Dear fellow board members, I met with Senator John Valentine last Monday and among other things he asked me to contact the board members in your district 12 to vote for Democrat Brent Goodfellow over Republican Christy Achziger. He said that Brent would help us out and Christy would be intertwined so much with Margaret Dayton that it would head the Senate down a path he does not want to go. I hope this helps . Thanks for all you do. JoDee Sundberg - Alpine School District
This is a clear violation of the GOP bylaws by Senator Valentine. The bylaws state:
After the Utah County Republican Party has a nominee, any elected office holder or candidate who supports (i.e. money or in-kind contributions, posting signs, public endorsements, etc.) or runs as a non-Republican Party candidate will be ineligible to run as a Republican during the next election cycle for any Utah County Republican Party office or partisan elected office nominated by the Utah County Republican Party. (http://www.utahgop.org/documents/2005_Bylaws_as_amended_April_30_2005.pdf)
So, are the County GOP leadership finally going to get a backbone and follow the bylaws? John Valentine should not be eligible to run for office next cycle as a Republican. I strongly urge the GOP to follow their own rules!! Additionally JoDee Sundberg, Alpine School District President, endorsed the Democrat as well; and she is a GOP delegate. Although the bylaws do not prohibt a delegate from openly endorsing a Democrat, it is bad form.
18 comments:
~ at what point was this email sent?
It was sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 8:33 AM
Hey U.C.,
Innocent until proven guilty, right? I've seen this E-mail as well. My understanding is that Jodee quickly sent a follow-up message clarifying what was said and recanting the previous statement.
I know that John Valentine paid for an auto dialer for Margaret Dayton (the one with Gary Herbert's voice - maybe you heard it). He endorsed Margaret after Parley resigned and didn't renounce that endorsement when Parley jumped back in the race. John took some heat for that. I don't think there is any question that he and Margaret Dayton are friends and allies on a myriad of issues. John also recorded a personal message for Christy Achziger and paid for the auto-dialer calls to make sure it reached voters throughout her district.
John contributed thousands of dollars to Margaret and Christy's campaigns from his personal funds and in his role as a principal for the Utah County Legislators PAC and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. You can verify this on the Lt. Governor's website (the complete reports will be on-line at the end of the year).
Hope this comment will add some perspective. I do appreciate you being vigilant.
Hey Senate Site: I think Valentine is guilty. This e-mail proves it. He made a mistake and got caught, and is trying to cover his tracks.
The point is, the bylaw was broken. But nothing will happen because the GOP only follows rules when they want to.
Is that why so many people voted for the Democrats and third parties this year?
Anonymous, this email proves nothing, other than UC is willing to slander republican elected officials.
In typical fachion, all UC does is present hersey, as he has on several other occasions with Utah County legislators and elected officers of the Utah County Republican Party. What someone said is different than what someone else says you said.
According to senatesite, what was said was clarified and Jodee recanted her version. Unless (or until) Jodee provides more info or someone with firsthand facts steps forward, UC and anonymous are doing nothing more than taking cheap shots and rumormongering. But that's nothing new for this cheap shot artist and his blog.
Aaron, ceraintly you can do better than this.
Anonymous
When has the Utah County Republican Party not followed its own rules. Every action they take is ratified by either the steering committee, the central committee, or the delegates,
Sounds like nothing more than sour grapes from a sore loser. Must be tough not being able to get over losing.
Nice try with democrats and 3d party votes, these did not appear to affect any Utah County races.
There is an uncanny similarity in UC's literary style with the defunct, failed, laughable "unTruth in Politics" of Aaron Campbell.
Good grief--Republicans have to support Republicans, regardless of whether they think another candidate is better? I hope the Dems don't have a similar lockstep bylaw. It seems like a rather silly (if not disturbing) rule, apparenlty intended to squelch free thinking, or at least free expression of ideas.
Senate Site - you're right about a lot of things. Some things, however, are not quite correct.
Although JoDee did send out a second set of emails, she did not recant or clairfy; she simiply said she was sorry she sent the first email.
"When has the Utah County Republican Party not followed its own rules. Every action they take is ratified by either the steering committee, the central committee, or the delegates,"
Just because the steering committee approves it doesn't make it right.
I have to laugh at those who claim I have sour grapes over losing.
Please explain what I lost.
Try Salt Lake County if you want to see others not following by-laws.
Several Republicans endorsed Jim Winder, the Democrat, for sherrif. Randy Horiuchi has received many Republican endorsements in the past too. If the better candidate is a Republican vote for him or her, if the better candidate is a Democrat, vote for him or her. If it's a third party candidate, vote for him or her. There's nothing wrong with that.
Not all candidates from the Republicans or Democrats are the best ones. It seems that they are getting more and more beholden to special interest groups and less to the people. I hope at least we can take steps to reduce the special interests here (esp. the realtors, the teachers' union, the banks and credit union stuff, the Utah Taxpayers' Association, the Sutherland Institute (doesn't claim to be an SI group, but certainly acts like one), the voucher liberals, the Eagle Forum, the gay activists, and so on.
I am not saying there is anything wrong by voting for a better candidate. The problem here is that there are bylaws that Legislators have to follow, and there are serious questions about whether or not one was violated here.
Maybe we should support people we feel wil do the best job.
I love my association with my Party, but I also hvae great relationships with many people from the other side.
What ever happened to freewill?
Then the Utah County GOP should change its bylaws because this is about the stupidest thing I've ever read. It should be AOK for Dems to support R's and for GOPers to support Donkeys.
Sheesh! Welcome to Utah!
I thought Presidente Valentino would be smarter than this. Pretty hard to deny this. I guess the Senate Site is paid to defend the poor chap.
I think I know who you are, you are Susan Bramble. If Valentine can't run; Curt is next in line for President. It only makes sense!
Thanks for a great blog Susan!!!
The senate site is a little generous with its defense of “John”. (But then Rick works for him.) He did not donate even one cent to Christy’s campaign from his personal funds. He also controlled the senate campaign fund from which Christy’s campaign got far less then other candidates. (Yes please do verify it on the Lt. Governor’s site.)
I heard on the grapevine that she was way too conservative for him and he was afraid that she would not vote for him in leadership. I also heard that he did do the dialer.
A dialer to try and un-ring the bell he rang? In an election that ended up being so close it was a despicable bell to ring in the first place.
What is amazing was that a republican would want to support one of the most liberal legislators in Utah. (Goodfellow's ratings with Utah Grassroots, Utah Taxpayers, Deseret News) If a Republican is not conservative and supports liberal democrats, what is the difference between them and a democrat?
Nothing. Maybe “John” should run as a democrat next time.
This Utah County rule was put into place for myself, as an example. I ran against an incumbent Republican in the Utah House and defeated him 85 to 15 at convention. After that the defeated incumbent began talking about running a write in campaign to at least see that the Democrat won. Utah County GOP put this into place and it has worked well every since.
One point about this situation, it is very much a he said, she said. And when questioned about it did Jodee Sunberg retract her statement? In politics quite often people hear what they hope to hear. Clearly the words of a third person is not an endorsement from John Valentine. I don't know how many times kind words have been misconstrued as an endorsement from someone. When John puts his name on a document, auto dialer, mailer, etc for the Democrat, or puts up a yard sign, donates money or helps raise money, then he has crossed the line and deal with the consequences. He did none of these things and I am sure a quick review would demonstrate that.
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