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The Week Ahead
Today, 5 p.m., is the municipal candidate filing deadline. The Legislature has a busy week ahead. Check out all the meeting notices and agendas at the Legislative Calendar. Wednesday is Interim Day, with a full slate of meetings, but various task force and commission meetings are scheduled all week. For all the week’s political events, see the UtahPolicy.com calendar.
Monday Profile
Curt Bramble: Finding Common Ground
By GM Jarrard
 With so much political hot air floating around these days, there’s one state senator who’s not afraid to make use of it: Provo State Senator Curt Bramble. As a licensed hot-air balloon pilot, he likes the view up there. How he actually arrived at a position of leadership in the State Senate — he’s the majority leader — is another story.
Bramble describes his decision to run for public office as “a moment of weakness.” An old friend (and recently elected Utah Republican Party chairman), Stan Lockhart, did some arm-twisting on the Provo CPA and tax advisor, trying to convince him that his expertise was needed on Utah’s Capitol Hill. Lockhart was just returning the favor — Bramble was a strong supporter of Lockhart when he ran for a political office. You could say he was just getting even.
At any rate, at the 1996 Utah County Convention, the former Notre Dame wrestler and BYU yell leader found himself just a half dozen votes short of getting the Republican nomination for Senate District 16. He had former Congressman Howard Nielsen in a “full Nelson,” nearly pinned to the mat and grasping for air. Bramble would face the older gentleman in a primary. But he wasn’t worried. Later that political season when Nielsen dusted off his political signs and started campaigning in earnest, Bramble was still confident. A Chicago-born grappler who went to Notre Dame on a Navy scholarship, Bramble was always up for a good fight. However, on Primary Election Night, 1996, Curt Bramble learned an important lesson from a seasoned political veteran.
“Even after the early returns showed Howard up 60-40, I was convinced we would win in the end. But, we didn’t. Late that night, I drove around and collected my yard signs and dropped them at the city dump. As far as I was concerned, my one shot at political office was gone. I fought the good fight, did my best but now it was over. At least that’s what I thought then. I didn’t count on Howard Nielsen becoming not just a friend but a mentor,” Bramble recalls. (Read entire profile)
Regional Politics
Democratic Wave in Mountain West?
Casper Star Tribune: "Bolstered by recent electoral gains in the region, several groups have sprung up in the past few years to raise money or promote Democratic candidates in the Mountain West. The new groups have begun taking in cash and bringing staff on board. And although at least one political analyst says the possibility of a Democratic wave in the region is overhyped, the new outfits believe the West offers great potential for their candidates."
Today in Political History
July 16, 1790: Congress authorizes President George Washington to choose a permanent site for the capital city and, on December 1, 1800, the capital is moved from Philadelphia to an area along the Potomac River. (Source: Narpac)
July 16, 1918: Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children, are executed by the Bolsheviks. (New York Times)
July 16, 1969: The U.S. launches Apollo 11, a manned space craft to the moon. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
-- Plato (Source: Quotations Page)
Leadership Tip
Good Leaders are Custodians
American newspaper commentator Walter Lippmann defined leaders as "the custodians of a nation's ideals, the beliefs it cherishes, of its permanent hopes, of the faith which makes a nation out of a mere aggregation of individuals."
Custodians. The word means a keeper, a guardian, or a caretaker. It is a proactive word that implies action on the part of the bearer. Custodians hold something in trust on behalf of others. It is not a behavior motivated out of self-interest.
A custodian then, is an individual who upholds what is best for all people even if it may not be in their own interest to do so. A custodial role must be approached as a temporary role, preserving something greater than the self—principles of enduring and lasting value. This is an attitude of mind that focuses on the task at hand and not on what the leader may gain from the position. It implies a caring and concerned relationship between leaders and followers; individuals motivated by their constituents' best interests. (Read the entire article by Michael McKinney at Leadership Now.)
National Politics
Best Stories From …
-- The Politico: "For all the hearings and dramatic speeches, for all the votes and news conferences by House and Senate Democrats -- and some anti-war Republicans -- President Bush is still getting his way on the war in Iraq and will likely continue to, at least until September."
-- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Columnist Salena Zito: Hillary Clinton "is the most vetted candidate for president in modern American politics; she has gone through more of a metamorphosis than rock-star Madonna. The challenge for Hillary is to define what that 'something' is about her that still escapes the America public. Who is she? The challenge for voters is to explore her narrative and decide if that mysterious 'something' prevents her or makes her the best candidate for president."
-- New York Times: The resignation of Terry Nelson and John Weaver, John McCain's two top political advisors, "raises a question that has hovered over American campaigns in the 25 years since the rise of the celebrity political consultant: Are these advisers really as important as they would like us, and their clients, to think? Have they ever been?"
-- Times of London: Columnist Gerard Baker: "Democracy, Winston Churchill famously observed, is the worst form of government ever devised -- except for all the others. ... In America these days democracy is living down to its reputation, producing sticking-plaster solutions to epochal challenges, indulging the worst populist instincts of its voters, throwing up demagogic leaders unworthy of the job and rejecting those of true courage [like John McCain]."
Blog Watch
-- At The Senate Site, Sen. Curt Bramble reports on the Utah delegation's last day in Liaoning, China.
-- Rep. John Dougall says: "Increased salary: $12,000. Additional cash or paid health care premiums: $17,500. Learning what really matters to the Jordan School Board: Priceless."
-- Rep. Steve Urquhart discusses "Utah's contribution to global cooling."
-- COL Takashi says: "The story in the July 12, 2007 Deseret News entitled 'Utah is "Stingiest" in Aid to the Poor' distorts the facts because of incomplete reporting of what the numbers actually mean. Fundamentally, the number used by the study does not reflect actual poverty in Utah. What the number really means is that Utah has far fewer people in need of government aid than other states. Utah should be proud of this statistic. But the way the story was reported is like saying that we should be distressed if Utah had the lowest use of medicine against sexually transmitted diseases, because of a low rate of infection."
Lighter Side
"My ankles crunch, my knees crunch, my stomach gurgles constantly. I'm not getting older, I'm getting noisier."
-- Bob Hope (Salt Lake Tribune Cryptoquote) |
