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The Week Ahead
Fire Up Municipal Campaigns
With just five weeks until the municipal primary election, it’s time for the hundreds of candidates across the state to kick their campaigns into high gear and begin aggressive voter contact. Most municipal races this year are for city council slots, and most are low-key affairs. In many cities across the state, voters have little or no direct contact with any candidate. Winning a city council race can be as simple as analyzing the voter files, determining who is likely to vote, and getting one good mailer to active voters, or placing one good phone call to likely voting households. For the week’s political events, see the Utah Policy.com calendar.
Monday Musing
Why Less Civic Involvement?
A Pignanelli-Webb column in the Deseret Morning News a few months ago noted that today we have fewer industry titans who get involved in community activities and make things happen. Gone are the days when the president of the LDS Church, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and the publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune would get together and determine the direction of the city and the state.
I received a thoughtful response to that column from an old friend who has performed significant community service, but who believes that today’s media climate, where every act is scrutinized and often criticized, prevents many top business leaders from using their talents in civic endeavors.
Said this business leader: “Your column … about leadership being vital to the success of city and state was excellent and thought-provoking. Maybe your best and most insightful column yet I loved it. …I’m one of those you mention who yearn . . . for those days when the ‘system’ worked together for the good of the whole community. … Woe unto President Hinckley and Dean Singleton and Lane Beattie if they were today to have an off-the-record help-the-community lunch, even once. The media would immediately excoriate and rebuke them, demanding disclosure and transparency. Self-promoting politicians would cry foul, and preachers of other faiths in need of an issue would create one where one need not exist.
“I, too, share your lament about industry titans no longer pulling strings or even being very engaged, and about daily newspapers no longer taking leadership roles. I can’t speak to the why of Utay newspapers failure to take leadership roles, for they still do in many states, but maybe the reason industry titans no longer step forward … is because when they do those very newspapers you mention find it necessary to question, attack, and demean that very public service. I have many corporate ‘titan’ friends who say the media digs just aren’t worth it, and they thus opt to sit on the sidelines and the better community good is the loser.”
Washington Watch
Hatch: Fix Intelligence Laws
Senator Orrin Hatch urged Congress not leave for its August work period before creating a legislative fix to address problems in intelligence surveillance that have been identified by leaders in the intelligence community. Read his news release.
Matheson: America Competes Act
Congressman Jim Matheson said passage of a technology, education and science bill will help prepare American students to successfully compete in the global economy. Matheson is a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, which drafted HR 2272, the America Competes Act. Read his news release.
Today in Political History
August 6, 1945: U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, ushering in a new era of atomic warfare.
August 6, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, guaranteeing voting rights for African-American citizens. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
-- Seneca (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
Abraham Lincoln: Build Strong Alliances
"A house divided against itself cannot stand…our cause must be entrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends -- whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work -- who do care for the result."
-- Lincoln's remarks from "A House divided" speech, in which he accepted the nomination for U.S. senator at the Republican convention in Springfield, Illinois (June 16, 1858).
Lincoln Leadership Principles
-- Wage only one war at a time.
-- Spend time letting your followers learn that you are firm, resolute, and committed in the daily performance of your duty. Doing so will gain their respect and trust.
-- Invest time and money in better understanding the ins and outs of human nature.
-- Remember, human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.
-- Showing your compassionate and caring nature will aid you in forging successful relationships.
-- When you extinguish hope, you create desperation.
-- You must remember that people who have not even been suspected of disloyalty are very adverse to taking an oath of any sort as a condition of exercising an ordinary right of citizenship. (Source: Coach Thee)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Washington Post: Republican presidential candidates square off in Iowa debate, mocking Democrats on foreign policy, taxes and health care.
-- Wall Street Journal: Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, a city plagued by violent crime, poverty and failing schools, says school choice is one key to solving his city’s woes. “With frequent instances of in-school violence, decrepit facilities and low morale, the system is in need of serious overhaul. Just 37% of the city's high-school seniors passed the state proficiency exam in 2005, a statistic that is even more embarrassing considering that city schools spend around $20,000 per pupil--far above the $13,000 state average (itself the second-highest in the country).”
Son of African-American civil rights activists.
-- New York Times: In this age of riches, many millionaires in Silicon Valley don’t view themselves as particularly fortunate, because others have more and the cost of living is sky-high.
Blog Watch
The Senate Site highlights the National Conference of State Legislatures this week in Boston. At the conference, President John Valentine will discuss the Senate Site in a forum focused on interactive technologies for communicating with the public.
Lighter Side
"Strange how a man not fit to be your son-in-law produces the most adorable grandchildren."
--Author unknown (Salt Lake Tribune Crypotquote) |
