The Week Ahead
The 2007 election season, and all those campaign ads, come mercifully to an end on Tuesday. It has been a most unusual municipal election, with numerous ballot questions that have boosted the election stakes considerably. No big election surprises are likely, but it will be interesting to see if the Salt Lake City mayoral race and the voucher battle tighten up at the end.
On the legislative front, several committee and task force meetings are scheduled, including a subcommittee on Friday that will consider legislation to deal with teacher shortages, quality and compensation (see agenda). Also, the Government Competition and Privatization Subcommittee on Wednesday will consider legislation that helps to prevent local government entities from competing with the private sector (see agenda). See the legislative calendar for information about all the legislative activity this week. For all the week’s political events, see the Utah Policy.com calendar.
Monday Musing
What Will Voucher Vote Mean?
If vouchers lose in a landslide in Tuesday’s election, the issue will probably die off, for at least a time. But if the vote is reasonably close, voucher supporters will be encouraged to carry on the crusade. If the election tightens at the end, vouchers supporters will interpret that to mean that citizens were beginning to understand the issue better and the tide was starting to turn.
Clearly, pro-voucher messaging, with some exceptions, has been better at the end of the campaign. It started off badly for the pro-voucher side, with the education establishment successfully framing the debate as pro-public school vs. anti-public school. An important political lesson here is to never allow your opponent to define you early in a campaign.
One thing to watch will be the distribution of the votes. If vouchers win in a lot of Republican legislative districts, but are defeated badly in Democratic districts, the Republicans will keep up the fight.
It’s interesting to juxtapose the voucher debate with what’s currently happening in health care reform. Most serious health care reform proposals move away from employer-provided insurance, and instead would put the money to buy insurance in the hands of consumers, who would then choose their plans and take more responsibility for their health care decisions.
Sen. Bob Bennett last week said of his health care proposal: “It puts control of the dollars in the hands of the people who are buying the services. The employee makes the decision about where the money is going to go." Former Utah Gov. and now HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt recently wrote much the same thing. He said he has learned that you almost always get better results when you give money to individuals to buy services, rather than giving the money directly to the institutions providing the services.
And, really, that’s all we’re talking about with regard to vouchers. If a portion of the money Utah spends per pupil goes to parents to appropriately spend at the school of their choice, instead of being sent directly to the school institutions, then we’ll see better education results.
Washington Watch
Cannon: Investigate 'Diplomat Mutiny'
Rep. Chris Cannon asks House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to investigate the unwillingness of career diplomats within the State Department to render service in Iraq (see press release).
William McKinley and the Mormons
McKinley knew Lorenzo Snow as a boy in Ohio. Future Church president George Albert Smith was in the Music Hall at the Pan-American Expo in Buffalo, New York and heard the gun go off that shot and killed McKinley. (From Mike Winder’s Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America’s Presidents and the LDS Church)
Today in Political History
Nov. 5, 1872: Suffragist Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in a presidential election. (National Journal political calendar)
Nov. 5, 1898: U.S. forces land in China at Peking and Tientsin to protect American interests during conflict between Dowager Empress and her son. (Source: Perspicuity)
Nov. 5, 1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon wins the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace.
Wise Words
“Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?”
-- Calvin and Hobbes (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
5 Tips on Exemplary Leadership
-- Give employees their freedom. Communicate the goals and let them figure out how to reach those goals. They want control over their working lives.
-- Create an environment that encourages energy and spirit. That leads to happy customers.
-- Strive to help employees feel that when they have accomplished the business’s goals, they have also accomplished their own personal goals.
-- Create a sense of meaningful purpose. Most workers want to feel they are engaged in something “larger than themselves.”
-- Recognize that leadership means responsibility and stewardship. “Leadership is not rank, privileges, titles, or money,” says management guru Peter F. Drucker. (Source: Score.org)
National Politics
Best Stories From …
-- The Hill: "Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, on Sunday criticized the Bush administration's Pakistan policy after Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended his country's constitution and began a crackdown on opposition leaders."
-- Gannett New Service: "The sheen of inevitability that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has cloaked around her presidential candidacy has been suddenly and fiercely challenged. ... Less than two months before the first real votes are cast, the intensity of attacks on the Democratic senator's character is de facto proof that both Democrats and Republicans consider her the front-runner going into 2008."
-- Washington Post: Columnist George Will says Congress should "put the Constitution's bridle back on the presidency" by impeding what Will sees as Pres. Bush's efforts to "initiate a war with Iran."
-- The Politico: "One year before voters go to the polls to select the next president, the Republican Party is as weak as it has been in a generation, a detailed new poll from the PewResearchCenter for the People and the Press suggests."
Taxpayers Assoc. Newsletter
The Utah Taxpayers Association has posted its November newsletter. This month's edition features a look at state property tax revenues and a column by Assoc. Pres. Howard Stephenson on the need for spending transparency in Utah.
Lighter Side
Feel the Love. Funny parody of Democratic presidential debates by New York Times columnist David Brooks.
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