Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Caucus Meeting Results - Anyone But Bob

Last night was our Neighborhood Caucus Meetings and it was great to see all the people come out. This year we had over 20 people in my tiny little living room, compared to the six the last time, this was a great turn out. The meeting went off without any problems and we elected some new officers this year. Once again I will be representing South Ogden 2 as the Precinct chair, my wife as the Vice Chair. But we have added a new Secretary Trisha White.

Where things really got heated was in State Delegate debate. You could tell everyone was there to talk about Bob Bennett. What is to be done with our Senator? A healthy debate broke out regarding the issue and a straw poll was cast. More than half agreed they would support Anyone But Bob. Some of our more mature participants weighed in on Mr. Bennett's seniority, however the young crowd cried foul on seniority and said now is the time for someone new and who is a real Republican.

After the meeting I spent the rest of time with our Leg Chair collecting packets. Nearly 90 of the precincts in Leg 10 all shared the same sentiment--Anyone But Bob. Also, as I have following the pulse of the Utah political climate on Twitter and Facebook, the results seem to be similar.
With these kinds of results, I don't anticipate a slow demise like Chris Cannon had, I predict an all out war with Bennett losing.

If you are Bennett supporter you better come up with a better reason than seniority; if you are a Anyone But Bob supporter then your candidate better prove to have the "MOXIE" to win and take charge.

Interesting night and an interesting election to come.

2 comments:

Michael Booth said...

At our caucus last night (South Ogden 7), the discussion was mainly between Bob Bennett and Mike Lee. Our attendance was about 14 people. I was the youngest person there at age 36. Discussion points were (these are not necessarily my own opinion):

Bob Bennett
---------------
Pros:
* He's very accessible; Several of those in attendance had met him and had conversations with him
* He has a degree of seniority
* He has a record and experience
* Sen. Hatch likely won't run for another term so losing Bennett could in the near future leave us with two inexperienced senators

Cons:
* He's made some unpopular votes (TARP, earmarks, gun control)
* Despite serving for 18 years, he's still a "mid-grade" senator

Mike Lee
---------------
Pros:
* Served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Alito
* Seems to have good understanding of the U.S. Constitution
* Young, new, could do much better than Bennett

Cons:
* Few of the attendees knew much about him
* Young, new, could do much worse than Bennett
* Fear of him being not moderate enough

The final consensus was "don't really know" who to vote for. Everyone agreed to do more research and to contact the delegates with their opinions.

All in all, I wouldn't count Bennett out just yet. The consensus on the internet (blogs, comments, Facebook, Twitter) is definitely stacked against him. But out of all the people in my caucus last night, I'm probably the only one participating on the internet. I'm sure there are still many members of the party, and more importantly delegates, whose opinion is not yet known. This could still be Senator Bennett's game.

BenJoeM said...

Great Comments Mike, I think I will turn these into a post.