of the Utah League of Independent Voters, began publishing a series of original independent political cartoons at the ULIV blog, I contacted him to ask if he takes requests and he was happy to oblige:

Thanks Randy!  If anyone else out there is independently-minded and artistically inclined, I'd gladly relay any of your political cartoons at Poli-Tea and TPID.  Cross-posted from Poli-Tea.

Utah League of Independent Voters Documents Media Malfeasance, Corporate Party Bias

From Alison Peek at the Salt Lake City Examiner:

Following an investigation by the Utah League of Independent Voters (ULIV), it seems some stations have specific policies about how well a candidate is doing in the race before they are invited to the debate. KUED only allows candidates with poll numbers of at least 5%. That means you got to hear Herbert and Corroon.

When you participate in a political poll as most of us have, does the pollster ever ask about anyone other than the democratic and republican candidates? How can an independent candidate even register in polling figures if they are not part of the poll?
KSL recently aired its “Sunday Edition with Bruce Lindsay” featuring a “Conversation with the Candidates,” focusing on Utah’s third congressional district. They invited Democrat Karen Hyer and incumbent Republican Jason Chaffetz. There are three other people running for the third district seat - Jake Shannon (Libertarian), Doug Sligtig (Constitution) and independent Joe Puente. They were not even invited to join the conversation.

UT: Constitution Party Candidate for US Senate Critical of 14th Amendment

From the Cache Valley Daily:

He is considered to be an expert on the Constitution and Scott Bradley of North Logan is running for U.S. Senate on the Constitution Party ticket. There is one part of the Constitution that Bradley would like to see corrected, however, and that is the 14th Amendment. . . .

"The effort to better understand the 14th Amendment," Bradley explains, "requires people to go back and look at how it was written, how it was applied originally, what their intention was. In fact, even the author of the amendment, clear back right after the Civil War, made comments to the affect that it wasn't initially performed to be construed the way it's being construed today."

UT: Electronic Signatures are Signatures

From an editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune:

It is fitting that the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah has taken the side of Farley Anderson. He's an independent candidate for governor from Paradise whom the state has kept off the ballot because it will not recognize the electronic signatures he gathered on his filing petition. Anderson will argue before the state Supreme Court next week that this was unconstitutional.

It is a basic civil right for any citizen to run for public office who meets the legal qualifications. As a matter of principle, it is ludicrous for the state to disqualify electronic signatures on candidate filings when Utah allows a person to form a corporation, file income taxes and register to vote, among other things, online.

UT: the Independent Case for Open Primaries

From a letter to the editor of the Davis County Clipper by Randy Miller, President of the Utah League of Independent Voters:

In response to the letter titled “Independents need to re-register by 22nd” (Clipper May 20). While I appreciate the author’s concern, independents only need to change their voter registration in order to vote in the publicly funded yet closed Republican primary. Independents can vote in the primary election for nonpartisan races such as school board positions without changing their voter registration. Contested Democratic races that go to a primary contest are open to all Democratic and unaffiliated voter registrants.

The statement that “Independents need to re-register” would be better stated “Republicans need to open their primaries.” Jon Huntsman has repeatedly called for this and I would use the term ‘their primaries’ loosely. Public money pays for the administration of primary elections, so they are technically not an asset of any political party.

They are assets of the people of Utah. I support political parties’ right to the freedom of association and the right to enact and carry out their own bylaws.

However, and I think most independents would agree, I do not support taxpayer dollars being used for the internal affairs of the political parties. So long as taxpayer dollars are used to administer primary elections, there should be a nonpartisan option where all ballot qualified candidates appear on one ballot. Independents for example, should not be precluded from advancing a brand X candidate in a legislative race, a brand Y candidate in a County office race, and a brand Z candidate for Governor when public dollars are being used to fund the primary election.

I encourage independents to vote in the nonpartisan portions of this upcoming primary election without changing their voter registration and to call on legislators to enact equitable accommodations and election reforms.

Randy Miller,
President
Utah League of independent Voters

UT: Media Blackout of Constitution Party Convention

From a letter to the editor of Standard:

On May 8 when the Republican and Democratic parties were having their state conventions, the Constitution Party was also holding its state convention in Salt Lake, but there was no mention of the Constitution Party Convention in the news media. When one of the candidates who had filed for office contacted the local Salt Lake paper to put an article in, he was told that they do not cover third parties. When asked how to get an article in he was told to do something news worthy. Well, that meeting was indeed news worthy.


There was not the rhetoric and noise of the other parties' conventions, but the candidates spoke stating their views, their ideas of correcting the problems of our country staying within the bounds of the Constitution. The candidates are knowledgeable, honest, and willing to do their part for their country. You will be hearing about them and from them as the election gets closer. I urge you to listen to them. Some of you say they won't have a chance. They would if they got the same opportunity as the others. The media pretty much blocks them out, but we will be working with and for them and get their views out to you as we can.

It is our opinion that the two dominant parties can't be fixed. They are mostly run by the Establishment and candidates do what they are told for the party. Scott Bradley, Constitution Party candidate for Senate, knows the Constitution and has taught it for years. Kirk Pearson, candidate for the House of Representatives, has long been involved in local politics and was working in another party, but he could see that nothing was changing and those elected to office didn't carry through with their promises. We also have a man from Morgan County who will be running for State Representative, Clyde Buetler from Mountain Green. He is a true conservative and would work hard for the betterment of our state.

We encourage you to listen to these men and spread the word. You will be hearing more from them soon.
Betty and Gordon Olsen
Morgan

UT: Do Ballot Access Petititon Signatures Gathered Online Count as Signatures?

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah will represent aspiring candidate Farley Anderson as he takes his electronic-signature battle to the state Supreme Court on June 2.In March, Lieutenant Governor Greg Bell rejected Anderson as an independent candidate for governor because a small portion of his required 1,000 signatures were gathered online.

Anderson initially planned to represent himself, but Attorney Brent Manning of Salt Lake City-based Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar LLC will now argue his case before Utah's high court on behalf of the ACLU. "I took this case with the ACLU to support and affirm the proposition in this state that access to the ballot should be fair and equal to all -- not just the powerful who are affiliated with political parties," Manning said during a Monday news conference at the ACLU's Salt Lake City office.

Utah League of Independent Voters: Independence Means People before Party

From a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake City Weekly, by Randy Miller, President of the Utah League of Independent Voters:

More than ever, we need to end or limit partisanship and partisan bickering in our state and nation. The traditional rhetoric to this dilemma has been a pitch to support Brand X or Candidate Y. We have been promised that peace and prosperity would come skipping along behind. What is needed is not a silver-bullet party or candidate.

We need to change the way we do politics. We need to reform the political process that favors “We the Parties” and excludes “We the People.”

There are three key areas in which citizens can make a lasting difference right now:

1. Voice opposition to taxpayer dollars being used for semi-closed primary elections where voters get to choose among candidates of one party only for multiple offices.

2. Visit Utah League of Independent Voters to sign the petition to end the conflict of interest within the Legislature for perpetuating safe districts. Currently there are no safeguards to prevent election rigging through the creation of safe districts by the legislature.

3. Sign the Utahns for Ethical Government petition to strip the Legislature of its “thin blue line” practices of self-policing ethical misconduct.

Randy Miller, President
Utah League of Independent Voters
Syracuse

UT: Constitution Party Candidate for Congress in CD-2

From the Prepared Christian:

Randall Hinton, who makes the compelling campaign argument, "We must stop consuming our children's future!" is one of a growing number of excellent candidates who are stepping forward to run for office all across the nation on the Constitution Party ticket in 2010. To watch Randall Hinton announce his campaign, as covered by the local media, please go to www.randallhinton.com/media/. For complete Hinton campaign coverage you are encouraged to visit the homepage of his excellent campaign website at: www.randallhinton.com.

UT: Independent Group Begins Major Organizing Drive

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

One grassroots group took advantage of Presidents Day as the opportune time to launch its own brand of revolution. "In honor of the first president, George Washington, it is the right and duty of the people to declare independence from partisan politics," said Dale Ure of The Peoples Right. Citing a section of state law that allows an organization of voters to qualify independent candidates outside the established party system, The Peoples Right announced the Utah Independent Project, with its chief aim to run a no-strings-attached candidate for governor and other high-profile offices. "We are not looking for the traditional politician," said Alton resident Sharla Christie, a regional coordinator for The Peoples Right. With that in mind, the group said that self-nominations will be rejected at its regional and statewide meetings to be held Feb. 27 at the Territorial State House in Fillmore. "We will have 70 to 100 meetings in the next two weeks," Christie said. "We don't run this -- the people do. We just give them the tools."
The group's new Web site, www.utahlive.us is key to building momentum to meet the March 19 filing deadline for state and federal races, Christie said.

UT: Statewide Libertarian Party Meeting

The Associated Press reports on an upcoming statewide Libertarian Party meeting in Utah:

Members of the Libertarian Party of Utah will gather in Salt Lake City this weekend to recruit and train candidates for public office.  In a news release, party officials say the group will meet Saturday at the Salt Lake City Library. Wayne Allyn Root, who was the 2008 Libertarian vice presidential candidate, is scheduled to address the gathering. Also on the agenda is a training session called "Running for Office 101."