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June 19, 2017 In Democratic Party

Utah State Democratic Party Organizing Convention

This Saturday, June 17, the Utah State Democratic Party held their annual organizing convention. At the convention an election was held for the party’s Executive Committee. The results are as follows:

Chair: Daisy Thomas
Vice Chair: Marcus Stevenson
Secretary: Cristobal Villegas
Treasurer: Crystal Young-Otterstrom

The Democratic Caucuses also held meetings at the convention.

The role of Chair decides the direction of Utah State Democrats in policy and action, so this was an important election. Daisy Thomas ran on a platform of uniting the somewhat divided party, hoping to bring the disenfranchised Bernie supporters back into the fold. Daisy spoke a lot about cooperation, the lack-there-of in recent times and the need for it in the coming months. There were 9 candidates running for Chair, so this was a much more competitive election for the party than usual.

Daisy Thomas also praised a group of people who were silently protesting the party’s decision not to release the results of the probe into allegations against Rob Miller. Miller had been accused of unwanted kissing, groping, and making inappropriate comments to women. Miller claims that the allegations were part of a conspiracy to ensure a woman would be elected to the position. The protesters stood with their backs to certain speakers who would have been involved with the probe, gagging themselves with tape over their mouths.

There were also disparaging emails that essentially boiled down to finger pointing that were passed around to Utah Delegates, ranging from accusing candidates of Marijuana use to bringing up unpaid traffic violations. The accused responded to the email chains defending themselves, though at that point the damage is done and you have to ask yourself whether a response is dignified. These events seem to be a good example of the disorganization and divided nature of the Utah Democrats. Slinging dirt at each other on and off the stage and generally muddying the political process for blue voters across the state.

Hopefully Daisy Thomas is up to the task of uniting the party and returning organization to the party.

April 22, 2017 In Speech

Bernie Sanders visits Utah

Bernie Sanders visited Utah Friday with a message of reunification for Democrats. Utah voted overwhelmingly in favor of Bernie during the 2016 primaries, earning him 79% of the Democratic vote.

Although he had strong support in the primaries in UT, the superdelegates were not behind him. Many Democrats for Bernie felt that their party wasn’t representing them, and that Bernie had been swept under the rug, even though he had overwhelming support. Many feel that this ultimately gave the election to Trump. This schism was seen in many places throughout the country, and has lead to fracturing and mistrust within the Democratic party. Bernie has been traveling across the country, visiting places that supported him during the primaries to try and reunite the party.

The “Come Together and Fight Back” tour, although meant to untie the party, was not without self-awareness. Bernie spoke about the issues with the Democratic party plainly: “The Democratic Party has kind of turned its back on a lot of states in this country and I think that was a mistake.”

Bernie spoke primarily about his core issues, including health care reform, eliminating tax-loopholes for the rich, protecting the environment, raising the minimum wage, women’s health rights, reducing student debts, and peaceful relations with other countries. Bernie has been consistent with his support of these issues for many years, and in that sense, his speech was mostly the same as it has always been.

Many people hope that Bernie will attempt to run for president again in 2020. Many voters also feel that he will be too old. Speaking with people in the crowd, the general sentiment is that they’d like for him to be president in 2020, but feel that that might not be realistic as he seemed to be taxing his health significantly during the 2016 primaries. That being said, he might be the one candidate that can unite a mistrusting Democratic party. Utah, a consistently red state, saw record democratic turnouts during the 2016 primaries.

Overall, this rally seemed to be Bernie’s way of patting Utah Democrats on the back, and saying “everything’s going to be ok if we work together.” Although the crowd was clearly overwhelmingly in support of Bernie, they seemed jaded and upset. Only time will tell if a Democratic party leader will be able to step up and engage the Utah Democrats as effectively as Bernie.

Here’s a link to a video by KUTV of his speech.

April 9, 2017 In Ouwrites.org News

Salt Lake County Democratic Convention

Here at OurWrites.org, we’re in attendance at the 2017 spring Salt Lake County Democratic party convention. It’s just begun and looks to be a very enlightening day for democracy.

Update: The caucuses were very enlightening. There was a lot of excitement in the crowds.

The results of the elections are as follows:

Chair: Q Dang

Q Dang spoke a lot about gerrymandering. It’s a very real problem that the Supreme Court has began to address, though Salt Lake County is not included in the scope of its examination. The districts in Salt Lake County have obviously been cut into eye-brow raising shapes, and Q Dang hopes to address this with a ballot initiative. The initiative would require 150,00 signatures to be considered, so he has his work cut out from him, but if he can organize his party, it should be an obtainable goal.

1st Vice Chair: Faiza Javed

Faiza Javed has been working with the community through social work for many years. She seems to be a very empathetic person and gave a wonderful speech about what she’s experienced as a therapist dealing with issues such as addiction, racism, domestic violence and the hardships that come with the myriad of other issues people in our community deal with.

2nd Vice Chair: Joe Bycroft

Joe Bycroft has a lot of experience working with the Salt Lake County democratic party:

15 years as president of my IBEW local 650 labor union,
3 years experience as the local chairman of my IBEW local 650 union,
3 years community council action,
5 years safety captain for the Union Pacific railroad,
8 year membership in the labor caucus,
8 years as a delegate and precinct captain,
2 years with women’s caucus, (because I love and believe in the strength of women)
1 year in the progressive caucus.

With a resume like that, it’s obvious to see why this very-approachable candidate was selected.

Secretary: Ellen Brady

Ellen Brady is another Salt Lake County veteran, and spoke with wisdom and prudence at the caucuses. She talked about an inclusive focus for the party platform:

Strengthening the party infrastructure at the precinct level through training and ongoing engagement,
Creating synergies with the various grass roots organizations that have sprung up since the election,
Strengthening issue caucuses to function as an effective voice,
Strengthening efforts to coordinate volunteer resources among campaigns in an effort to prevent fragmentation that comes from spreading limited resources in too many directions.

Ellen Brady has been a practicing physician for decades and came across as an experienced leader that the Salt Lake Country democratic party will surely benefit from, as it has in the past.

Treasurer: Jennifer Dailey-Provost

Jennifer was a shoe-in for the position this convention, and will be sure to be an effective treasurer with her experience as an accountant. She’s passionate about electing more democrats in the Salt Lake Valley and is sure to bring that energy to the table in the form of surgical accuracy in her role as treasurer.

Organizing Progressives

One thing that was discussed a lot at this convention is that democrats, progressives, liberals – call them what you will – constantly have issues with party organization. There are sometimes divisions within the party, or a lack of involvement and awareness with issues in the valley, that can often cost candidates their elections. The democrats have a meager online presence, and often-times canvasing is the only effective means to get the word out.

This is where we here at OurWrites.org could be of help. Let this website serve as a bastion of progressive ideas, use its forums to organize and create objectives, and use OurWrites.org as the megaphone for your message, the rallying cry of your movement. Together, we can bring about change and fairness to every dark political corner in this great nation.

Whether you are a republican or democrat; informed, honest politics is a noble cause. We need involved and knowledgable voters. OurWrites is striving for that goal, which I think is something everyone can get behind.

March 30, 2017 In Ouwrites.org News

Ourwrites.org is open!

It’s been a long road to get here, but we here at OurWrites.org are happy to announce that the site is officially live. This site was envisioned to be a bastion of free speech and intelligent discussion between voters and their elected officials, and we’ll be working hard to achieve that goal.