Improving city, state and country together. One mind at a time.
Like they say: “Inquiring minds want to know…“
See Dan Harrie‘s post on the Salt Lake Tribune‘s “Out of Context: The Tribunes’ Political Writers Blog” from this afternoon. The post is entitled “More Trouble.”
Come here or go there and comment and let people know what you think about this.
I blog about the Republican Precinct I reside in (and am Precinct Chair of). Per my post this morning about the refusal of the Utah County GOP Chair Marian Monnahan to provide a candidate opposing incumbent Senator Curt Bramble with the e-mail addresses of the delegates, I have another point of confusion I blogged about there.
A comment I received on my earlier post on this blog got me thinking about this… Please see it.
In short, I received a congratulatory e-mail from the Cannon Campaign on being elected a State Delegate, and a County Delegate (per the afore-mentioned comment) erroneously received a similar e-mail from the Cannon Campaign congratulating him on being a State Delegate. And he isn’t even one.
So it seems the Cannon Campaign appears to have the State and County Delegate e-mail addresses.
Now let me be CRYSTAL CLEAR HERE: I’m not faulting Chris Cannon or his Campaign here. What I am doing is wondering how they know I’m a delegate, and how they have my e-mail address and the data to send me an e-mail if the e-mail addresses aren’t being provided to any of the candidates?
Who provided them with the e-mail addresses?
This morning, Utah County’s Daily Herald is running a story entitled Candidate wants access to e-mail list. The story reports that Jacqueline De Gaston (jdegaston@yahoo.com), challenger of incumbent Senator Curt Bramble in Senate District 16, has no access to the e-mail addresses of the delegates “‘as they have been in years past.”
[NOTE: There are actually two other Republicans seeking the nomination. The second is James O'Neal (isconychia@yahoo.com).]
Anyway, the story goes on to quote County Republican Chairwoman Marian Monnahan (jrmonna@mstarmetro.net) as saying: “We just hesitate to do it since we promised everybody, ‘No, we won’t hand those out.’ We’re not giving them to anyone at this point.“
Okay, now I’m confused on three fronts:
1. When I was trained by the Party on running the Caucus Meetings in early March (I am the Precinct Chair for Orem, Utah’s Precinct 27), I was specifically asked to get the e-mail addresses for all of the elected precinct officers and delegates.
2. When I conducted the Republican Party’s Caucus Meeting for Orem Precinct 27, one of the main items on the meeting agenda was the circulation of the Caucus Roll. The last column of information on the caucus roll was for the e-mail addresses of everyone on the precinct rolls–not just the precinct officers and delegates.
3. Again, upon conclusion of the afore-mentioned Caucus Meeting, I completed the Elected Precinct Officers and Delegates form, the last column of which is also provided for the e-mail addresses of the precinct officers, county and state delegates.
Now, why would we as a Party ask for the e-mail addresses of everyone in the Party if we’re not going to make use of them?
This does not add up, and gives me cause for concerns about fairness and transparency in the Republican Party in Utah County.
It’s also of deep concern to me that Susan Bramble (susan@cbramble.com), Senator Bramble’s wife, is the Utah County Republican Party Secretary. In this instance, would it not be a reasonable expectation of ethical conduct to place upon Ms. Bramble to recuse herself–being the keeper of the Party’s lists for Utah County–from the maintaining of the lists? There is at a minimum the appearance of impropriety here.
If she is not willing to recuse, then she (or any County Party Officer) who has provided any candidate so much as one e-mail address, must provide every candidate that same e-mail address per the State Party Bylaws’ Party Officer Neutrality Clause (7.2). This clause clearly states:
State Party officers, National Committee members, and paid staff shall assist and provide, without discrimination or restriction, equal access to Party information and services within their responsibility to all Republican candidates . ( emphasis added)
What’s good enough for the state should be good enough for Utah County, I believe.
Ms. Monnahan has an obligation to operate the affairs of the Republican Party by the rules. This does NOT look good, and in politics (as we all know) appearance is at least as much as substance.
Let’s be reasonable, fair and above reproach and clean up our Party, people.
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