News Highlights

Gov. Olene Walker cleans out desk, finds walking away from job tough task (Deseret Morning News and Standard-Examiner).

Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman's Fillmore 'State of the State' address won't be real deal; Legislature can't officially convene outside Salt Lake (Salt Lake Tribune).

Tribune editorial questions propriety of Speaker Greg Curtis' new employment at law firm.

Quote of the Day

"She put her fingers down my throat and nearly pulled my tonsils out."

-- Rep. David Ure, referring to a recent battle over hazardous-waste storage with gadfly political activist Claire Geddes, who is semi-retiring from the gadfly business (Tribune).

Note: Utah Policy Daily will not be published on Friday. We’ll deliver all the holiday weekend news links on Monday, Jan. 3.

So Long, 2004; Hello, 2005

And so, the momentous political year of 2004 comes to a close tomorrow night, ending one of the most interesting years in a very long time. Congratulations to all who participated in whatever capacity, large or small, win or lose. Our system doesn’t work if good people don’t step up and get involved, and even those who lost made an enormous contribution.

If you will allow me a little personal privilege, I’d like to thank Utah Policy Daily subscribers for sticking with us through 2004 as we launched this little endeavor. We started on May 7, 2004, and we’ve published 163 editions (you can read any of them at www.utahpolicy.com/pages/newsletter.htm) since then, every business day. As I have said before, our intent is not to compete with the traditional news media, which have far larger staffs and resources than we do. Our intent is to simply be an aggregator of political news, provide a one-stop location where you can link to all the local political news of the day. Our e-mail list has stayed consistent at around 5,000 subscribers each day, so I think we are providing a service that Utah political junkies and opinion leaders appreciate.

I view this effort as something of a pioneering experiment, at least in Utah, because we use the new technologies of e-mail and the Web to aggregate news from many sources and deliver quickly to subscribers. Some big organizations (like National Journal) are doing this on a national level in a far better and more comprehensive way, and I expect we’ll see a lot more efforts like this in the future. Many more people and businesses, including politicians, will use e-mail and the Internet (Web sites and blogs) to communicate directly with various audiences. We’ll see politicians publishing blogs and their own e-mail newsletters.

Our challenge has been to produce a quality newsletter while working more than full-time earning a living and consulting for clients. By necessity, the newsletter has really been a part-time, volunteer endeavor. While it has been fun, it has also been a real challenge to produce a quality product each day and meet deadlines.

So a goal for 2005 is to build a financial base for the newsletter and get some more help writing and producing it. The financial model for an electronic publication like this isn’t easy or well-defined. Most electronic news operations aren’t profitable, although a few are. In 2005 we will be adding some advertising and “sponsored articles.” If you’re aware of organizations that would like to reach our 5,000 political leaders, opinion leaders and politically-aware citizens, please let me know.

I also fully intend to use the newsletter to market the services of the Exoro Group and promote the interests of our clients. It's an advantage to own a channel to communicate directly with Utah opinion leaders and key audiences without having our messages filtered by the news media. So we will do more marketing and advertising in the future, but these items will be labeled as such to distinguish them from non-sponsored news items and analysis.

Anyway, it has been a year of growth and interesting times. Life is never boring. I welcome suggestions and criticism, and again thank you for subscribing. Have a great holiday weekend and a happy and productive new year.

Mike Leavitt: A WSJ Person to Watch

On Dec. 24, Wall Street Journal Online editors highlighted 15 people to watch in 2005, “men and women who are set to shape the course of business, politics and world affairs in the next year.” Among them was Mike Leavitt, nominee for Health and Human Services secretary in President Bush’s cabinet. Here’s what WSJ Online said about Leavitt:

“If approved by the Senate, Mr. Leavitt will take the reins at the Department of Health and Human Services after serving one year as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Leavitt, who was governor of Utah before moving to the EPA , has his work cut out for him at his new job. As ultimate overseer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mr. Leavitt must address hot-button topics such as protecting the vulnerable U.S. food supply, handling a potential flu outbreak and vaccine shortage and maintaining scrutiny of the FDA after the recent withdrawal of painkiller Vioxx. While Mr. Leavitt can expect to inherit a tight budget, he'll also need to further rein in government health-care spending in light of budget cuts, and as overseer of Medicare and Medicaid, he'll be in charge of implementing last year's Medicare law, which establishes drug coverage in 2006 for the elderly and disabled.”

The Salt Lake Chamber is sponsoring an informative an interesting event on Jan. 18, providing business people an opportunity to meet television, radio and newspaper editors and reporters and hear them talk about covering the news and the biggest stories of 2004.

The news media panel will include: Todd Hansen, weekend news anchor, KSTU, Fox 13; Rick Hall, managing editor, Deseret Morning News; Terry Wood, weekend anchor, KTVX 4Utah; Kimball Thomson, senior editor, Utah Business Magazine; Jennifer Napier-Pearce, news director, KCPW 88.3/105.3 FM; Brian Mullahy, anchor, KUTV 2 News; Terry Orme, managing editor for news and business, Salt Lake Tribune; Olga Ospina, anchor, KUTH-12 Univision; Scott Seeger, afternoon news host, KSL Newsradio 1160 and Keith McCord, weekend anchor, KSL TV 5.

The event is 7:30 a.m., Jan. 18, at the Marriott Downtown, 75 South West Temple. Cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers, including a continental breakfast. Register at www.saltlakechamber.org, call 328-5053, or send an e-mail to: jsexton@saltlakechamber.org.

Deseret Morning News
- Pair call for reason on hot topic: immigration
- Leaving job is tough task for Walker
- County looks at merging 2 posts
- USU's Hall accepts N.Y. post
- State Natural Resources director retires
- Schedule for 2005 gubernatorial inauguration

Standard-Examiner
- Gov. Walker cleans out her desk

Salt Lake Tribune
- Decision on Goshute waste plan is likely in February
- Mullen: Gender politics loom large as Olene Walker takes her final bow
- 'State of State' in Fillmore won't be the real deal
- Capitol gadfly Geddes heading for the sidelines
- USU's Hall is leaving to head SUNY-Albany
- Utah, ranchers, oil firm close in on big land swap
- Editorial: Serving two masters
- Editorial: Reject guesswork

Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com

- Jan 2:  Inuaguration Interfaith Music Service, 6 pm to 7 pm, First Presbyterian Church, 12 C Street and South Temple, Salt Lake City.  Open to the public.
- Jan 3: Gubernatorial Inauguration, doors open to ticketholders at 10 am and Inauguration begins at 12 noon, Abravanel Hall, 123 W South Temple, Salt Lake City.
- Jan 4: Utah Statehood Day Celebration, 6 pm, E Center, 3200 S Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City.  No charge for admittance, open house for all citizens of Utah.
- Jan 10: Leadership breakfast hosted by Senate Republicans. 7:30 am, Grand America's Imperial Ballroom B, 550 South Main Street, Salt Lake City. Cost is $125 per person or $1000 per table. RSVP to a member of Senate Republican Leadership or Ric Cantrell: 801-673-1603.
- Jan 10:  Utah Taxpayers Association annual pre-legislative conference, 9 a.m.-noon, in room W135 State Capitol. Invited are legislators, legislative staff, governor’s staff, business groups, public policy groups, and the media. RSVP: 972-8814.
- Jan 12: 8th Annual Washington County Economic Summit with Governor-Elect Jon Huntsman as key-note speaker, 7 am to 2 pm, Dixie Center, St. George City.  For information see www.whatsupdownsouth.com.
- Jan 12: House Republican Caucus Reception, 5:30-7 p.m., Rice-Eccles Stadium Tower Varsity Room, 6th floor, 451 South 1400 East, $1,500 event sponsorship; $1,000 group of four; $300 per person. RSVP: 580-4743.
- Jan 13: Republican Party Legislative Update Breakfast, with Pres. John Valentine and Speaker Greg Curtis, 7:30 a.m., Little America, Ballroom B&C, 500 South Main. $1,500 for table of eight or $200 per person. Corporate sponsorship, $5,000. RSVP: Liv Olafsson, 533-9777.
- Jan 15: Utah Democratic Party Legislative Ball 2005, 6 pm to 11 pm, Marriott Hotel Downtown, 75 S West Temple, Salt Lake City.
- Jan 17: 2005 legislative session begins.
- Jan 20: Presidential Inauguration.
- Jan 27: Last day to request bills (by noon).
- Jan 27: Last day to approve bills for numbering (by noon).
- Jan 29:Central Committee Meeting.
- Feb 5: Annual Green Party of Utah Convention, 10 am to 2 pm, Anderson-Foothill Library, 1135 E 2100 S, Salt Lake City.
- Feb 12: Morgan County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 12: Utah County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 18: Last day for legislators to prioritize bills and other programs with fiscal impact.
- Feb 23: Final meeting for the Executive Appropriations Committee on all budget matters.
- Feb 25:  Salt Lake County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 25: Bonding bill available to legislators by noon and final action taken on it by calendared closing time.
- Feb 25: Last day to pass bills with fiscal note of $10,000 or more.
- Feb 26: Republican Women Federation Fundraiser.

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Utah Policy Daily is a service
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Publisher: LaVarr Webb
Editor: Bart Barker
News: Golden Webb
Calendar and Subscriptions: Paul Hollingshead