I had the recent opportunity to attend the Republican county convention held at Orem High school on April 26th and the state convention held last Saturday, May 10th in Orem utah on the UVU campus. Hayden and I attended the county convention. We arrived early and got our credentials ( a nametag and a folder with information regarding the schedule of events and where different districts meet and when). We attended our Senate caucus for district 13 in which we were able to listen to Mark Madsen, the incumbent and Lane Henderson who is campaigning against him. We did not get to vote for one or the other and I was glad because I had not heard anything about either of them. I still don't know when that race will be decided on... Next we attended our Legislative caucuses. We are in house district 67. We listened and asked questions to our representative, Patrick Painter. The guy new a lot about water...what else did he know anything about?....water! When asked what he was doing to ensure that the federal government stay as much out of state government as possible what issue did he talk about?....water! The guy was purely policy based and had a hard time basing his answers on principles. By the end of this meeting, Hayden was thinking about running for his seat! After this, all delegated were seated together for the convention. The whole convention was incredibly educational.
Hayden and I both wanted to attend the state convention and we decided that whoever got up early would be able to go ( I am pretty sure he thought there was no way in heck that I would be up at 6:30am!) Well, I arrived at the state convention at 6:45am. I was not elected as a state delegate and decided to attend the convention purely as an educational experience. I met up with some friends of mine, Brad Green and Jewel Kimber, both state delegates. After handing out some FreeCapitalist Primers we headed into the main seating area. It was great to see how many were in attendance. I am pretty sure it was announced that there was 95% attendance. Out of all of the state delegates elected, 300 of them were FreeCapitalist members. It was great meeting up with several of them during the convention. I was able to sit through a very long day of politics in action.
After three rounds of voting in district 3 and some very controversial events (some were calling "dirty politics"), Chris Cannon and Jason Chaffetz will now be going to a primary. I will be attending meetings to hear from both of them as I am unsure of who will get my vote in the primary. This means that voters will be able to decide which candidate will be on the ballot against the democratic candidate in November.
So besides this, what did I learn? What is the point?
I learned that I know very, very little about the politcal process. I learned that I am probably not alone in this! In fact, after the convention, I have been thinking seriously about writing a book about how disillusioned we are when it comes to OUR government and how we elect our representatives. The whole process sounds so simple and yet see if you can answer these questions (without looking them up of course!);
What is a precinct? What precinct are you in?
What is a caucus meeting? When are caucus meeting and where are they held?
What does it mean to be precinct chair? What responsibilities are there with being the precinct chair?
How do you get elected to become a delegate? How many people are elected as delegates in your precinct?
Is their a difference between a county delegate and a state delegate and what are they?
As a delegate, what are your responsibilities?
What is a convention? What is the difference between a county convention and a state
convention?
What district are you in? What is a district? Who are the representatives in your district? What house district are you in? What congressional district are you in? What is the difference between a house district, a congressional district and a senate district?
What is parliamentary procedure? What are Robert's Rules of Order? What do these have to do with anything?
Who are your federal elected officials? How often do we elect each one?
Who are your state elected officials and how often do we elect each one?
Who are your county elected officials and how often do they get elected?
Why is knowing any of this important??
The first person who can correctly answer all of these questions will get a prize (something good, I promise)
I am excited to post the answers soon and discuss further why knowing this information is important and why. I look forward to hearing from you...
