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Park City Center Institute
The Park City Center for Public Policy will convene its inaugural Public Policy Institute Sept. 20-21. The event will bring national and local leaders to Park City to address key public policy issues, including healthcare financing and access; better approaches to improve mental health and reduce addiction; and ways to reform the American legal system so that it better promotes justice, liberty, health and prosperity in our society.
Participants will include business executives, former governors and other leaders who will reframe tough issues in ways that generate promising solutions to public issues. The Institute will begin Thursday morning, Sept. 20, with a special introduction to the Park City Center by its Chairman, Bill Shiebler and President, Jim Souby. Among the participants will be Utah First Lady Mary Kaye Huntsman. For more information, see the Park City Center web site.
Campaign Management Seminar
CampaignsandElections.com is producing another campaign management seminar Oct. 1-2, this one in Bedford, New Hampshire, ground zero for the 2008 presidential primary campaign. Seminars and breakout sessions include topics such as polling secrets, GOTV done right, stretching campaign dollars, how to win a multi-candidate primary, dealing with reporters, drafting a campaign plan, 99 campaign tips, targeting done right, etc. Cost is $495 or $300 for students and academics. For more information and registration forms, click here.
Hinckley Journal of Politics
The Hinckley Institute of Politics at the U. of U. has announce the publication of the 2007 edition (Volume 8) of the Hinckley Journal of Politics. This year’s journal features articles by Utah Senator Greg Bell, Utah Representative Carol Spackman Moss, Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, and several University of Utah students on topics ranging from public school class sizes to the status of women in Kuwait. To browse the 2007 Hinckley Journal, click here. For more information about the Hinckley Journal of Politics, including information about being a member of the 2008 Hinckley Journal Editorial Board or paper submissions, click here.
Today in Political History
September 5, 1774: The first Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia (until Oct. 26) to develop a plan for independence from England. Delegates included Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Lee, John Jay, John Adams, and George Washington.
Sept. 5, 1972: Palestinian terrorists attack the Israeli Olympic team at the summer games in Munich; 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, five terrorists and a police officer are killed. (New York Times)
September 5, 1991: US trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega begins. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
-- Thomas Jefferson (Source: Quote Garden)
Campaign Tip
Voter ID & Turnout
By Jim Ross
It is one of the great political clichés, the day before an election an analyst says about a race: “It all depends on turn-out.” That statement is true, but voter turnout is much like Mark Twain said about the weather, everyone complains about turnout but no one does anything about it. For Gavin Newsom’s mayoral campaign we did something about turnout.
While managing Newsom’s 2003 mayoral race we identified the need to effect turn-out in his favor in order to win the election. San Francisco’s mayoral elections are traditionally close and very hard fought campaigns that attract national attention. They have also been a testing ground for voter turnout techniques and voter identification.
During the course of the campaign we learned several things:
• You can start voter identification early. Those voters that endorse early, if you communicate with them, will stick with you.
• Reach out to areas or communities that may not universally support you; a campaign can find pockets of support in even the most hostile areas.
• If possible use vote by mail or absentee voting and early voting to extend your GOTV efforts.
• Use volunteers to reach the voters you can’t reach through other means. (Read entire article in Complete Campaigns)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- New York Sun: "Kicking off what is sure to be a frenzied four-month sprint to the Democratic presidential primaries, Senator [Barack] Obama of Illinois and John Edwards are taking aim at Senator [Hillary] Clinton's embrace of a Washington political system that they say was broken even during her husband's time in the White House."
-- Bloomberg: Columnist Albert R. Hunt: "American Republicans are in bad shape beyond next year's election for basic reasons, aside from the war in Iraq or the unpopularity of the incumbent; almost every important indicator is negative for them."
-- Detroit Free Press: Columnist Ron Dzwonkowski: "The table has never been better set for Democrats to take control of the country next year and hold on to it for a long time. But never underestimate the Democratic Party's ability to blow it."
-- Baltimore Sun: Editorial: "Florida ... has now revealed how little control political parties have over the presidential primary process. Defying the Democratic National Committee, Florida leapt to near the head of the line on the primary calendar, and there's nothing the party can do about it except deny the state's delegates a vote at a nominating convention next summer that has been rendered meaningless, partly by all this wanna-be-first jockeying."
Sutherland Voucher Study
The Sutherland Institute has posted a new study, Vouchers, Vows, and Vexations, that finds that "Utah's education history is replete with ongoing, often controversial, reforms." Says Sutherland Pres. Paul Mero: "The voucher debate isn't new. It is simply one more reform in a long line of school reforms throughout state history. .... Evolving school reforms lead to change and we shouldn't be surprised that these things continue to change. It's the nature of our human experience, and it's certainly the experience of education policy in Utah."
Blog Watch
-- Holly Mullen says of J.D. Williams, who passed away on Monday: "J.D. inspired thousands of college students at the University of Utah (and Stanford and Harvard, too) to plant their feet in democracy. His was a roll up your sleeves approach to living in this great country. ... In days to come people will be eulogizing J.D. in much more refined ways than I can. I've lost a committed teacher and friend. The country has lost a true patriot. This nearly one-party state has lost a liberal firebrand who helped keep it honest. I'm deeply saddened by this loss but grateful beyond words for the time I had with this man."
-- At Out of Context, Robert Gehrke says: "So, by now you've probably heard about Rep. Chris Cannon's summer tour preaching the virtues of nonproliferation to government officials in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan? Really? Odd. But nowhere near as bizarre as Cannon espousing nonproliferation, considering it was just more than two years ago that Cannon was supporting renewed nuclear testing in Nevada, development of nuclear bunker busters and using nuclear weapons as a deterrent against terrorist attacks."
Lighter Side
“If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions.”
-- Winston Churchill (As quoted in Jeff Thredgold’s “The Economist Joke Book.”) |
