The Week Ahead
What should be a very interesting Health Care Task Force meeting is scheduled Thursday at 9 a.m., W135. One agenda item is: “Sen. Davis' and Sen. Waddoups' Response to News Articles.” Sen. Gene Davis and Sen. Mike Waddoups have been quoted saying uncomplimentary things about the Task Force, and have also been blogging about health care at the Senate Site blog. The meeting will also feature a consultant report saying Utah’s health care industry is competitive and healthy. Click here for the agenda.
On Saturday, Democratic and Republican state conventions will be held, with the GOP in the Expo Center in Sandy, and Democrats in the Salt Palace. The big race will be the GOP 3rd Congressional District contest. Also on Saturday, a fundraising reception for Sen. John McCain is scheduled. For more info, contact Kristy Jensen at 801-634-8868 or danishkrj@yahoo.com.
Happy Birthday, Utah Policy Daily
The first Utah Policy Daily edition (then it was called Earlybird) was published May 7, 2004. We have published every working day since then, with a few near misses and late arrivals when we had computer or Internet connection problems.
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to use this 2nd anniversary milestone to provide a bit of a status report, reiterate what UPD is and isn’t, thank those who are involved every day, and look a bit to the future.
UPD is e-mailed out each morning to about 7,500 subscribers and another couple thousand people visit the Web site where the newsletter is posted each day. We don’t know exactly how many people read UPD every day, and a readership base of fewer than 10,000 isn’t very high compared to a lot of other publications.
But the point of UPD isn’t to reach the masses. The point is to reach the Utah political community, and we feel pretty confident that we’re reaching that narrow market segment. I hardly run into anyone who is involved in politics in some way or another who doesn’t at least glance through UPD each day.
UPD readership has grown almost entirely by word of mouth. We haven’t done any real marketing or promotion (although I tried to buy some small newspaper ads and was rejected by NAC, which handles advertising for the Morning News and Tribune). I’m interested in doing some promotion and maybe look for some partnerships that would make sense, but I just haven’t had time to focus on it.
UPD started out as sort of a hobby, and in one sense it remains so today. It’s not a profit-making enterprise, costing more to produce than it generates in advertising, but it still has been worth doing from a business perspective. I make my living as a partner with Maura Carabello in the Exoro Group. We are government affairs consultants, helping clients with projects and issues related to government and politics. We particularly specialize in public affairs communications and grassroots organizing, helping clients reach the right audiences with the right messages to effectively influence public policy and reach client objectives.
UPD provides a nice communications channel to support our clients’ objectives in reaching the Utah political community. I don’t usually charge clients directly for UPD advocacy essays or sponsored articles (which are clearly labeled as such), but controlling this communications channel makes the Exoro Group more attractive to clients, and therefore UPD is worth publishing. We haven’t really marketed ourselves this way, but the unspoken reality is that if you hire the Exoro Group, you also get UPD as an effective communications channel.
So UPD is clearly not a journalistic endeavor. It would be fun to do some interviews and research and produce some pieces approaching real journalism, but I just don’t have time. That’s the biggest challenge, just finding time to do it all. UPD is mostly an aggregation service, linking to local and national newspapers, magazines, blogs and Web sites that have information on Utah politics. I try to throw in some of my own quick and dirty observations, some campaign and communications tips, and that’s about it.
I’m a moderately conservative Republican, and the things I write myself usually reflect that ideology. But in the links to news articles and blogs, reader response items, etc., we try to be fair and non-partisan. We don’t skip over articles or blog postings that we don’t like or disagree with. Other than what I write, I believe Democrats feel that get a fair shake in UPD.
Over the next few months, I’d like to do more reader involvement features, like getting Utah opinion leaders to write essays on important issues, convene a panel of campaign experts to answer questions and produce tips on campaign management, and do a weekly “insider poll” like National Journal does by surveying GOP and Dem political insiders on current issues. I’d also like to do a monthly political poll to track trends and voter opinion on key issues.
Putting together UPD each day is mostly a family affair. My son, Golden Webb, does a lot of the heavy lifting. He is up in the wee hours each morning, going through the Web sites of Utah and national newspapers after they post their new editions sometime after 1 a.m. He produces the news headline links, Utah in the National News, Blog Watch (he monitors dozens of blogs), Washington Watch, and a lot of local government and other items.
My daughter, Luci Hollingshead, updates the political calendar each day, manages the subscription list (adding news subscribers and eliminating bad e-mail addresses, etc.), updates the candidate tracking service, and handles other odds and ends.
Luci’s husband, Paul Hollingshead, who also works for the Exoro Group, does most of the production work, pulling together all the elements of each newsletter beginning at 5 a.m. each morning. I try to have my parts written and e-mailed to Paul by 5:30 a.m. (I’m often late). He puts all the sections and elements into the UPD design format, makes sure all the headlines fit and the news links actually work, reads for final editing, and e-mails it out by 6:30 a.m.
My brother, Dave Webb, handles the Utah Policy Web site and is our technical expert when we get in trouble with the technology.
Jenn Wheelwright, who is Exoro’s office manager and bookkeeper, handles UPD’s accounting and finances. She also has information about advertising.
Mark Towner, who has been assisting UPD with advertising sales, has moved on to devote full time to his new business marketing an excellent constituent services and campaign management system called Government Response (see his new ad in today’s edition). I appreciate his help over the last several months and wish him well.
As always, I welcome comments, suggestions and criticism for UPD. It has been an enjoyable two years and we hope we’ve provided a service that readers find worthwhile. I expect we’ll keep at it for a few more years.
Willy Gets a Two-fer
Here’s an e-mail message I received Sunday night:
Mr. Webb,
I read what you say in the paper every Sunday and I see your picture in the paper and on TV. Your sour-puss picture in the Deseret Morning News every Sunday really makes me ill. I hope you lose your quest for the second congressional district. You look like a really uptight miserable Mormon. Not someone we need to represent the great state of Utah.
-- Willy
Not bad. With one short message, Willy insults LaVarr Webb and inadvertently draws in LaVar Christensen. I just feel bad for LaVar. If people think my sour-puss face is his, he’s got a tough election ahead. At least if he loses, he’ll have a great excuse: “People kept mistaking me for that ugly Webb.”
National Politics
2006 Election Tough to Analyze
Charlie Cook, in a NationalJournal.com column (membership required), says, “The 2006 midterm elections are a political analyst's nightmare. The national climate seems to portend big changes, yet race-by-race analyses reveal formidable odds against a Democratic takeover of either the House or Senate.”
Rural Economic Development
The latest Economic Development Corporation of Utah weekly newsletter features an article about economic development at the grassroots level in rural Utah. It also includes links to numerous economic development articles, a calendar, and other information. For a free subscription, send an e-mail message to: economicreview@edcutah.org.
Blog Watch
YDems says: "Someone needs to give Utah Policy a reality check. They're as 'fair & balanced' as FOXNews" (see also here)... The Senate Site blog responds to this D-News article about tax reform... Reach Upward responds to this Standard-Examiner op-ed on Latino immigration... Liberty for Utahns! explores the differences between "libertarianism and statism, and liberty and democracy"... The Third Avenue asks: "Who will be the next mayor of SLC? Because it sure as heck won't be Rocky [Anderson]" (see also here)... Woods Cross Citizen says: "[V]ote for the person, not the party. I feel sorry for anyone who goes to the polls and punches a straight party ticket"... The Trib Editorial Board launches a new blog called Plato's Cave... Media Relations asks: "If Bill Clinton played the sax on Saturday Night Live, and Utah's governor and Salt Lake mayor can play rock 'n' roll to entertain their supporters, why not blog?"... Mark Towner says: "On April 29th at the Salt Lake County Convention, I experienced first hand how a well timed dirty trick can influence an election" (see also here and here)... Soccer Silicon Valley Blog says "ignorance piled upon ignorance" doomed RSL's Salt Lake stadium plans... WaPo's Chris Cillizza says: "For all the talk of [Mass. Gov. Mitt] Romney's Mormonism as a potential [political] hurdle, his religious affiliation also has its benefits. Witness a recent Romney fundraiser in Utah where he raked in better than $1 million -- a shockingly large total for a state not traditionally known for its political bankrolling" (see also here, here, here, here, and here).
-- Compiled by Golden Webb
Washington Watch
Bennett: Booming Economy? Credit GOP
Sen. Bob Bennett says the GOP-pushed 2003 tax cut was the launching pad for the U.S. economy's surging growth, and Pres. Bush and the GOP deserve credit: "We Republicans are entitled to say, 'We did the right thing'" (New York Times); Bennett points to newly released Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers as further evidence that the economy is growing (see press release); announces that 10 rural Utah communities will share $10 million this year through a program authored by Bennett that helps municipalities meet local water and wastewater treatment needs (press release).
Matheson: Drought Plan Needed
Rep. Jim Matheson calls for a comprehensive federal drought plan (see press release).
Hatch's DREAM Act Endorsed
Editorial by liberal magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel endorses Sen. Orrin Hatch's DREAM Act (The Nation).
Local Government Watch
Rocky's 2006 Budget Address
The Salt Lake City Mayor's Office has posted a PDF file of Mayor Rocky Anderson's 2006 budget address. To read it, click here.
LeRay McAllister Funds
The Utah Quality Growth Commission announces the opening of a new application cycle for LeRay McAllister funds for open space, trails, parks and habitat preservation. For more info, click here.
Sounds of a Babbling Brook
The Nature Conservancy is sponsoring “Utah Soundscapes,” a 21-week radio series now airing on KUER. The program "takes listeners on an audio journey through Utah's natural world, with high-quality recordings from the places, plants, animals and natural places that make our state so unique" (see press release).
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