Special Interests, or Why Philpot = Vouchers

Much has been made about how much of Jim Matheson's campaign funding has come from PACs.

However, Morgan Philpot's campaign has gotten help from PACs. But, they did it in a way that is nearly impossible to track just how much PAC help they are getting.

First, there was the ad run by "B Alice Baker" who usually goes by Barbra Baker. She spent $50,000 of her own money to run the radio ads.

She says that "Both parties have been at fault with ignoring how to maintain freedom, and getting bigger and taxing more and spending more." However, the only talking point she has in her ad is that Jim Matheson votes with the Democratic Leadership 90% of the time. In other words, according to her radio ad, she's voting for Morgan Philpot because he's a Republican.

Which kinda makes her statement to KSL seem fishy.

So, who is Barbra Alice Baker? She's the owner of Challenger Schools, and was a big proponent of vouchers. Remember vouchers? That initiative that Utah voters defeated by more than a 3 to 2 margin. In fact, it was defeated in every single county.

However, the biggest special interest running Philpot's campaign for him is FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is a big backer of....

Vouchers.

Another big proponent of vouchers is FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is behind those often illegally-placed Matheson=Pelosi signs you see around town, and most of the Philpot signs you see as well.

What is Morgan Philpot's position on vouchers? Well, the guy who invented the Utah Republicans' Web Communications Committee can't seem to give any communication on his web site about his view on education. Which can only lead us to assume one thing:

Philpot = Vouchers.

-Bob

GOP to Make Referendums in Utah Even Harder

Basically, the Utah Constitution has a provision to allow for the citizens to reverse the decisions of their Legislature. Current Utah Code makes this process near impossible.

It is a process that should be difficult, so as to save the process for when the legislature really oversteps the will of the people.

However, the current process is even more difficult than it should be. First, only bills that were passed by under 2/3 vote are eligible. Then the petitioners need to get signatures from 10% of the people who voted in the last Governors election. And they need to meet that 10% threshold in a majority of the counties (the number escapes me this morning). Oh, and you have a very limited time after the end of the legislative session to get it done. Then opponents of the referendum can go back and get people who signed the original petition to sign a new petition saying they had changed their minds about the first petition.

That's what makes last year's referendum 1 movement significant -- the effort it took to get it on the ballot (and that's before we get into the whole Supreme Court thing).

And, given the smackdown the legislature ended up getting, it's no surprise that they want to change the referendum law:

Monday, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, told the Deseret News editorial board that government doesn't work best when elected representatives are constantly, and frivolously, overruled by the citizens they are elected to make decisions for. In other words, the pure democracy of initiatives and referendums doesn't work well compared to the republican form of government of elected representatives.

Interesting word choice, Senator. "Frivolously?"

And, I wonder what would happen if they passed this law, and we ran a referendum against it. What rules would we have to play by?

-Bob

Utah Democratic Chair: McCain pro-voucher

It's the V-word all over again....

From Utah Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland, in an email to Utah Democrats:

It seems like déjà vu all over again

Did you see McCain last week talking voucher love in Cinncinati, bad-mouthing teachers, administrators, and elected officials, wanting to take money out of public schools and subsidize private academies?

Sounds familiar.

But Sen. Barack Obama was out there talking about investing in public education, putting money back into our schools to make them stronger. "We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands up and walking away from them," he said.

Last year, Utahns decisively rejected an ideological experiment passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by the Republican governor. It would have been the nation's most comprehensive voucher program, an idea McCain has consistently supported in the U.S. Senate.

In 1999, he proposed an amendment to authorize $1.8 billion a year for three years to establish a pilot school voucher program. Then in 2001 he pushed vouchers as an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act.

The differences between the two candidates are stark.

Sen. Obama believes in investing in our public schools as a way to provide the path to global opportunity, high-quality employment, and strong local communities. He proposes a multi-faceted approach that includes retooling NCLB, investing in early childhood education, recruiting and rewarding teachers, making science and math education a national priority, helping at-risk children succeed in school, enlisting parents and communities to support teaching and learning, and committing to fiscal responsibility.

Our likely Democratic presidential candidate reflects the sentiment of thousands of Utahns who voted "YES" to strengthening public education and "NO" to vouchers. Utahns said loud and clear that they'll control their schools. Thank you very much! Their kids aren't guinea pigs, and their futures won't be held hostage to educational experiments of radical right-wing millionaires.

If you voted against vouchers last year, I am asking you to do it again. Help us elect Sen. Obama president and strengthen public schools for every chlld. Help us keep McCain and his voucher profiteers out of the White House.

Go WEST young man

Our western neighbor Nevada is possibly going to have a voucher fight on their hands. Because it worked so well here.

From Out of Context:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a "shadowy group of right-wingers" has filed papers with the state indicating it wants to put school vouchers on the November ballot in Nevada. read it here

The group is led by Carson City conservative activist Chuck Muth, a former campaign-worker-turned-foe of Congressman Chris Cannon.

Muth told the Review-Journal that the only reason vouchers failed in Utah was that the teachers' union poured oodles of money into the campaign and the backers "didn't have the resources to compete."

Um ... not exactly.

It's true that the teachers union spent a lot of money on the campaign: $3.2 million according to disclosures filed with the state by the voucher-opposition group Utahns for Public Schools. But voucher-supporting Parents for Choice? It dumped $5.2 million into the losing effort.

-- Dan Harrie

Maybe Partick Byrne will be moving to Vegas....

-Bob

"Hell Hath No Fury Like a Pack Of Utah Legislators Scorned"

So says Paul Rolly in his column last Sunday.

One would think that Utah voters' overwhelming rejection of private school vouchers earlier this month would inject a little humility into the legislative leaders who tried so relentlessly to push the nation's first universal voucher law down the throats of their reluctant constituents.
But with the cumulative ego of the Republican-dominated Legislature reaching Godzilla-like proportions, it would take more than a thrashing at the polls to tame it. Hardly any time passed between the defeat of the voucher law and suggestions from lawmakers that tax credits be given to businesses which contribute to private school scholarships. That less-direct use of the public till to fund private schools would be just as unpalatable as the rejected law, but never mind.
There is more. The pro-voucher lawmakers have talked up the idea that the State School Board should be expanded from 15 to 29 members, resulting in one school board district for each Utah Senate district.
Politically tone-deaf legislators like Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, also have resurrected a proposal to make State School Board elections partisan. Political parties would nominate their candidates, who then would run for the board under their party labels. Going through the party convention and primary process would make school board members more accountable to their constituents, the senators claim.
Translated into English, that means they would be more accountable to the right-wing zealots who seem to control the Republican conventions, and less accountable to the more moderate people who actually comprise the majority of the Utah Republican Party.
After all, many of the convention delegates are the same folks, or at least cut from the same cloth, as the delegates to the 2000 GOP convention who booed Sen. Orrin Hatch, Gov. Mike Leavitt and former LDS Relief Society President Barbara Smith as being too liberal. Then they forced Leavitt into a primary against unknown, last-minute candidate Glen Davis. With a wider Republican electorate able to vote in the primary, Leavitt stomped the "message" candidate.

Patrick Byrne: Utahns Crazy, not Stupid

In the movie Speed, the bad guy keeps telling Keanu Reeves that he (that bad guy) is crazy, not stupid.

It's a term I have adopted. Sometimes, I use the Spainish "loco, no soy tonto."

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has decided that he misspoke when he said that we had failed a statewide IQ test.

What he meant to say was that Utahns had failed a sanity test. He makes that clear in an op-ed in today's Salt Lake Tribune.

He uses the bad state of Utah's public school system and the fact that out education costs will "double in the next 10 years" as evidence that Utahns were crazy (but not stupid) for voting against referendum 1 and "accepting the status quo."

I'd be willing to bet that most Utahns believe that Utah's public schools are bad at best. However, 62% of voters decided that a plan that increased taxes and put 100% of that tax increase into the private sector with minimal regulation, while giving public schools no incentive to improve (in fact, giving schools incentive to do even worse, a point Patrick Byrne conceded to me at Piper Down) made absolutely no sense.

And, let's be real. Does sinking $2.6 million of your personal fortune into a losing cause, blasting a Governor with an 80% approval rating, saying you'll help fund an opponent for said Governor even if that candidate is a "communist," and calling the residents of the state you call home (including many of your employees) either stupid, crazy, or uncaring REALLY sound like the makings of a sane man?

Pot. Kettle. Black.

-Bob

Vouchers in 2008, 2009, and beyond

Yeah, voucher supporters SAY they aren't going to raise the voucher issue in the 2008 legislative session, that this saber-rattling is looking forward to 2009.

However, these are the same people who weren't afraid to lie through their teeth just a month ago. I'll believe it when the session ends.

We'll continue keeping an eye on this.

-Bob

GOP and Vouchers

Yesterday's Tribune has an article about several GOP legislators and vouchers. It mentions that the Utah Democratic Party sent fliers to voters in several legislative districts reminding them that their legislator voted for vouchers.

Given that vouchers failed by better than 20 points in every one of those targeted districts, I think it was a smart move.

This was the first of several salvos aimed at certain Republicans. The Democrats in Utah are sick of sitting back and playing defense. We're running offensive plays now.

-Bob

Polygamists and Vouchers

A few days ago, the Salt Lake Tribune had a story about how a large majority of voters in two polygamist towns voted in favor of vouchers last week.

While I won't comment further on the results other than to say I told you so, here is some fact-checking that needs to be done.

The voucher law barred scholarships from being used at schools that encourage "illegal conduct" - a provision apparently aimed at making private schools in polygamous communities ineligible.

However, it's only if the schools encourage illegal conduct, not the groups. So, as long as they don't mention the P-word, it's OK. Furthermore, if it's so illegal, why doesn't the Atty General do anything?

Other provisions of the law would have been obstacles in the community, too, such as a requirement that teachers have bachelor's degrees and pass background checks and that the school's program be accredited.

Actually, there was no requirement that teachers have bachelor's degrees. They could be "highly qualified" although it would be up to the school to decide what that meant. Also, schools didn't have to be accredited. They just had to show prospective students' parents proof of their accreditation status.

-Bob

Rep John Dougall calls 62% of Utahns ignorant

Actually, he more or less calls all of us ignorant:

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
-- Thomas Jefferson

There were many valid reason to support and oppose Referendum 1. My question is: Did you read the bill (HB148/HB174)? If the answer is no, then note the quote above. When the decision is placed on your hands, your duty is to be informed. Listening to outrageous commercials (from either side) is insufficient and likely counterproductive. Attending debates and reading the voter pamphlet can be helpful. But if you didn't read the bill (and voted), you shirked your duty.

I read both bills forwards and backwards. OK, so not backwards, but I read the bills several times. All I saw was a program that helped very few Utah families while raising taxes on all Utah taxpayers. I saw taxpayer monies going into the private sector with minimal accountability to the taxpayers. I also so nothing that worked with Article X, Section 9 of the Utah Constitution.

These bills, as with all legislation, are written in legalese. I can fake legalese well enough to understand the bill, but most Utahns can't. It's a simple fact of life. However, the Office of the Lt Governor published a voter information pamphlet. I read the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's statement that in year 13 the savings would be less than the expenditures. That's on page 5.

Let's face it, 300,000 of my fellow Utahns decided for themselves that vouchers were bad.

-Bob

Why no love for the Dems from UEA?

In a comment on one of my posts yesterday, JMBell said "I day after whining is cracking me up. 29 Counties! That was a lot of work. It was nice of the UEA to throw out smoe recognition of all the hard work the Democrats did for them ... ...oh wait. They didn't."

The Utah Democratic Party knocked on over 14,000 doors since September 1, including 2800 the week before the election. Every single one of those doors received information on the voucher issue. That doesn't include anything we did the day before the election, making literally thousands of phone calls on Monday.

And this doesn't even speak to the help we gave on Tuesday, for much less than you were paying regular people.

And, I haven't even taken into account the hundreds of hours spent studying the issue, talking with our friends and neighbors and classmates and teachers. Tabling multiple events at the U, speaking to students at the Y. Holding house parties that included voucher information, and distributing the info to 25 voters per attendee, on Saturday. Attending Debates. Helping with debate prep.

And, that's just what the paid staff did. It doesn't include the thousands of hours of volunteer work done both at Dem HQ and with UtPS.

Nor does it include the fact that 100% of Democrats in the legislature voted against vouchers.

Alls I'm saying is that a little love would be nice....

-Bob

We not only won, but we went 29-0

Nobody cares if you went 42-40 if you win the NBA championship.

But, last night, Millionaire Bachelors for Choice lost every single county in Utah.

Winning in Salt Lake county was a given. Winning in Utah, Dais, and Washington Counties?

Priceless.

However, it is time to move on. Contrary to what Patrick Byrne and Richard Eyre would have you believe, Utahns did not stand up and say that they were OK with Utah's bad public schools. They just stood and said that giving unregulated money to private schools is not the answer.

Let's stand up and ask for sensible solutions to our education problems.

-Bob

SPIN

I love how the losing side spins things.

I saw on the noon news that voucher supporters were glad that they exceeded their goal of 150,000 voters.

They left out the point that 300,000 voters voted the other way.

And, the following from the Sutherland Institute (hat tip KVNU):

"Thirty-eight percent of Utahns voted in favor of Referendum 1..."

I wonder how they'd spin some other losses?

Look for a large number of new lobbyists in 2009

SLCSpin:

“Now we’ll see whether the Republican-controlled legislative branch will see the vote as the anti-voucher statement it is, or ignore the result and try to foist another version of this far-right invention on Utah’s more sensible electorate”

First off, no one can “ignore the results” because they are legally binding.

The problem is that the democratic process guarantees voucher proponents the opportunity to bring it up again.

And again.

And my comment:

Ethan:

Utahns overwhemingly said that they don’t want vouchers.

Vouchers lost big.

in.

every.

county.

In a democracy, the will of the people is done. If the legislature is smart, they will put vouchers on the back burner for a while. If not, several of them will be looking for jobs in about 360 days…

-Bob

We Are The Champions!

This is top-posted. The election night posts are below....

One of my favorite groups of all time is Queen:



And, one of my favorite concerts I have worked at is Green Day, who has a great cover of this song:

Partick Byrne: Utahns don't care about kids

Patrick Byrne just said on channel 2 that Utah voters don't care about kids.

Memo to Richard Eyre

Memo to Richard Eyre:

You made Ref 1 about choice.

Utah parents have chosen. So sorry we don't like your Oreos.

-Bob

Vic Arnold on statewide IQ test

"I'd rather be at 70-something (percent) than 30-something." -UEA Political Director Vic Arnold commenting on Patrick Byrne's IW test comment.

Vouchers Going Down In Flames, Courtesy of OneUtah

http://oneutah.org/2007/11/06/vouchers-go-down-in-flames/

Patrick Byrne: Utahns are stupid

Patrick Byrne, the millionaire bachelor behind parents for choice in education just said on FOX13 that referendum 1 was a "statewide IQ test."

Either he just called the state of Utah stupid, or he called us smart, and the Utah Legislature and himself stupid.

I think he meant the former. I think the truth is the latter.

-Bob