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I’m back from a week-long vacation. I’ve never been a very good
vacation taker because I always have too much to do at work and
feel like I’m getting behind when I take a few days off. It was
nice to get away, but it’s nice to be back in the saddle.
The Week Ahead
On Tuesday, tax reform will take center stage at the Utah Taxes
Now conference sponsored by the Utah Taxpayers Association. Gov.
Huntsman will speak, along with a number of legislators and tax
experts. For details see the
agenda. On Saturday, Republicans hold organizing convention
in three big counties: Salt Lake (9 a.m., South Towne Expo Center),
Utah (7 a.m., Canyon View Junior High) and Davis (9 a.m., Davis
County Convention Center).
SUU Alums Hit Big Time
Southern Utah University is highlighting two famous alumni who have
risen to the top in the ultra-competitive Washington, D.C. political
world. Mike Leavitt, now HHS secretary and former Utah governor,
and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid are featured in
the spring edition of SUU’s In View magazine (the magazine content
is not yet posted on the SUU Web site). Reid is the country’s top
Democratic office holder. Leavitt graduated from SUU in 1972 in
economics and business and Reid graduated in 1959 with an associate
degree in political science. He boxed and played football. Both
Leavitt and Reid have received honorary degrees from SUU.
Taxpayer Friendly Lawmakers
The Utah Taxpayers Association has released its legislative scorecard,
analyzing votes on several bills it deemed friendly to taxpayers.
The analysis included 10 votes in the House and 9 in the Senate.
House members receiving 100 percent scores were: Greg Curtis,
Glen Donnelson, Jim Ferrin, Greg Hughes and Scott Wyatt.
Senators receiving perfect scores were: Curt Bramble, Beverly
Evans, Parley Hellewell, Chris Buttars, Allen Christensen, John
Valentine, Howard Stephenson and Carlene Walker. See
the complete scorecard on the Association Web
site.
Blog Watch
The New York Times has an interesting story
about Arianna Huffington, a liberal political commentator
and former California gubernatorial candidate (winning only 1% of
the vote and coming in 5th), starting a group blog. It will feature
some 250 celebrities, including Walter Cronkite, David Mamet,
Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr.,
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman
Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman. The blog, called The
Huffington
Post will go live on May 9. Some analysts quoted by the Times
said it is difficult to make a group blog interesting and to get
busy people to post comments on a regular basis.
We tried a group blog at Utah
Policy.com, inviting some 30 Utah political leaders to contribute,
but it didn’t work out well because despite good intentions, not
many people posted comments very often. We may try it again using
a different approach.
How Long Will You Live?
Along with the news that slightly overweight people live longer
than people of normal weight comes this: You’ll probably live longer
than you think. Which also means that unless you plan properly,
you might run out of money before you die. According to the Utah
Retirement Systems newsletter, a large pension fund asked its members,
average age 61, how long they expected to live. Most men said 78.
The actual is 84. Most women said 80; yet 88 is more like it. Financial
planners say that for retirement planning purposes, you should expect
to live at least to age 90.
Campaign Tip
Effective Direct Mail
House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander produces a quarterly
calendar and newsletter for his business customers and what he writes
often has applicability to success in politics. In his 2nd quarter
newsletter, Alexander discusses ways to produce highly customized
direct mail marketing pieces that really work.
The average consumer receives more than 8,000 marketing messages
in a day, he said, making it difficult for businesses or politicians
to break through the clutter. A lot of direct mail advertising is
thrown away without ever being opened or looked at. “So,” asks Alexander,
“how do I, in a non-offensive way, get my prospect to read my message
and then act?”
The answer, says Alexander, is to know enough about the prospective
customer (or voter) that a marketing message can be crafted “in
such a way that the recipient recognizes the relevance of the message
and personalizes that message to his/her needs.” According to research
conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology, these techniques,
properly executed, can produce results such as: 34% faster rate
of response; 48% increase in repeat orders; 25% greater average
value of each order; and 32% increase in overall revenue.
Companies that collect data on the habits and needs of current
customers can send out a reduced volume of marketing pieces, and
the customers will see the targeted messages as increased service
from a provider who cares about them in a personal way. This is
called Database Marketing and Customer Relationship Marketing. For
effective execution, data mining (extracting and analyzing data
about individual customers or clients) must be combined with customized,
short-run printing (a service offered by Alexander’s Print Advantage),
providing maximum targeting, flexibility, efficiency and quick turnarounds.
This obviously has significant applicability to a variety of political
needs, including grassroots mobilization for election campaigns,
ballot initiatives, and legislative support. The key is getting
the right messages to the right audiences in a timely fashion without
wasting a lot of resources on people who don’t vote or who have
no interest in the issue at hand.
Parting Words
One of the great things about living in a democracy is that we have
complete control over how we pay our taxes: cash, check or money
order. (Source: Utah Retirement Systems
newsletter)
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