Utah's 2011 Reapportionment

Perhaps the single most important issue impacting our state legislature for 2011 is reapportionment, or redrawing the lines which separate us all into Federal Congressional Districts as well as State House and Senate Districts due to changes in our population noted in the results of this past summer's decennial census. Republicans were in the saddle last time ten years ago and will be again in 2011. Justified criticism--yes the "g" word as in gerrymandering--was leveled at the GOP after reapportionment in 2001 and Republicans suffered a backlash from the voters. This is my attempt as a Republican to offer both some hindsight of where we as Republicans went wrong and some guidelines on our upcoming reapportionment.

Utah to (finally!) get its 4th Federal Congressional District!

Ten years ago, we counted just 800 persons shy of getting a fourth seat for Utah in Congress; that seat went to North Carolina instead. A major court battle ensued because Utah wasn't allowed to factor in religious missionaries serving missions abroad whereas North Carolina was able to count its military and civil servants living abroad. This was obviously wrong, but Utah wasn't able to persuade the courts. The entire Utah Delegation wanted then to alter the Constitution by giving Washington, D.C. a Representative coupled with a 4th for Utah. Fortunately, this horrible idea (see 2006 wonderful DN opinion by former Rep. Jim Hansen) went nowhere and instead the 800 persons short has rectified itself by Utah's continued population explosion. Because of the addition of this fourth seat, Utahns can expect some significant boundary changes when we next vote in Federal elections in 2012.

Criticism of the 2000 Reapportionment

Utah's 3 Congressional Districts changed dramatically in 2001 and resulted in a fair amount of criticism. (See BYU Universe article for before and after maps.) Noble-thinking Republicans thought that it would be good to have all of Utah's Reps co-responsible for Utah's vast land and resource areas; partisan-thinking Republicans were hoping to create a district so Republican we would be able to rid ourselves of Matheson (actually getting rid of Matheson could be considered noble as well, but not to those who don't study Matheson sly votes). Whatever the motives were, the redistricting backfired.

The first way the 2001 Reapportionment backfired for the GOP is that liberal Matheson has successfully held the seat through the 5 Federal election cycles since reapportionment. Second, it has spawned an organization called Fair Boundaries which seeks to implement a non-elected oligarchy of 11 persons to manage reapportionment. This idea is yet another way of taking power out of the hands of We the People and our elected representatives; the promoted "cure" is worse than the problem. Third, Republicans lost the media war: an example of this is a 2001 Wall Street Journal editorial entitled "The Gerrymander Scandal" applying the word "scam" to Utah.

Witness the scam Republicans pulled off this year in Utah to defeat the state's Democratic Congressman, Jim Matheson. The state's GOP legislature carved up his urban Salt Lake City district and mixed city neighborhoods with 14 rural counties. The GOP plan moved 684,000 people from one district to another, while competing plans moved fewer than one-tenth as many.

Defense of the 2001 Reapportionment: Bad locally, not atypical nationally

Not that the WSJ is the conservative paper many perceive it to be--indeed it's widely-considered the most liberal--but Republicans were unable to come up with an effective counterargument making redistricting look like a gerrymandered attempt to remove Matheson (despite some in the legislature who I believe had good intentions.) Furthermore even the WSJ editorial admitted Utah's Congressional Districts were "not the worst." To name but a few of the numerous worse examples consider the likes of: Arizona 2nd California 23rd California 38th California 39th Florida 22nd Florida 23rd Illinois 17th Maryland 2nd Maryland 3rd Massachusetts 2nd North Carolina 12th New York 22nd New York 28th Tennessee 3rd Texas 19th Washington 1st and my all-time favorite: Illinois 4th. New Jersey is perhaps the worst overall gerrymandered state: not only do all 13 districts look like a bad jigsaw puzzle, but this gerrymandered outcome was a result of one of these "bipartisan districting commissions" (similar to the Utah Fair Boundaries proposal) put into the New Jersey State Constitution by voters in 1995 (see Rutgers 2010 redistricting study).

I guess one could argue that Republicans did the same thing in a red state that Democrats did in blue states. This attitude was summarized by John Swallow who after participating in redistricting as a Utah State Legislator in 2001, then turned to make runs against Matheson in 2002 and 2004:

"People need to understand it's a political process that happens every ten years, and that in Utah, just like in Washington, majority rules." (BYU Universe)

Recently-defeated Matheson opponent Morgan Philpot also voted for the redistricting in 2001 and came up with this ultra-partisan defense:

"[Democrat Minority Leader Ralph Becker's] appeal to fairness is nonsense. The fact of the matter is that's the nature of the game. Let's wake up." Philpot added that by their nature political parties "cannot seek fairness." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, October 2, 2001; emphases mine)

Although the 2001 redistricting wasn't an issue in the 2010 midterms, hopefully Philpot will use his political clout to retract this statement and support a fair redistricting by noble-minded elected Republicans in 2011. Calling fair reapportionment "nonsense" and "a game" is exactly the kind of partisanship that will turn people away from the Republican party. While I truely believe that Swallow or Philpot would have hands down done a much better job than Matheson has, perhaps bad karma struck thrice (twice Swallow, once Philpot) as voters with sufficient memories held out this against the GOP.

2001 State Reapportionment--particularly the House--a gerrymandered mess

While I consider the Federal reapportionment to be lightly gerrymandered, the state's alignment into State House Districts and State Senate Districts was awful. To this I defer to valid points raised by Fair Boundaries organization coupled with my own observations.

• House District 69: Grand County--population 8,000 was split in half down Main Street of Moab while carving up 4 other counties
• House Districts 67, 70: The confluence of slices of rural counties
• House District 8: Herniated into Ogden after squeezing through a 5-block gap
• House Districts 53: Even though Summit County was right at the 30K population mark needed for its own rep, liberal Park City was deemed by the Republican legislature to have to be cut in half. Some of 53 protruded into Wasatch county.
• House District 25: Combines Federal Heights area with a piece of Park City. Road travel between the two areas is impossible without crossing House District 28. Although connected by land, the two areas are essentially non-contiguous
• Senate District 24: Tooele County got split into 4 Senate Districts while not boasting enough population to justify even one.
• Senate Districts 13/27: Utah County took away land Tooele county when it had plenty of population with its own borders. Instead, SE Utah County got lumped into District 27 which extends clear the the SE corner of the state.

How to Conduct a Fair Reapportionment

While Utahns don't want a silly commission, we do want fair reapportionment. We don't want reapportionment to be based on racial profiling, incumbency, or political parties. We want to be grouped into logical, compact groups. We have a wonderful state division unit which divides us called the "county." County boundaries should be the foremost consideration when dividing any redistricting line. I suggest the following rules for Utah be adhered to (specifically written for divison of the four Federal Congressional Districts, but mostly applicable to any redistricting):

1. Strike balance between keeping districts segregated (into urban and rural; more a Democratic tenant) and desegregated (all districts have both urban and rural; more a Republican tenant)
2. If a county has reached the population threshold for representation (for Utah abt 2.8M divided into 4 districts or 700,000), that county merits strong consideration for a representative whose district lies completely within the county
3. As much as possible, keep the full county intact as a voting unit.
4. Keep county breakups to a minimum: that is, break into twos is better than breaking into threes.
5. Don't string counties along like Texas 19th, keep county groups compact.

If we had followed these basic five rules, I think most of our gerrymandering problems would resolve themselves.

What the 2011 Federal Redistricting of Utah Map Should Look Like

I'm not here to draw maps, but here's an outline a basic idea from the application of these five rules to a Utah with 4 districts:

• Salt Lake County (SLC), with over 1M in population would have its own representative; it would also be the only county with its own representative confined within county lines.


• "Boomtown" Utah County with population currently (est) 560,000 will be on the verge of meriting its own representative by 2020 with a population of 727,000 (see 2008 Baseline Projections Summary, Utah Gov Office Plan & Projections). Of course, by 2020 it could be Utah at 3.6M in population is looking for a 5th Congressional District anyways. Thus for 2010, Utah County could prepare for 2020 by taking some of the population from the south end of SLC and be a compact district of its own without having to string or divide other counties.


• There would both northern and Dixie districts, considerably rural, to help balance out the two urban districts. The division between north and south would help keep the geography workable for a single representative.


• There would still be population in SLC to be absorbed by either the northern or Dixie district depending on exactly how the counties are allocated and how the SLC seat is drawn.

Utah's biggest election-night loser: Dan Jones

Typically, people who tell you "the polls are wrong" are usually wrong themselves. In Utah however we have statewide Dan Jones polling which has become so unreliable as to be ridiculous.

On their last poll for the 2nd District--released a day before early voting began--Dan Jones found with a 6% error margin Matheson to be beating Philpot by an astonishing 26 points! Yet Philpot ran a very close race tonight coming within 5 points of defeating Democrat Matheson. Keep in mind Philpot's narrow loss reversed increasing election victories including a Matheson's last 28 point victory in 2008. So how did Philpot move up 21 points in a single day before early voting? He didn't. Dan Jones was simply embarrassingly off.

And it isn't just this race Dan Jones got way off either: in Utah's other major race in the primary between Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater they showed Bridgewater with an 8 point lead with a margin of error of 4% just before voting. Lee won by 2 points.

With a track record like this, I really don't want to waste another minute reading another Dan Jones poll in my life.

Which brings me to Utah's biggest hero: the supporters of Morgan Philpot. From Alice Baker to people whose names you and I will never know--people stepped up to support a genuine patriot running in his first federal election. Morgan proved that Matheson is vulnerable and that while Morgan is a wonderful candidate, he isn't uniquely qualified to take down Matheson. Folks, we're just 24 short months away from getting rid of phantom Matheson and the lies he has used to get reelected.

So until victory in 2012, I took this snapshot earlier tonight on the New York Times election returns website with 65% reporting and Philpot in the lead to remind us all that together we can turn the 2nd District red.

Random Acts of Patriotism Preceding Mighty Miracles

There are so many noteworthy things happening out there across America as patriots begin their migrations to the polls. There are stories of election fraud, a beating, a church burning, rampant distortions of fact; and yet many good and praiseworthy things are happening. One of these noble acts which welled my eyes was the following video by a nearly octogenarian patriot in Utah's 2nd district:

The inspiring ad was reported by Holly on the Hill, SL Tribune, Rod Arquette Show, and by KSL the latter who I thought had the most thorough coverage of the story. It seems that although Alice is a citizen of above average import (being President of the prestigious, private Challenger School) it is clear she sought no recognition as such for the gift of tens of thousands of dollars in the form of radio ads to Morgan Philpot who hopes to join with other Republicans in restoring principle and fiscal responsibility to our country.

I regard this as a gift from Alice to us, the younger generations, that we might have hopes in growing up with a government that pays down its debts and balances it budgets. Alice could have bought another residence, travelled the world, or bequeathed the money to family or friends in a future inheritance. Instead she chose to perform a "random act of patriotism" in hopes of blessing us. I am indeed humbled.

In pondering the video, I thought to myself regardless of the actual vote count on Tuesday, we have won. We the people have won. We have won because people of all ages have awakened to the fact that their liberties have been destroyed and we are doing what we can to reverse course and return to our abandoned Constitution. We have won because we have monitored and held Matheson accountable for his votes and are now slowly reeling him in. I can't say yet if the time will be now or in a generation from now, but no matter how many times it takes, Matheson will be defeated. He will not stand. Alice has helped inspire us to move forward.

The odds are stacked so heavily against Philpot, neophyte to Federal elections. Heavy PAC and out-of-state money sustains namesake Matheson. And as the children of Israel pinned against the Red Sea, it will take a miracle for the seas to part for us to continue on to our divinely-appointed way. Yet we must go forward, polls not in our favor, and get our feet submersed before the miracle can happen. Are there enough Alices out there in the 2nd District who may not have money for a radio campaign, but will make a stand for our Republic and vote Philpot on Nov 2nd? I firmly believe there are more than plenty Utah Patriots out there to elect Philpot, IF the faith proceeds the miracle and the 2nd District as the Tolkein March of the Ents gets out and votes.

Do You Hear The People Sing?

Yesterday at the "Phire Pelosi" rally, towards the end they played the finale music "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from one of my fav musicals: Les Miserable.

The music reminded me of the march of We the oppressed People of our great country by a federal government that won't mind our fiscal house of order and will not listen to the will of the people in letting go of power and reducing its intrusion into our lives. A government which controls, as Morgan aptly pointed out yesterday, 2/3rds of our great state and thus controlling the very resources we need to keep our state from raising taxes on its citizens and to be wealthy and prosperous. Morgan said yesterday that Emery County alone has the resources to provide the state with most of its electrical needs, but the citizens have no hope for jobs there because it is locked up in the hands of the Feds.

I posted below the video the lyrics as I found them expressive of the deeply heartfelt passion of tea partiers, concerned citizens, and patriots from both sides of the aisle rallying to restore the power back to the people and away from backroom dealing, deceit, unfathomable bills in length and complexity, and exposure to enormous quantities power for so long it has corrupted our officials. With elections upon us and early voting about to begin (Tuesday, October 19th in Utah), won't you "join in our crusade" and vote that we might again have "freedom in the garden of the Lord"? You can still register in person at your county's office through the 18th if you have been meaning to do so.

When the votes are counted on November 2nd, let us have our leaders "hear the people sing" loud and clear like the 250-person choir below:

Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the ploughshare,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!

Tomorrow comes!

"Phans" Rally to Fire Matheson and Pelosi

A few hundred people showed up on a partly cloudy afternoon during the middle of major BYU and University of Utah football action to support Morgan Philpot and to receive the Fire Pelosi bus touring all 48 states (which ran a hour behind schedule).

I was amazed at the organization and enthusiasm of the Philpot campaign. I was first greeted by one of two (yes, two!) Philpot touring buses. An acquaintance said volunteers had applied the graphics for the bus to save money for the campaign. (Amazing. I love Utah politics which truly demonstrates how the state is the Beehive State.)

With the national bus delayed, speakers addressed the crowd including GOP Chairman Dave Hansen, Senator Orrin Hatch, Congressman Rob Bishop, and of course Morgan Philpot. Bishop was careful not to come across too harsh on his colleague Matheson, but tried to instruct us that while Matheson was like the ambulance doing the best he could with cleanup in the valley, Philpot was the better "fence on the cliff" to stop America from falling off in the first place.

Admittedly Philpot isn't a star orator like a Ronald Reagan or a Cherilyn Eagar but I think some of the women in the crowd came just to check Morgan out for his purported good looks--did I actually hear someone say he was "hot"? (Er, he is married btw...) I came more for the substance and Philpot nailed the facts: he will repeal Obamacare (Matheson refuses to do so), he will have town meetings (I can't find any town meetings Matheson is having even though he left early giving himself plenty of time to campaign), and he won't vote for Nancy Pelosi like Matheson does 93% of the time. Way to go, Morgan!

Not having much taste for the rumor mill, I thought I'd share one I heard: liberal Democrats are secretly planning to vote for Philpot because Matheson doesn't listen to them and they feel the only way to get him out is to lose this time and try a different candidate in 2012. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it would make a bit of sense. Matheson faced his first primary challenge this year as a Congressman, and there is plenty of bad vibes going around about how he would be long gone if he weren't the son of a former Governor. Maybe I shouldn't speculate, but I figured I'd let the reader decide their own filter level.

At any rate, the Philpot "Phans" have their work cut out for them. No matter how much money Philpot raises--and like every non-incumbent out there he does need money if you need to ask--he will be outspent. Yet the fact the Phans were in droves during major football games alongside improved polling proved to me that Philpot has gained huge momentum. Should Philpot be able to continue the momentum for the next three weeks, not only will he win, but by a comfortable margin as the disgust level with Matheson's vote to adjourn--without budget nor attempt at tax cuts extension--is going off-the-charts. The folks are fired up and mad and want Matheson out in a bad way. Conversely should the folks start falling asleep again or have better things to do on November 2nd, Matheson will win by a comfortable margin. Because of the intensity level, I think big turnout favors Philpot.

As far as coverage, the Salt Lake Tribune was the first to the internet although all major media were out covering the event. The AP also covered the event in advance sending stories to far away places like the Stamford Advocate (CT).

Fire Pelosi Bus Tour Coming to Utah (Updated)

This Saturday at 4:30pm at the RNC's "Fire Pelosi" Bus makes its scheduled stop at our Utah State Capitol Sandy City Hall, 10000 Centennial Parkway; the bus is visiting well over 100 cities in all 48 contiguous states. This will be a wonderful event to help support Morgan Philpot in overthrowing "lap dog" Democrat Pelosi who votes with Pelosi 93% of the time. (See my posts yesterday and Wednesday on a couple of those important votes.)

RNC Chairman Steele who has helped imbue our party with both enthusiasm and a return to our core values spoke with Greta Van Susteren on Friday's "On The Record" regarding the tour:



The Fire Pelosi Bus site also has a store where to can purchase a Fire Pelosi hat, stickers, pins, or my favorite: the Wee publican bib!

While John Dennis has raised nearly $2M to directly defeat Pelosi in San Francisco, the best way to fire Pelosi is for the Democratic incumbents to lose their majority in a big way. Particularly if you are unable to attend this Fire Pelosi tour, you may want to consider a donation now to the Philpot campaign. We are at the point now where to have the most "bang for the buck" your donation to any candidate needs to be received soon, as in the next week or two, as the campaigns need to have time to appropriately budget and spend your donation. This race is being tracked nationally by the likes of Real Clear Politics and by Dick Morris who recently claimed this may be Matheson's last term.

The Untold Story of Matheson's Vote for Obamacare

The most important race in Utah two months from now in November won't be Governor Herbert's triumph over Carroon. Instead, it will be the story of how a common man named Morgan Philpot took down a powerful political dynastic incumbent named Jim Matheson.

I'd like to introduce Jim Matheson to you. He is a politician who shrouds his votes carefully, masking his true liberal spend-and-tax philosophies. No better example of this comes to mind than Matheson's vote this spring for Obamacare.

Oh, you counter, Matheson did not vote for Obamacare (HR 3590)! Ahh, I rebut, but in the real vote for Obamacare he did vote to unconstitutionally ram it through! Please, allow me to elaborate and take us back to March of this year.

Back in the third week of March the Senate had already passed Obamacare and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was frantically twisting arms to get votes to get Obamacare passed in the House. Out of desperation, scheming, or both, Louise Slaughter (D-NY28 "gerrymandered earmuffs" and Chair of the House Rules Committee; Jill Rowland is in a good fight to unseat her) came up with an idea which would become to be ignominiously known as the "Slaughter Solution": deem Obamacare to have passed without actually voting on it. The Slaughter Solution provided Pelosi twofold objectives: first, a backup plan to pass Obamacare in case Democrats couldn't force enough of their members to vote for it on a direct vote and second, to provide Pelosi a true test vote on Obamacare to see what kind of margin they could get on Obamacare. Many Democrats were "fence sitters" knowing Obamacare was massively unpopular at home but desired to both partisanly please their leader as well as further the expansion of big government and power. Such was the case with supposed fence sitter Democrat Jim Matheson.

On Thursday, March 18th, the infamous "Slaughter Solution" (H RES 1190) passed the house 222-203 providing Pelosi a good indication about how fence sitters were sitting. Joining all the Republicans in opposing the "Slaughter Solution" were 28 so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats who are considered more moderate than the Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughters of the political world. Publicly that week even beyond Thursday, Matheson kept saying how he was undecided about Obamacare while protesters were held daily outside his office. Yet Matheson revealed his desire for government healthcare takeover by voting "aye" on the Obamacare "Slaughter Solution" which is nothing worse than passing unconstitutional Obamacare unconstitutionally (ie Congress has to actually vote on law, they can't deem it to have passed.)

Pelosi kept working the Democrats and prepping them for a Sunday--yes a rare Christian Sabbath Day vote--on Obamacare to be held when Christians across the nation would in their homes and churches praying for deliverance from Sin and Obamacare. The morning of Saturday the 20th broke and I joined a few hundred protestors on the steps of our state capitol for a Code Red Rally. Even after the rally ended Saturday mid-dayish, protestors went over to "undecided" Matheson's empty office to protest. It was after this--less than 24 hours before the vote--that Matheson announced he would be voting no on HR3590 and Pelosi got Bart Stupak to cave in on the anti-abortion measures freeing up some of the Democratic fence sitters like Matheson to vote against the leadership knowing that the vote for HR3590 "Obamacare" would be scrutinized historically far more than H RES 1190 "Slaughter Solution."

Utah needs a better Congressman than Matheson. I have better things to do with my Saturdays than to protest a supposed "fence-sitter" who has already voted for Obamacare in the worse form of the Slaughter Solution.

But let's just say I'm a nutjo who has no idea what I'm talking about. You say Matheson's vote against Obamacare HR3590 proves he is against it. I say the vote was a run for cover and can prove it with one final blow: if Matheson is SO against Obamacare that he didn't vote for it, then why doesn't Matheson sign the pledge to repeal it? Republican Morgan Philpot signed the pledge a long time ago.

The answer to that question reveals the true nature of liberal Democrat Matheson and why we must make every effort to ensure Morgan Philpot defeats him this November.

URA Endorses Eagar, Philpot, & Herbert; Shear "Demonsheep"

The Utah Republican Assembly (URA) held their endorsement convention yesterday in Orem. The URA is the Utah branch of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) self- described as "nation’s oldest and largest conservative Republican grassroots volunteer organization." It is a group Nacilbupera much admires and one bound to conservative principles, but one we have yet to claim membership.

The Daily Herald covered the the event noting the comment by Brian Halladay about "demonsheep": those professing conservative values but failing to act so. Maybe Brian saw this great Fiorina campaign video (for the record we advocate DeVore not Fiorina) but which is hilarious especially towards the end when the demon sheep is seen crawling on all fours:



Laughter aside and to Brian's point: could one of those demon sheep POSSIBLY be self-labeled "Utah's Conservative Choice" Bailout Bob Bennett? Interesting enough Bennett himself is beginning to back down from that label replacing that label in his website header with "The Fight is Now"--alluding to the fact that although he won't publicly admit it Bailout Bob, a veteran campaigner himself, knows his political life is on the line! In fact, the only places we could now find "Utah's Conservative Choice" is when you actually go in to his website to make a donation:




...and on some of his ubiquitous internet advertising:

Morgan Philpot won the endorsement for the privilege to defeat Matheson II in the 2nd District while Governor Gary Herbert won an endorsement in what should be a solid victory against Democratic tax-raiser Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon.

The most interesting and contested fight--indeed what might be a presage to the state GOP convention in May--Cherilyn Eagar won 64% of the vote after a third round of balloting to garnish the endorsement, defeating Mike Lee in the final round. This was huge for the campaign because unlike an unscientific Doug Wright poll last month from supporters publicly confessing voting multiple times for their candidates and voters from outside the state, these folks are political activists many of whom will be delegates at the state convention. Additionally, the URA voting was patterned after the GOP convention--unlike straw polling or even primary elections where all the candidates compete once with each other. Finally, we note in 2008 the URA endorsement helped Jason Chaffetz get elected.

What does this important endorsement mean?
Nacilbupera feels that this cements much of the hard work that has been going on for months at the Eagar campaign and really helps point out that the race is between Eagar and Lee with Eagar continuing to hold her lead. The choice is laid between an articulate, unencumbered, principles-tried-and-tested Eagar and a principle-professor lawyerspeak Lee who is entangled with Energy Solutions but just might be as--or at least close to as--Constitutionally-minded as Eagar; though questionably so as he has chased endorsements from the political establishment who themselves are not so Constitutionally minded. At this point, Nacilbupera feels that Williams and Bridgewater are probably not going to receive the coveted Bailout Bob Knockout Award though they each have good things we could say about their professed positions; nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise us either if Bennett were knocked out before even a Williams or Bridgewater. Yes, Burnsfans wherever you are, your Bailout Bob candidate is that bad. Now go be happy and eat some Bennettporkburgers from all that taxpayer money he's spending to buy your vote.

+++ Updates 2/21:

• Our sources tell us Eagar nearly walked away from a four-way ticket with an endorsement in the first round, garnishing 55% of the vote, Lee 32% and Bridgewater 9%. Gubernatorial and house races were decided earlier due to smaller fields of opponents.
  
• The Daily Herald article cited on this is the lead print headline on the Sunday paper which has the largest circulation of any day of the week.
  
• Blogger No Sheeples Here has a fanastic photoshop today of the great Demonsheep himself, BO