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News Highlights
President Bush got 71% of Utah votes -- the highest percentage in the nation
(Tooele Transcript Bulletin and Lee Benson in Deseret Morning
News).
Rolly & Wells skewer nearly everyone (Tribune).
Governor Walker is about to unveil a tax plan; Governor-elect Jon Huntsman
scratches his head (Morning News).
The record amounts of cash spent in Utah political campaigns this year
didn't change much (Bob Bernick column in Morning News).
Davis voters weren't in the mood for tax increases (Standard-Examiner).
Quote of the Day
"I think it'll be somewhat of a varied role. I think the role that I will play will be one as the assistant to Governor Huntsman, with the goal of making him the best governor he can be."
- Lt. Gov.-Elect Gary Herbert on the role he will play as lieutenant governor (Daily Herald).
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Friday
Buzz
Compiled
and Written by LaVarr Webb |
| To the Victor Goes the Spoils
It’s transition time for Jon Huntsman and Peter Corroon. Transition is a thoroughly enjoyable time in political life because you’re basking in the glow of political victory, you’re making big, ambitious plans to change the world, you have all kinds of important people pursuing you who want jobs and favors, but you, as yet, have no real responsibilities.
The fun of transition lasts only a couple of months, unfortunately, and then the real work begins. I was heavily involved in the last gubernatorial transition 12 years ago when Mike Leavitt was elected, and I still remember the excitement and anticipation of beginning a new administration. We really were going to change the world.
As a Democrat replacing a Republican, Corroon is mounting an unfriendly takeover of Salt Lake County government, while Huntsman replaces a 12-year administration at the Capitol.
Here is my advice to the victors:
- Take your time. You have a lot to do, but get some rest and think things through. Think what you want the major themes of your administration to be and organize your staffs and make your appointments accordingly.
- Clean out the top leadership from the previous administration. Government certainly benefits from periodic change that results in fresh eyes and new ideas. Some of the top leaders in state government have been there for a decade or more. Having said that, there are some high-level positions at both the county and in state government that are pretty much technical and non-political and it might make sense to retain some of those people.
- Evaluate agency performance. We created more than a dozen large committees of business people and others to study the mission and performance of every state agency and to make recommendations for the future. The committees came back with thick reports that were helpful in making personnel decisions. However, the large committee system was an enormous amount of work logistically, involving hundreds of people. It was a nice way to reach out and get people involved. But in retrospect a smaller and simpler approach might have worked just as well.
- Remember who got you there. Loyalty is an important trait in politics. However, winning an election and governing are two different things, requiring different skills. Don’t give key jobs to buddies and political cronies unless they're really qualified. Get the very best talent available. The cabinet-level positions are really big and important jobs and wrong choices will cause misery later.
- Get the right people so the governor and mayor can be the chief visionaries, salesmen and communicators. Day-to-day management is done by the chief-of-staff. Be good delegators.
Final Presidential Data
If you want to pore over national presidential election data, this link takes you to USA Today’s wrapup. You can click on a state and get information about that state.
Another USA Today link shows the presidential election results county-by-county. It’s pretty amazing to see all the red, with the blue concentrated in a relatively few highly-populated counties. By land mass, Bush won 2.51 million square miles and Kerry 511,700 square miles.
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| Bloggers Give Republicans a Scare
by LaVarr Webb
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| While political bloggers get credit for serving as media critics and watchdogs, such as in exposing Dan Rather’s phony documents, on election day it was the bloggers who did some misleading. This is another example of the real impact the blogging community is having on politics, although this time the result wasn’t necessarily positive.
The Wall Street Journal (no link because WSJ requires a paid subscription) published a fascinating story Thursday on the early exit polls that showed John Kerry doing better in a number of states than the actual results. Anyone reading the national political blogs Tuesday afternoon got the clear impression that Kerry was winning. There were a lot of worried Republicans and euphoric Democrats.
The WSJ reported that exit polls were conducted by a national media consortium called National Election Pool to help the network and cable news stations make their projections state-by-state as the polls closed. Waves of exit poll data were distributed to consortium members Tuesday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m.
The major media had all agreed to hold the data until after polls closed, but the information was leaked almost immediately to the bloggers, who had no compunction about publishing it. So bloggers like Talking Points Memo, mydd.com, Dailykos.com, DrudgeReport.com, Slate.com and Wonkette.com were reporting the exit poll numbers.
Trouble is, the early exit polling was wrong. The WSJ reported that in 15 of 16 states in the exit poll that hit the blogs about 7 p.m., the data showed Kerry doing better than he actually did. The National Election Pool spotted problems with its early data in several states and notified the major media. But not all the bloggers got the memo.
No one knew exactly why the early numbers were wrong. Some experts said the numbers were within the margin of error and were essentially correct. However, the data systematically favored Kerry. Some said the samples included too high numbers of women and minorities.
At any rate, the major media were cautious enough to avoid reporting the early exit poll numbers so none of them were embarrassed. Those numbers may, however, have caused some networks to be slower to project wins for Bush and some observers detected early hints in coverage that it was going to be a good night for Kerry.
So beware of the bloggers just like you would be with any media information. The bloggers are more likely than the mainstream media to run with rumors and unsubstantiated information.
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| Elected
Officials Birthdays |
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Rep. Darin G. Peterson, District 67, November 5
Sen. Howard A. Stephenson, District 11, November 7
Rep. Ron Bigelow, District 32, November 7
Entire
Birthday List
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Friday
November 5, 2004
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Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com
- Nov 5: House and Senate Rules Committees, 9 am, Rm W135, State Capitol; Transportation Planning Task Force, 9 am, Rm W015.
- Nov 9: Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel, 10 am, Rm W025, State Capitol.
- Nov 10: Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee, 9 am, Rm W125, State Capitol; Health and Human Services Interim Committee, 2 pm, Rm W015.
- Nov 10-12: Utah Association of Counties 2004 Annual Convention, Dixie Center, St. George.
- Nov 11: Sutherland Institute seminar "Bridging the Gap between Principle and Practice--Understanding Analytical Frameworks" 8:30-11:30 am, 6th Floor 150 E Social Hall Ave, SLC. Register: 801-355-1272.
- Nov 11: Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, 9 am, Rm W020, State Capitol.
- Nov 11: Hinckley Institute of Politics presents “U.S./Singapore Relations” a talk by Her Excellency Chan Heng Chee, Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, 10:45 am, KUER-FM 90.1.
- Nov 11-12: Utah State Association of Parliamentarians (USAP) annual workshops, Salt Lake County Government Center North Building, 2100 S State St. $55 registration deadline by Nov 5th, Reta Pehrson 801-532-5212.
- Nov 12-13: Utah Federation of Republican Women Annual Conference, Springville, UT. Keynote address by Shirley Foote, National Federation Board Member.
- Nov 13: Davis County Democrats No-Host Breakfast, 8:30 am to 10:00 am, Joanie's Restaurant, 286 North 400 West, Kaysville. Contact: Richard Watson (801) 292-6772.
- Nov 23: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 E just past 2100 S, Salt Lake City. Contact: 486-2558.
- Nov 30: Energy Policy Task Force, 10 am, Rm W130, State Capitol.
- Dec 2: Progressive Democratic Caucus Meeting, 6:30 pm to 8 pm, 455 South 300 East, Suite 102, Salt Lake City. Contact: Craig Axford 801-918-6017.
- Dec 2: Professional Republican Women's Holiday Luncheon and Tour at the Governor's Mansion, Noon, Reservations: dianney5@aol.com.
- Dec 7: Utah Log Cabin Republicans Monthly Meeting, 7:30 pm, Room N4010, Salt Lake County Building, 2001 South State Street, Salt Lake.
- Dec 9: Sutherland Institute seminar "The Public You--Applications in Effective Communication" 8:30-11:30 am, 6th Floor 150 E Social Hall Ave, SLC. Register: 801-355-1272.
- Dec 9: Davis Co. Democrats 2nd Annual Christmas Dinner, 6:30 pm.
- Dec 11: Davis County Democrats No-Host Breakfast, 8:30 am to 10 am, Joanie's Restaurant, 286 North 400 West, Kaysville. Contact: Richard Watson 801-292-6772.
- Dec 28: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 East, just past 2100 South, Salt Lake City. Contact: 486-2558.
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