I’ve been invited for a lunch chat with one of the two Democratic Senate Candidates Christopher Stout. I’ve never met Chris before so I’m looking forward to it. I did, however, work with his nephew Tony in 2004 – so if this stuff is in the genes, I expect he’ll be pretty intelligent and charismatic. This ought to be fun.
I’ll throw this out there for folks: Anything I ought to ask him?
And do me a little favor – serious questions, none of the sarcasm that some folks who don’t like the democratic process always feel like asking.
I got a call from Stout just last week it was the first one I ever got from a Senate Candidate. He’s pretty smart and knows his issues. Ask him when he’ll have online donations on his websit4e.
ASk him if he knows why Granato dropped out of the race.
Does he have any pets?
Are they shelter pets?
Why run as a Democrat in Utah? Dems can’t win in Utah.
Fun questions, guys. Except for Nedd.
JT – Sam Granato didn’t drop out the race.
I would ask him about the difficulties of breaking into a race where the party elites have seemingly already annointed their candidate. More than two weeks after announcing his candidacy most of the media still refers to Sam Granato as “the lone democrat running” So, I guess I am saying, ask him about the challenges of facing an apathetic media and a quasi-hostile party power structure. Only, “I want you to use all your powers — and all your skills” to the phrase it better.
Jason, quasi hostile? Party elites? Why don’t you tell us how you really feel about part activists? LOL!
Good luck to Mr. Stout, but let’s face facts, Granato has a much better chance of winning.
By the way, many of us elitist are pretty sure that Jim and J.T. are the same person, probably Stout himself.
Ask him about the accounting gimmicks that are used in the federal budget? Or more generally as an accountant how would he balancing the budget.
Top of the ticket is a pretty serious position. Ask him what is his experience in public service. Ask him if he has ever been a delegate, and what he has done in his past for other candidates.
Elites – the IP addresses are different. Way to drop to the tin foil hat level, though. Part of the process is having choices in elections. Face that Sam has a lock on the race? Why? How does that serve the exchange of ideas, and the sharing of experience. Pretty boneheaded thinking there. Not everyone feels the need to troll the blogs looking for a space to place their asshat statements, but it’s nice you manage to find the time.
Everyone else, though, good questions (even if I do see what you’re doing there, John).
Just straight up questions.
And, I agree. To assume anything is wrapped up is arrogant.
Could you please post his responses to our questions?
As soon as I actually go to lunch with him – I will.
I should actually invite him in here to do it himself.
Jim: Due to the snowstorms back east we didn’t get my FEC number until recently. You can donate through ActBlue at community.stout2010.com and we’ll have a link up at the main site within the week.
JT: Granato hasn’t dropped out of the race, although his campaign doesn’t have much of a web presence – at least as of this post.
Mindy: I have a Jack Dempsey named Bob Finnegan and a plecostomus named Plecostomus. I rescued Bob from my daughter and son-in-law. Other than Jack Dempseys, the last pet I had was a shelter dog that I raised as from a pup, a German Shepard mix named Anastasia – Annie for short. She and her brothers and sisters were left in a dumpster behind a supermarket and she was the runt. If I get another dog, it will be a shelter dog.
Nedd: I suppose I would have a better chance if I ran as a Republican? The problem is that Democrats themselves don’t believe they can win. Republicans would vote for a good solid Democrat that shares some of their views. I don’t believe that all Republicans in Utah are of the Carl Wimmer, Chris Buttars, and Mike Noel variety. The core or base of either party here in Utah makes up probably 20% on the Democrat side and 30% on the Republican side. These are the hard core liberals and conservatives. Everything else is up for grabs.
It also depends on who the ultimate candidates are. If Mike Lee wins the nomination at the Republican Convention – which I think is a strong possibility, the moderate Republicans and Independents will be looking for a strong fiscal responsible candidate to vote for. In that case, the odds favor the more rational candidate. If Bob Bennett wins the nomination, then the job is harder, but not out of reach. Bennett has become a flip-flopper and with money and support and believe I can steal votes from him.
Repeat after me: “Democrats can win in Utah.” Keep repeating it, and after you’ve repeated 10 tens, open up your wallet and make it happen. We won’t win without money flowing into our campaigns.