utbagpiper
Banned
imported post
Part 1 of latest GOUtah! alert.
GOUtah!
Alert #324
14 January, 2010
Today’s Maxim of Liberty:
"Gun sales are spiking. Stores are running out of ammunition. Why? Because people don’t trust their government. And the feeling seems to be mutual – your government doesn’t trust you, either, at least not with owning a gun."
-- Glenn Beck
In this alert:
* Party Caucus Meetings Coming Up
* How to Prepare for a Caucus Meeting
*
Party Caucus Meetings on March 23rd
Please mark 7:00 pm, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 on your calendars. That’s when Utah’s various political parties hold their caucus meetings. If you want to have more political power than most citizens have, you can acquire and exercise such power by attending the local caucus meeting of the party of your choice. These meetings can last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, with the typical meeting being a bit over one hour.
Those of you who are familiar with the caucus/convention process and are already planning to participate can skip the rest of this article. Those of you who haven’t participated in caucus meetings before might want to keep on reading. The only way we can prevent additional "gun-control" laws from being passed (and perhaps even eliminate some of the existing "gun-control" laws) is by electing people to the state legislature and to Congress who will work to achieve these goals, or by electing a governor who will veto all "gun-control" bills, or by persuading existing politicians that it’s to their political advantage to protect your Second-Amendment rights.
One way to do this is to make sure that you’re registered to vote, and to make sure that you vote on Election Day for candidates who’ve demonstrated an interest in protecting your rights.
A much more effective way is to get directly involved in the candidate-nominating process. This is the process by which each political party selects its candidates for public office during an election year. Utah is fortunate to be one of the few states that still have an old-fashioned caucus and convention system for selecting candidates. This enables concerned citizens to get directly involved in determining who will be on the ballot in November.
Often, two or more candidates from the same party will file to run for a given office. Thus, each party must select one of those candidates to be placed on the ballot.
Within a given political party in Utah, candidates for local office are chosen at that party’s county convention, as are most candidates for the state legislature.
Candidates for Congress and for statewide office (such as governor, attorney general, etc.), as well as state legislative candidates representing districts that straddle a county line, are chosen at a party’s state convention.
Thus, party conventions in Utah are important, and the people (known as "delegates") who participate and vote in these conventions carry an enormous amount of clout with the politicians. For example, if you live in the district of a state senator who’s leaning the wrong way with regard to a particular gun-related bill during the legislative session, and you write a letter to him explaining that you are a delegate to his party’s county convention and that you want him to protect your gun rights, he’ll probably pay a lot more attention to your letter than he would if your were just an ordinary voter.
So who gets to vote at these conventions? You do, if you manage to become a state or county delegate for your party. You can run for a delegate position by participating in your local caucus meeting on March 23rd. This is actually easier to do than most people realize. If you become a delegate, you’ll have a chance to meet the various candidates from your party. If there’s more than one candidate from your party running for a given office (which is often the case), you’ll get to vote at the convention to select one of those candidates to be on the ballot in November. These conventions take place on a Saturday (usually in late April or early May during an election year), and they typically last a few hours. They’re actually quite fun. Sometimes you even get a free lunch.
How to Prepare for Your Caucus Meetimg
Different parties have their own rules as to who may participate in their caucus meetings. Some parties require you to be a registered party member if you wish to vote in the caucus meeting, but they’ll allow you to register on the spot if you’re not already registered. Other parties merely require that you show up at the meeting and be of voting age. Even if you don’t qualify to vote at a caucus meeting, you can still show up and sit in on the meeting and learn how the process works.
Once you’ve decided which party to affiliate with, if you haven’t already, you’ll need to figure out your voting precinct and then find the location of your party’s caucus meeting for that precinct.
You can get your current precinct number from your voter registration card, or from the Lieutenant Governor’s website, or by looking in the government pages of you local phone book and calling your county clerk’s office.
Constitution Party http://www.cputah.org
Democratic Party http://www.utdemocrats.org
Libertarian Party http://www.lputah.org
Republican Party http://www.utgop.org
If you’d like to run for a delegate position at your caucus meeting, it’s a good idea to prepare a little bit. Caucus meetings vary in size, ranging from just a couple of people to 20 or more. You might want to contact your party’s precinct chairman ahead of time and introduce yourself, and mention that you’d like to run for state or county delegate. If the meeting is going to be a large one, it can help to bring a friend or neighbor who lives in the same precinct and who would be willing to nominate you for a delegate position. If there are multiple people seeking the same position, you might wish to have a brief speech prepared. An even better solution is to write up a one-page blurb about your political views and why you think you’d be a good delegate, then put copies of your blurb on the literature table at the caucus meeting or hand them out to the participants. Quite often, however, these meetings are small and informal and the chairman might simply ask people to raise their hands if they’re interested in a delegate position. This is especially likely to be the case in a mid-term election year such as 2010.
If you attend your local caucus meeting and run for a delegate position, there’s a good chance you’ll be elected as a state or county delegate (or even both), and even if you don’t get elected, you’ll get your feet wet and you’ll feel much more confident about running for a delegate position in 2012.
Note: Actually, it isn’t always true that the final selection of a candidate occurs at the convention. If no single candidate for a given office gets at least 60% of the delegate vote at the convention (which happens occasionally), he and the second-place candidate will face off against each other in a primary election in late June.
Part 1 of latest GOUtah! alert.
GOUtah!
Alert #324
14 January, 2010
Today’s Maxim of Liberty:
"Gun sales are spiking. Stores are running out of ammunition. Why? Because people don’t trust their government. And the feeling seems to be mutual – your government doesn’t trust you, either, at least not with owning a gun."
-- Glenn Beck
In this alert:
* Party Caucus Meetings Coming Up
* How to Prepare for a Caucus Meeting
*
Party Caucus Meetings on March 23rd
Please mark 7:00 pm, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 on your calendars. That’s when Utah’s various political parties hold their caucus meetings. If you want to have more political power than most citizens have, you can acquire and exercise such power by attending the local caucus meeting of the party of your choice. These meetings can last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, with the typical meeting being a bit over one hour.
Those of you who are familiar with the caucus/convention process and are already planning to participate can skip the rest of this article. Those of you who haven’t participated in caucus meetings before might want to keep on reading. The only way we can prevent additional "gun-control" laws from being passed (and perhaps even eliminate some of the existing "gun-control" laws) is by electing people to the state legislature and to Congress who will work to achieve these goals, or by electing a governor who will veto all "gun-control" bills, or by persuading existing politicians that it’s to their political advantage to protect your Second-Amendment rights.
One way to do this is to make sure that you’re registered to vote, and to make sure that you vote on Election Day for candidates who’ve demonstrated an interest in protecting your rights.
A much more effective way is to get directly involved in the candidate-nominating process. This is the process by which each political party selects its candidates for public office during an election year. Utah is fortunate to be one of the few states that still have an old-fashioned caucus and convention system for selecting candidates. This enables concerned citizens to get directly involved in determining who will be on the ballot in November.
Often, two or more candidates from the same party will file to run for a given office. Thus, each party must select one of those candidates to be placed on the ballot.
Within a given political party in Utah, candidates for local office are chosen at that party’s county convention, as are most candidates for the state legislature.
Candidates for Congress and for statewide office (such as governor, attorney general, etc.), as well as state legislative candidates representing districts that straddle a county line, are chosen at a party’s state convention.
Thus, party conventions in Utah are important, and the people (known as "delegates") who participate and vote in these conventions carry an enormous amount of clout with the politicians. For example, if you live in the district of a state senator who’s leaning the wrong way with regard to a particular gun-related bill during the legislative session, and you write a letter to him explaining that you are a delegate to his party’s county convention and that you want him to protect your gun rights, he’ll probably pay a lot more attention to your letter than he would if your were just an ordinary voter.
So who gets to vote at these conventions? You do, if you manage to become a state or county delegate for your party. You can run for a delegate position by participating in your local caucus meeting on March 23rd. This is actually easier to do than most people realize. If you become a delegate, you’ll have a chance to meet the various candidates from your party. If there’s more than one candidate from your party running for a given office (which is often the case), you’ll get to vote at the convention to select one of those candidates to be on the ballot in November. These conventions take place on a Saturday (usually in late April or early May during an election year), and they typically last a few hours. They’re actually quite fun. Sometimes you even get a free lunch.
How to Prepare for Your Caucus Meetimg
Different parties have their own rules as to who may participate in their caucus meetings. Some parties require you to be a registered party member if you wish to vote in the caucus meeting, but they’ll allow you to register on the spot if you’re not already registered. Other parties merely require that you show up at the meeting and be of voting age. Even if you don’t qualify to vote at a caucus meeting, you can still show up and sit in on the meeting and learn how the process works.
Once you’ve decided which party to affiliate with, if you haven’t already, you’ll need to figure out your voting precinct and then find the location of your party’s caucus meeting for that precinct.
You can get your current precinct number from your voter registration card, or from the Lieutenant Governor’s website, or by looking in the government pages of you local phone book and calling your county clerk’s office.
Constitution Party http://www.cputah.org
Democratic Party http://www.utdemocrats.org
Libertarian Party http://www.lputah.org
Republican Party http://www.utgop.org
If you’d like to run for a delegate position at your caucus meeting, it’s a good idea to prepare a little bit. Caucus meetings vary in size, ranging from just a couple of people to 20 or more. You might want to contact your party’s precinct chairman ahead of time and introduce yourself, and mention that you’d like to run for state or county delegate. If the meeting is going to be a large one, it can help to bring a friend or neighbor who lives in the same precinct and who would be willing to nominate you for a delegate position. If there are multiple people seeking the same position, you might wish to have a brief speech prepared. An even better solution is to write up a one-page blurb about your political views and why you think you’d be a good delegate, then put copies of your blurb on the literature table at the caucus meeting or hand them out to the participants. Quite often, however, these meetings are small and informal and the chairman might simply ask people to raise their hands if they’re interested in a delegate position. This is especially likely to be the case in a mid-term election year such as 2010.
If you attend your local caucus meeting and run for a delegate position, there’s a good chance you’ll be elected as a state or county delegate (or even both), and even if you don’t get elected, you’ll get your feet wet and you’ll feel much more confident about running for a delegate position in 2012.
Note: Actually, it isn’t always true that the final selection of a candidate occurs at the convention. If no single candidate for a given office gets at least 60% of the delegate vote at the convention (which happens occasionally), he and the second-place candidate will face off against each other in a primary election in late June.