Who won the 1st U.S. Senate Debate on April 4th?
by Daryl AcumenI think all three candidates won the debate last night, depending on how you define "winning." Hatch won by standing his ground in a dignified manner and defending his record while literally being attacked on both sides. The most disappointing moment for me as a Republican and as a Utah voter was when Liljenquist supporters broke ...
Continue ReadingFreedomWorks Lied to Deseret News!
by Daryl AcumenOn March 14th 2012, Deseret News staff writer Jared Page published a story titled "Utah GOP battling efforts to manipulate party caucuses" in which he describes efforts by FreedomWorks to induce it's followers to break Utah State Republican Party rules at local caucus meetings to increase their chances of becoming state delegates. The smoking gun was a ...
Continue ReadingLiljenquist Campaign tests Negative Ad Messaging on State Delegates
by Daryl AcumenA reliable source reported this week that Dan Liljenquist's Senate Campaign is now using State Delegates as guinea pigs to test negative ad messaging in preparation for a now unlikely primary fight against Senator Orrin Hatch. Last week a State Delegate in Cedar Hills was contacted by Lighthouse Research, a marketing firm retained by the Liljenquist campaign, about participating in ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: Dan Liljenquist – U.S. Senate
by Daryl AcumenOverview Economics undergraduate degree and law degree Former consultant at Bain & Company President and COO of an inbound call-center company Lives in Bountiful Elected to State Senate in 2008 chiefly responsible for Utah's nationally recognized and game-changing pension reform legislation that put the state's pensions on a sustainable path and assured the state would not suffer the same fiscal challenges ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: Chris Herrod – U.S. Senate
by Daryl AcumenBackground professional career in mortgages and real-estate development adjunct professor at UVU previously taught capitalist principles and conversational English in Ukraine Consistently ranked most conservative member of the House legislator of the year by public charter school organization influenced tenor of the debate in this year's senate race Has served 5 years in the legislature Founding member of the Patrick Henry Caucus with ...
Continue ReadingFreedomWorks Uses Fake Polls to Bash Hatch
by Daryl AcumenHere's another example of the incompetence of FreedomWorks: As a state delegate, I get 3 - 5 phone calls a day from pollsters asking me where I stand on various races I'm eligible to vote in. I don't mind the calls, because that's what I signed up for when I agreed to be a state delegate. ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: Nancy Sechrest – Leg. District 27
by Daryl AcumenBackground: Professional lobbyist for 24 years (knows how the system works) fought against the grandparents car-seat law, but the Republicans told the Democrats they could have one law and they chose the car-seat issue. Has lobbied for businesses ranging from tobacco to billboards Says that the Constitution requires highway patrol, police and education only and that all other state spending has been the ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: Larry Hilton – Utah Legislative District 27
by Daryl AcumenOverview STRONG monetary policy conservative with deep expertise in monetary policy history and reform Author of the Utah Legal Tender act which made gold and silver legal tender in Utah (sound money for a sound future) Recruited John Dougall as sponsor John Valentine was Senate sponsor Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Jim DeMint sponsored a bill called the Sound Money ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: Craig Frank – Utah State Senate District 14
by Daryl AcumenOverview: Has served eight (8) sessions in the Utah legislature doesn't believe in term limits, but believes in self imposed term limits to allow others a chance to serve Pledges to serve two terms in the Senate maximum (eight years) "Government needs to get out of the business of 'business' Helped to negotiate the 5% flat personal income tax rate ...
Continue ReadingCandidate Notes: John Valentine – Utah Senate District 14
by Daryl AcumenOverview: 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 ...
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