Governor Herbert is Inept

Yesterday, Curtis over at Blue in Red Zion asked "Is Governor Herbert Inept or Corrupt?"

I'm going to side with inept.

There were the voting machines he selected when he was Lt Governor and in charge of elections. You know, the ones that the state has to pay Diebold $1.3 Million+ for reprogramming/tech support every time we pull them out of the closet for an election, not to mention the extra training for poll workers. And the extra poll workers.. The ones that a Central Utah County Clerk lost his job over for showing just how easy it is to hack the computer?

And then there was the extended family members (who had previously registered in other parts of the state) of a candidate for County Sheriff in Dagget County that all registered to vote at the same residence. And that residence was a gas station. And the Dagget County Attorney forwarded the complaint to then-LG Herbert's office for further investigation, where it died. Because a dozen people can live in a gas station.

And then there was the "new" web site for looking at financial reporting documents. The one that was twice as complicated as the old one, and didn't work with most web browsers. It was easier to take a UTA Bus with two transfers from my house to the State Capitol Building to get the info than it was to get it online. A system that was easy to fix for LG Bell.

Then, we have Herbert's reaction to Corroon's Education plan. His first reaction was to point out that Peter and Amy Corroon chose to send their kids to private school, totally missing the fact that Gary Herbert supports giving people like the Corroons taxpayer money to send their kids to private school. After this was pointed out (and was accused of playing the religion card), Herbert actually played the religion card by saying that Corroon wanted to take away LDS Seminary. No constructive comments on the merits of the actual plan have come from the Herbert campaign yet. And yet he's making "focusing on the issues" part of his campaign platform.

Then, there is the fact that on three different occasions major campaign donors, right around the time they made their large campaign donations, had private meetings in the Governor's office. And all three times said donors had major business coming before the state. Even though it may not be illegal, it doesn't mean it's right (legally, I can run down State Street in a Speedo, but it definitely isn't right).

But, his reaction to this issue smacks of ineptness. In the press conference, Herbert admitted to not knowing any of these major deals were going on. Including the biggest road project in the history of the state.

So, if Governor Herbert is that out of touch with what's going on in the state, who is running the show?

from Curtis's post:

By being utterly unaware of how his state is handling the largest public works project in history, it shows that Herbert is asleep at the wheel, with no concept of how important the project is to the people of the state of Utah.

Furthermore, if he can’t see how such large donations might look bad around election time, he is showing an astounding amount of stupidity. Finally, if he can’t communicate these facts to his own campaign staff of perhaps 30 or 40, why would we want him running our state?

-Bob

Chicago-style Pay-to-play: Does Greg Bell know what he's talking about?

Does Greg Bell even know what he's talking about? Take this quote from KSL:

Lt. Gov. Greg Bell labeled the concerns raised about Herbert as "entirely a smear campaign based on innuendo" and said voters should reject the negative turn the gubernatorial campaign has taken. "In Chicago politics, they call it ‘pay for play.' But we're not in Chicago and these kinds of tactics ought not to be tolerated by Utah votes."

yes, LG Bell, Pay to Play should not be tolerated here in Utah. However, a "smear" campaign is not the definition of pay to play. In fact, it's far, far from it.

In politics, pay to play refers to a system, akin to payola in the music industry, by which one pays (or must pay) money to become a player.
Typically, the payer (an individual, business, or organization) makes campaign contributions to public officials, party officials, or parties themselves, and receives political or pecuniary benefit such as no-bid government contracts, influence over legislation, political appointments or nominations, special access[6] or other favors. The contributions, less frequently, may be to nonprofit or institutional entities, or may take the form of some benefit to a third party, such as a family member of a governmental official. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_to_Play)

Oops, sounds like exactly what is happening. Companies are donating money to Gov Herbert, and getting Government contracts.

Stop whining that Peter Corroon is saying you are bad at your job. Start trying to show us where he is wrong.

Hey, LG Bell: Who's making the personal attacks?

Dear Lt Governor Bell:

I just saw the ad you made on behalf of your campaign. In it, you mention that Utahns want a discussion on issues, not personal attacks.

Saying someone is doing a bad job is not a personal attack.

And, for that matter, when someone comes out with an education proposal, and you say "What does he know about public schools? He sends his kids to private schools." That is a personal attack. An attack for making a choice that Gov Herbert used to support.

And then trying to say that you opponent is trying to take away Seminary? Another attack, not a substantive debate on the issues.

So, stop lying, and let's have a real debate.

-Bob

Republicans Guilty of Class B Misdemeanor, Lt Gov Bell Negligent in duties

According to this article in today's Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake County Republican Party forgot to file their campaign disclosure on January 10 of this year.

However, since there is no penalty in state code for this, we'll let it slide. In fact, I should blame Democrats for not pointing this out all this time. I mean, if you can't do something as simple as fill out campaign disclosure reports, what makes you think you can lead? And if you can't bother even looking to see if the opposition has done their duty, are you any more competent?

But, that's another subject for another day.

You see, the Salt Lake County Republican Party also forgot to file their financial disclosure report that was due August 31 (this past Tuesday).

Big deal?

According to state law, it kinda is:

20A-11-508 (Superseded 01/01/11). Political party reporting requirements -- Criminal penalties.
(1) (a) Each registered political party that fails to file the interim reports due on August 31 or before the regular general election is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.

According to the Utah Sentencing Commission, "lass B misdemeanors are punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000."

But, the Salt Lake County Republicans aren't the only ones who have violated this provision:

20A-11-508 (Superseded 01/01/11). Political party reporting requirements -- Criminal penalties.
(1) (a) Each registered political party that fails to file the interim reports due on August 31 or before the regular general election is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.
(b) The lieutenant governor shall report all violations of Subsection (1)(a) to the attorney general.

However, the statement of the Lt Governor's office? (from the Trib article)

But there appears to be some question about whether county political parties are required to file financial disclosures at all. Mark Thomas, director of elections for the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, said the law is so ambiguous that county parties could make a compelling case about why disclosure deadlines don’t apply to them.

“It is not explicit in the code that they need to file,” he said

However, as we saw before, the Lt Governor's office job is to forward the complaint to the Attorney General's office, not to wave it off as a simple mistake. If the AG wants to make the ruling that the law is vague, let him. That's his job, not yours.

I want a Lt Governor who will do their job, and properly enforce election law. That's why I'm voting for Sheryl Allen for Lt Governor.

-Bob

A response from the Lt Gov's Office

A response to the email I sent this morning:

Mr. Aagard,

Thank you for contacting the Lieutenant Governor's Office and for your concern.

You are correct that there are some disclosure reports not online. We try very hard to get the reports online as soon as possible, but you must understand that we received hundreds of paper reports and some of these reports have thousands of transactions that must be entered by hand into the website.

Unfortunately, entities are not required to file electronically, they are allow to send in a paper report which must be hand entered.

The law allows our office seven days to get the reports available on the website, we usually get them online within a few days but sometimes it does take the full seven days.

We do however, make every effort to make sure folks have access to all reports, we will email, fax, or mail copies of reports to anybody who asks. I have attached all of the unentered reports as of this morning.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I really appreciate your concerns, I believe there are not enough people like you who would even care to look at our website and ask questions.

Thank you,


Mark J. Thomas
Office Administrator
Lieutenant Governor's Office

Dear LG Bell: Fix Herbert's Mistakes,Please

Dear Lt Governor Bell,

Congratulations on your new job. I hope that you are successful in being a moderating voice in the Executive branch of our government. I realize that you have only been in the job for a few days, but there is a problem that needs to addressed soon.

You see, Political Action Committees (PACs) had to file financial disclosures by this past Monday. I assume most all of them did.

I can only assume this because the website where I can find the information doesn't have it yet. Every PAC I've looked at says "No Reports Have been filed for 2009"

If I had the resources of a newspaper, I could go hang out at your office and get the information I wanted. Like the fact that the Attorney General's PAC has spent a quarter of a million dollars, or that Peter Corroon has raised $40,000 in a PAC that may become his campaign funds if he decides to run for Governor.

The purpose of the disclosures is so that the citizens can have the information. However, it seems like the information is harder for the public to get than it should be in 2009.

-Bob Aagard
Holladay

[update: I got a response here]

Herbert/Bell: Nobody Hates Them. Nobody Knows Them Either.....

Check ou this KSL story about Lt-Gov Designate Greg Bell and Soon-to-be Gov Gary Herbert:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Some highlights:

An overnight Dan Jones poll for KSL-TV and the Deseret News shows of 214 Utahns, 36 percent approve of Bell as the next lieutenant governor, 6 percent disapprove, and 58 percent don't know

Fifty percent of Utahns polled approve of Herbert's job as lieutenant governor, 9 percent disapprove, and a fairly large percentage--41 percent--say they don't know.

And the money quote:

"I think it bodes fairly well for us. Greg Bell isn't one of the A-listers. He's a descent guy who is affable, but he's part of the Republican mess that's up there," said Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party.