Getting To Know GOP Chair Candidate James Evans

James Evans is a former Salt Lake County Chair and State Senator who along with Aaron Gabrielson and Marco Diaz are running for Chair of the Utah Republican Party.  Evans is a self-described “conservative” (Facebook).  Elections are now less than two weeks away on May 18^th. 

VOTING RECORD—SPONSORED BILLS

One of the strongest indicators of one’s political views is one’s voting record and Evans had a term as a State Senator during 2003-4.  An examination of his voting record is much more insightful into Evans’ political leanings rather than a trite label of "conservative."  In a careful examination of all of Evans sponsored bills as a Senator there are a number of bills which seem rather neutral, but I find none that in my estimation I would consider fiscally conservative, that is tending towards any of the following:  reducing government spending, lowering taxes or fees, reducing government regulation and bureaucracy, or reduction of bonds and debt.

Conversely, there were four that egregiously seemed to stand out as antithetical to fiscal conservatism:

·         (2003) SB129 Criteria in Awarding Bids Failed to pass, but attempted to restrict government contracts over $100K to companies with 15+ employees, an apprenticeship program, and health insurance.   More unnecessary regulation and anti-small-business.

·         (2003) SB140 Prescription Drug Assistance Program  More regulations for pharmacies to require promotion of public freeloading on drug programs.

·         (2004) SB135 Center for Multicultural Health, with help from Democrat House member David Litvack, this appropriated $100K for a pork-barrel style spending for the creation of an unneeded Multicultural Health Center.  In 2011 the legislature incorporated the Center into the Utah Office of Health Disparities while the appropriation was continued.

·         (2004) SB230 Reading Achievement Program Evans tried to appropriate $30 million, but in the fourth substitute successfully appropriated $15 million for a new reading program.

SB230 was in my estimation the most damaging of all the Evans-sponsored bills.  It grew the public education bureaucracy without accountability and is a classic case of money being thrown at education and hoping it stuck.  Additionally, it also authorized school districts to raise property taxes for this program so yes, it is fair to say that everyone including Evans who voted for SB230 voted to both increase spending and raise taxes.

 In a peer review by the US Dept of Education the lack of program accountability was exposed:

"Although the overall objective of the state’s K–3 Reading Improvement Program is to ensure that all Utah third graders “read at or above grade level,” this term and its measurement have not been specifically defined."

In other words, we threw $15M at reading without ever defining a measurable goal. The report concluded:

"After the implementing legislation was passed in 2004, the K–3 Reading Improvement Program was immediately embraced, with all 40 of the state’s school districts signing on. As a result, no control group exists for comparison, and it is impossible to contrast participants and nonparticipants. Thus, any relationship subsequently identified between the program and student achievement outcomes is correlational at best and does not imply that the program caused the results."

While I grant Evans freedom to use whatever label he desires in describing his ideology, based on the purest form of measurability we have--bills Evans voluntarily sponsored and initiated--I can see no iota of fiscal conservatism or financial restraint from his actions as a Utah State Senator with which I would ever voluntarily apply the term to him.

VOTING RECORD IN GENERAL

A pair of conservative Utah watchdog groups compiled their own measurements of Evan’s record which examined not only bills Evans sponsored but his record as a whole:

·         Grassroots.org in 2004 ranked Evans third-from-bottom GOP lifetime.

·         UT Taxpayers Association in 2004 named Evans in a list of ten most Liberal Republicans.  They also ranked Evans below average in 2004 with a 69% vs. an average GOP 71%.

CHARACTER & LEADERSHIP

One could certainly make a point that electing a GOP State Chair has less to do with one’s philosophy and much more to do with the talents, abilities, and leadership which comprise one’s character.  To best judge Evans’ character & leadership I chose to examine Evans’ record as Salt Lake County Chair 2005-09, the closest-fit position to the one he currently seeks.

During this time as Chair, Evans compiled a lengthy list pointing to a person of irascible character and tactics in dealing with his opposition. 

·         Evans played the race card in 2006 asking the SLC council to censure SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson of a “racial remark” when the Mayor used the term “slavish” to describe partisan, blind obedience to leaders including Evans who supported policies in violation of fundamental human rights. (Deseret News)  Funny, I feel Obamacare is slavish, yet I love the skin color of our President.

·        Evans pushed a heavily edited video on the media right before the Sheriff’s race in 2006 to imply the Democrat candidate wanted to “do an ass-kicking or shoot someone” when in reality the Sheriff was trying to model bad behavior.  (KSL) The tactic backfired and the Democrat won in a landslide as a result of Evans’ lie to the public. (SLTribune)

·         Longtime Utah GOP activist and former candidate Mike Ridgway demonstrates with recorded documentation that Evans played a role in lying to police to get Ridgway arrested. (YouTube)

·         Evans filed a frivolous complaint to the IRS asking for removal of the NAACP’s tax-exempt status after the NAACP protested certain remarks of GOP Senator Buttars and expressed interest in seeing his defeat in an election.  One blogger correctly predicted that “zero, zilch, nada” would become of Evans' complaint and quoted the law that such organizations “may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity.”  The blogger identified the impression left on the community as the result of Evans' frivolity:  “[Republican] gutter politics” (WCForum)

·         In the rumor & gossip column it has been speculated rather humorously that those who removed all of a major Democrat candidate’s signage in a single night had ties to Evans (One Utah).  Certainly there does not seem to have been any offer on the Salt Lake County Republican Party to help compensate their Democratic counterparts for the theft of their property (signs).

There are definitely more complaints registered about the character of Evans available for discovery on the internet and traditional media; I have tried to sample the flavor rather than provide an exhaustive list.  In contrast to Evans’ leadership style is that of outgoing current Chair Thomas Wright.  Wright has publicly made a point to extend graciousness and exhibited a sense of fairness towards his Democratic counterpart Chair Jim Dabakis in avoiding ad hominem attacks.  While I do not regard Wright without flaw, going from Wright to Evans in the area of character would be moving the Party in the wrong direction.

MEASURABLE RESULTS

While political philosophy and character are important, the bottom line for some is:  can Evans get Republicans elected?  Obviously philosophy is important because if one is viewed as not conforming to Republican values, it will be hard to motivate the party to do the work.  Likewise if someone is viewed either internally or externally as of a bombastic or bulldoggish character people will not be attracted to such behavior.  So what results did Evans’ style as Salt Lake County Chair produce?

After three years of Evans, the 2008 election was a disaster for Salt Lake elections.  A Democrat President won Salt Lake county for the first time in memory while picking up a trio of Utah House seats in Sandy and a Senate seat while the GOP challenger to County Mayor was defeated. The Salt Lake council whom Evans had lobbied over “Rocky-gate” picked up a seat flipping to majority Democrat. (SLTribune)

CONCLUSION

Some supporters have claimed Evans is a new man.  I have not seen this.  I have not seen apologies go out to the people who Evans has lied about or persecuted.  Nor I have witnessed any involvement in Evans in working towards a changed attitude about adopting fiscal conservatism.  I believe with such a deep-rooted past record—one which Evans himself touts—I would need to see irrefutable, tangible evidence of changed philosophy, character, and results over a documented period of time before I could accept such dubious claims of a new Evans.

The Treasured Story of My Candidacy

Thursday a friend inquired of me about my running for a GOP leadership position for our convention at month's end here in Utah County.  The thought rather caught me off guard.  I think if you had asked me my personal political priorities prior to the inquiry I might have responded to try and keep up with my blog, finish reading Altas Shrugged before the movie release, help get HB116 repealed, and get to know better the candidates to be running for GOP leadership.

But my friend's inquiry changed that paradigm:  for I consider myself a passionate patriot committed to principle and one of my principles says you can't sit around on your behind and hope that others will carry the torch of liberty when you can.  Being on my first go-around as a county delegate, I felt I was pretty much doing my duty (and enjoying it!) and had no desire to carry another torch.  Yet when I began to seriously examine the race, I began to feel compelled to do so.

You see, I think I overdid it a bit for a typical county delegate.  In my pursuit of knowledge for party workings, I attended a few Central Committee meetings--not required of a "ordinary" delegate that I am--as an observer and watched, listened, and took notes about how people acted, how people treated others, and who stood for principle and who stood for power.  I began to become concerned about the operations of the party.  It seemed like their were people in power who were trying to use their power to manipulating things as to extinguish the flame of liberty. 

Knowing that the organizing convention was quickly approaching in April, I attended the March CC meeting and saw still the politics of power in my party trump the politics of principle.  To make matters worse, there was this "9 for 5" bundling together of candidates campaigning for the convention around a platform so broad as to make the platform meaningless (IE:  "elect good Republicans").  Rather than focus on the strengths of their individual candidates with strong, unique personalities and passions they collectivized their platform-within-a-platform.  The more I reflected on this the more it turned me off and I felt like I would be unable to vote for someone that stood on a fluff platform of honestly, nonsensical incontrovertible (like a delegate would want to elect a bad Republican?)

In examining the candidates for Treasurer on the day before filing deadline, I saw a sole candidate and that this candidate had signed on to the "9 for 5" agenda.  This was unacceptable to me and precluded me from voting for this person.  In deeper introspection of my own life I realized it has been a life full of managing people and money both professionally and in voluntary organizations.  There was no doubt that I had more than adequate skills with which to properly serve my party as Treasurer.  What an awesome combination:  someone who is principled yet who has a professional track record of managing power and money?  Being blessed with a wife who is fully supportive of my political endeavors there remained but one thing to do as with all important decisions:  clear it with the Almighty Maker.  My friend's simple inquiry had morphed into an action that I knew I must do, a torch I must seek to bear.

This may all seem a bit strange to the reader:  I have generally tried to separate my political bloggings from what I considered more my quiet, behind-the-scenes observations and comments within the party.  And while I think it appropriate still to have some sort of separation, I deem I shall have to be much more vocal about my concerns and ideas for my party.  Thus the announcement of a separate blog regarding my campaign for Utah County Treasurer:  SteveReid4Treasurer.blogspot.com which I intend to be my primary source of communication to the 1300 delegates whose vote I'll be seeking over the next few weeks.
To this exciting adventure, I'll need help and lots of it.  Specifically, I'll need help from any Utah County Republican willing to assist me with the practical matters of campaigning.  Secondly, I'll need lots of input:  my listening, note taking, and observing haven't stopped; they're just coupled now with the responsibility to communicate.  Please contact me (nacilbupera@gmail.com) if you can lend a hand or a voice.

A Sunday School Lesson Fit For an Election

Today in Sunday School, the lesson touched on Isaiah 65:21-22. For many Christian eschatologists and religions, these verses refer to a day when believers will have a better lot than they do now during a period of time called "The Millennium."

21. And they shall build houses, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. (KJV)

Early 19th-century Presbyterian Minister Albert Barnes offered this interpretation of these verses in his "Notes on the Bible":

The idea here is, that they would live to consume; that is, to enjoy the productions of their own labor. Their property should not be wrested from them by injurious taxation, or by plunder; but they would be permitted long to possess it, until they should wear it out, or until it should be consumed. (emphasis mine)

This idea that as citizens we should be able to keep the fruits of our labors was not lost upon our founders who viewed property rights as sacred.

Let us unite our voices in voting down property and income taxes. Let us vote for candidates who will continue the Bush tax cuts and slash budgets including transfer payments.

I've studied dozens of races across our nation and have yet to find a single race where the Democrat comes even close to the Republican in supporting fiscally soundness--and yes, WV Senate Republican Candidate John Raese beats Democrat Manchin hands down for fiscal conservatism! After Democrats voted en masse for stimuluses, Obamacare, Cap-n-tax, and financial regulation all the while producing nothing but an extended recession you can't go wrong in voting Republican this year.

One final point: these past two years we (the tea party and other ordinary citizens) have had tremendous energy in holding Republicans accountable to their promised fiscal conservatism. WE WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO AFTER THE ELECTION. This promised self-regulation of our party should give rise to Independents and open-minded Democrats to vote for the fiscally-conservative Republican. So let's unite and go start to turn this country around on Tuesday by voting out Democrats and voting in these fiscally-conservative Republicans at all levels of government!

Praise Pro Powell

We are not the Republican Clique or the Republican Coterie. We are the proud Republican Party, a tens of millions strong throng of independent thinkers united by a party platform that boasts belief in small government, low taxes, traditional values, equal rights, and strict constructionist interpretation of our glorious constitution.

We have a leader--his name is Michael Steele, not Rush Limbaugh mind you. Our party was the party of slave-freers and desegregationists, the party that won the Cold War, kept us safe in a War on Terror, and rescued us from the highest modern-day inflation rate and misery index. We have supported all races, all religions, and women while our counterparts who boast of their civil rights record interred "j*ps" in concentration camps and ordered all Mormons to be "exterminated".

We value independent thought and freedom of the press and speech such that not all members subscribe completely to our party platform. That suits us just fine. For example, Nacilbupera welcomes the Log Cabin Republicans, many of whom may not support the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but are united with us because of their belief in a fiscally responsible government.

Sometimes a party member speaks their mind out of line with the platform. So was it with General Colin Powell when he endorsed Obama for President last October. Nacilbupera was upset at the endorsement as we failed to see the apparent qualities Powell saw in Obama; nevertheless Powell remains a hero of our party. General Powell as the first African-American in our country's highest military office led us to victory as we freed Kuwait in Gulf War I. He served honorably as our nation's first African-American Secretary of State under George W. Bush. He is a man of thoughtfulness and composure not a radical racist like Rev. Jeremiah Wright or a terrorist-freer like Attny General Eric Holder.

There are several issues on which Nacilbupera could disagree with General Powell's moderate stances but we feel he is an honorable man and deserves our praise not our chastisement. We welcome General Powell in helping build our party and recruit the youth.