John Oliver Takes On Utah GOP Chairman's Industry

Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans owns Checkline, a payday lending company.  Keep that in mind when you watch this segment from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight:

Republicans Led By Loan Shark, I hope he makes winning every race "Number 1" Priority

Sltrib.com, today:

Former Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairman James Evans won a convincing victory Saturday as the new Utah Republican Party Chairman, capturing nearly 60 percent of the vote in the three-way race. 

Evans becomes the first African-American chairman of the state party. 

Evans owns Checkline, a chain of payday lending stores.

He served as Salt Lake County Chairman from 2005 to 2009, and touted that experience and record as grounds for electing him.

All I can say is "Yay!"  Not only will it bring the payday loan industry back into the limelight (watch for some pro-payday loan stories in the upcoming session, I guarantee it), but there is another reason.  In 2007, as he won reelection as Chair, Mr Evans said that his "Number 1" priority was to defeat Peter Corroon in 2008.  Corroon went on to recieve over 65% of the vote.  In 2006, Chairman Evans said his top priority was defeating County Clerk Sherrie Swenson.  Swenson won 57% of the vote.  He also personally help the Republican incumbent Sheriff (Presumably more than a chairman usually personally helps a candidate) in 2006.  Challenger Jim Winder walked away with only 63.75% of the vote.

If this is the record he ran on, I'm beginning to wonder if Democrats hacked the GOP voting system today.

Because really, in politics, it's all about winning.  And Democrats need all the help they can get.  And James Evans is a gift from the heavens.

-Bob

SuperDell, PayDay Loans, and Campaign Finance

Instead of going with traditional campaign financing, SuperDell is planning on using ads he will be in for a title loan company to promote his campaign. I assume he will use the money they are paying him to pay for the other things a campaign needs.

Because if there's one industry that can be benefited by being endorsed by a crazy person, it's the title loan/usury industry.

Speaking of which, isn't that the industry where Salt Lake County Republican Chairman James Evans made his money?

Anyway, this plan by SuperDell appears to be legal, because as long as you file all of the paperwork on time, anything goes.

I'm Bob Aagard, and I approved this message, because I love you.

New Holliday Reading List

The SideTrack sends us this from DailyKos:

The Washington Post has an op-ed from Donald Rumseld on, "The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez." Yes, because when you're looking for advice on foreign policy, you always want to go to the man who predicted the war in Iraq could:

...last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Coming up next week: Michael Vick and, "The Care And Feeding Of Your Dog."

And, it got me to thinking of some other books I could recommend for people, maybe the PoliSci students I work with, to read on their Holliday Break:

-The Political Brain by James Evans
-How to Win Friends and Influence People by Patrick Byrne (Sequel to How to Run a Prophet-Making Company)
-A Brief History of Time by Paul Mero
-Where's Waldo? by George W Bush
-Flop: How John Kerry Became President of the United States by Mitt Romney
-If I Did It by Larry Craig
-How To Be Funny by Rob Miller
-Where the Wild Things Are by Condi Rice
-The Scriptures by Chris Buttars
-Get Others to Pay for Your Mistakes by Greg Curtis
-No Mud on Me by Hillary Clinton

SLCounty Republican Chair Hates the Troops

The Chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party is James Evans. His real job is as owner of some of those same-day loan outfits.

The same ones that won't lend to our our military personnel.

To James Evans: Bring it On!

I was going to write a post yesterday after reading the following in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Watch out, Peter Corroon. The Republicans are coming.
The Salt Lake County Republicans hope to outrun the popular mayor in the polls next year under the direction of James Evans, re-elected party chairman during Saturday's convention at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy.
With occasional barbs about Corroon's handling of the Real Salt Lake stadium deal, Evans said his "No. 1" priority is to defeat the Democrat in the next election - a position that resonated with hundreds of county conservatives.

The post was basically going to tell him to go ahead, because Mayor Corroon has major support here in Salt Lake County.

Then, I read this article in today's paper:

The mayor's approval rating now hovers near 68 percent in the county, with his numbers soaring to a Huntsman-esque 77 percent within Salt Lake City, according to a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll.
His negative rating never has topped 8 percent, Jones said, a number that could make Corroon "hard to beat."

Shaun and I were at the Salt Lake County Republican Convention last year where Mr Evans decaired his number one priority to be unseating County Clerk Sherrie Swenson. Ms Swenson won by 20 points. Meanwhile, the incumbent Auditor lost by half a point, and the incumbent Sheriff ("helped" by James Evans himself) lost by a nearly 2-1 margin.

So, Mr Evans, Go ahead. Go after the most popular politicians in Utah. You'll just make the Democrats' jobs a heckofalot easier.

-Bob

Lip Service

Ethan at SLCSpin has a quote from the DNews from James Evans, Chair of the Salt Lake County Republicans:

"The Democrats are the ones that keep championing diversity, so why haven't they gone out and recruited minority candidates?" asked Evans, the first black man to chair the county Republicans. "It's another example of paying lip service."

Maybe I should remind Chairman Evans about lip service, and how that's all the Republicans give.

Or, should it be a lesson on hypocracy?

-Bob