Guest Blog: KVNU’s Tom Grover
By Tom Grover of KVNU’s For The People
First a shout out to the Government 2.0 Crew for putting together a multi-media live blogging blitz for the Convention. It’s great for people who couldn’t be at UVSC and it’s nice for talk show hosts who will use the audio for broadcast on Monday. As I have been ranting on KVNU recently there are just two kinds of people in the political world: those who get blogging and those who don’t. And those who don’t get it will soon be marginalized.
This was the first State Convention that I have attended. Aside from the barrage of free chocolates, rice crispie treats and tshirts, perhaps most striking aspect was the access that delegates have. Legislators, Congressmen and U.S. Senators blended in with the delegates and gave them truly personal and undivided attention. This kind of access is pretty rare in politics. During the Convention I was near the back with the Cache County delegation. Senator Bennett was about 15 feet away chit chatting with whomever wanted to talk for at least an hour.
The State Treasurers race was intriguing. The point of contention was not over specific issues, but what criteria delegates ought to use to cast their ballots. Mark Walker emphasized that he was a conservative and then paraded a “Who’s Who” of the Republican Party to vouch for him. Richard Ellis emphasized his professional training and expertise. So it was political philosophy vs. professional expertise. I voted for professional expertise, but was in the minority. Republicans state wide will have the final say in the debate.
I also really enjoyed running into friends and bloggers. Utah politics is a small world these days. Conventions tend to have a lot of dead time that can be made fun if you’ve got the right group to shoot the breeze with. Such was the case today with a really stellar Cache County delegation.
-Tom