Overview:
- 14 years in State Senate
- 10 years in state legislature
- Full time tax attorney who spends his days suing the IRS
- legal practice is very lucrative…he does this because he believes in the system and wants to serve his community
- Accomplishments while in Senate
- balanced budget
- cut taxes (duh – he’s a tax attorney)
- flat tax (thinks we need to be fairer
- funded education
- took on feds regarding our lands
- ethics reform – pushed for independent commissions
- rebuilding our freeways without federal funds!
- paying our own debts – worked to bu down our debt $300 million (need to research this)
- Strong and knowledgeable advocate for reclaiming our federal lands
- extensive knowledge of the 2009 Supreme Court decision in which Hawaii won back lands form the federal government creating a legal precedent we can now emulate.
- The precedent in Hawaii will allow the federal government to auction federal lands to private owners, potentially retiring a portion of the federal debt
Pros:
- Very strong and knowledgeable advocate for reclaiming federal lands
- Exceptional track record in the Senate
- Helped lead the fight to honor the votes of residents in the new CH03 who were disenfranchised when an error was found in county maps
- Has been there, done that, and has the t-shirt to prove it.
Cons:
- Retaining John Valentine will rob Craig Frank of the chance to serve in the Senate and will likely cause him to retire from public service altogether. Craig frank actually made the best case for turnover in public offices like this to give more people the opportunity to serve all the way down the leadership ladder. I happen to agree with his point of view.
Questions:
- Can Utah bid on the federal lands being auctioned off?
- Is a federal auction to private buyers really the best option? Is there a legal way to take back out lands so that the state of Utah becomes the steward of these lands? I’m as big an environmentalist as any, but I think Utah should decide how to manage our lands, not the fed and I think we should be the ones to decide what gets auctioned off to private parties and what remains in state control.
Notes:
John Valentine has been a great Senator. The only question is, does it make sense to rotate a great state legislator into his seat to free up space for others to serve? I think that’s a good question for us to ask.