ATTENTION: Taylorsville and West Jordan Residents !!

Pro-gun Republicans are being targeted in this Tuesday's caucus meetings by the UEA. This is a serious threat to our right to keep and bear arms in Utah! Please ... attend your neighborhood caucus meetings and run for county delegate positions or vote in pro-gun county delegates. Here is the latest GOUtah! alert:

GOUtah! Alert #296 â€" 22 March 2008

Today’s Maxim of Liberty:

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises,
I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it
gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games
played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for
the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore
be the constant companion of your walks.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

ATTENTION: TAYLORSVILLE AND WEST JORDAN RESIDENTS

Senator Mike Waddoups (R-6) has been a strong supporter of gun rights
and self-defense rights for many years in the Utah State Senate. In
the most recent legislative session, he worked hard to prevent HB 473
from passing after it had been hijacked and turned into an anti-gun
bill at the last minute by Rep. Steven Urquhart. While we don’t know
all the details of what went on behind the scenes, we believe that
Sen. Waddoups, as a member of the Senate Rules Committee, played a
crucial role in preventing this anti-gun bill from reaching the floor
of the Senate on the last day of the session, despite the apparent
desire of the Senate leadership to have it pass.

Sen. Waddoups has, over the years, sponsored a number of important
gun-rights bills in the face of massive criticism from the local news
media. For example, a few years back he sponsored the bill that
requires state-owned schools, colleges, and universities to allow-
permit holders to carry self-defense weapons on campus.

Sen. Waddoups informs us that the Utah Education Association (UEA) is
organizing its members in his district (Senate District 6) to attend
their local Republican caucus meetings this coming Tuesday evening
and get elected as county delegates specifically for the purpose of
defeating him at the Salt Lake County GOP convention and replacing
him with the UEA’s hand-picked candidate, Rhonda Rose. While GOUtah!
takes no position regarding the UEA or education issues in general
(except for issues directly related to the right to keep and bear
arms), we strongly believe that:

(a) Just as it is important to generate political pain for
politicians who have opposed gun rights, it is equally important to
reward politicians who have worked hard to defend our rights, such as
Sen. Waddoups by helping them when we can.

(b) From what little information we know about Sen. Waddoups’
Republican opponent, we strongly doubt that she will be anywhere near
as supportive of the Second Amendment as Sen. Waddoups has been.

(c) It is our observation that the UEA is very effective at getting
its members involved in the caucus system (much more effective than
gun-rights groups are, actually). If the UEA has targeted Sen.
Waddoups for defeat, this means that he could be in serious trouble
unless we can get enough gun owners in Senate District 6 to become
GOP County Delegates and support of Sen. Waddoups at the coming Salt
Lake County GOP Convention.

If you live in Senate District 6 (basically all of Taylorsville plus
the part of West Jordan that’s north of 7800 South), and if you are
either a member of the Republican Party or you are currently not
affiliated with a party but would like to help Senator Waddoups, you
can do so by attending the Republican caucus meeting in your precinct
next Tuesday night and running for the position of County Delegate.
If you are not affiliated with a political party but you wish to help
Sen. Waddoups, there will be registration materials at the meeting
and you may register as a party member, which will enable you to run
for the office of County Delegate.

Alternatively, if you have a friend or relative living in Senate
District 6 who would like to help Sen. Waddoups, we encourage you to
pass this information on to him.

For details regarding the time and place of caucus meetings for all
political parties, please go to the Action Item at the end of this
alert.

OTHER PRO-GUN LEGISLATORS WHO NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Here are some other incumbent politicians who have been especially
active in supporting the right to keep and bear arms, but who are now
being challenged from within their own party. We encourage those of
you living in any of these districts who are members of these
legislators’ political party, or who are not affiliated with a
political party, to consider attending the relevant caucus meeting
and running for the office of County Delegate to help support these
folks:

Sen. Mark Madsen (Republican, Senate District 13, Springville,
Spanish Fork, Santaquin, Cedar Fort)

Rep. Curt Oda (Republican, House District 14, Clearfield)

Rep. Stephen Sandstrom (Republican, House District 58, Orem)

HOW TO OPPOSE ANTI-GUN POLITICIANS

The following state legislators have recently been instrumental in
opposing gun rights and self-defense rights in the Legislature, in
our opinion, and are currently being challenged within their own
parties. If you live in one of these districts, we encourage you to
participate in the appropriate caucus meeting and run for County
Delegate so that you’ll have an opportunity to cause political pain
for these guys by voting against them at their county conventions.

Rep. Steven Urquhart (Republican, running for the State Senate in
Senate District 29, St. George area).

Sen. Curt Bramble (Republican, Senate District 16, Provo and Orem area)

NOTE: GOUtah! does not endorse any political party. Our aim is to
inform gun owners how they can effectively work to create political
pain for politicians of any party who oppose the Second Amendment and
how they can help reward politicians of any party who support the
Second Amendment. Such a carrot-and-stick approach is, in our view,
a very effective tool for protecting our rights via the legislative
and executive branches of state government.

ACTION ITEM

The major political parties in Utah will hold their caucus meetings
this coming Tuesday evening, March 25th, at 7:00 pm. We encourage
all of you to attend the caucus meeting of the party of your choice
in your local area. Depending on the party and the county, caucus
meetings (also called “mass meetings”) may be held in each voting
precinct, or in each legislative district, or on a multi-precinct
basis. Regardless of which political party you choose to affiliate
with, by being elected as a County Delegate or a State Delegate (or
both), you will be in a much better position to exercise political
power in defense of the Second Amendment. Even if you don't get
elected as a delegate, by participating in a caucus meeting you can
help ensure that pro-gun delegates get elected from your community.

The state’s daily newspapers should publish the locations of all
caucus meetings this weekend. Alternatively, you may find the
locations on the Internet.

For the Democratic Party’s caucus locations, go to http://
www.utdemocrats.org/ht/d/sp/i/1139834/pid/1139834

For the Republican Party’s caucus locations, go to http://
home.utgop.org/page.php

It appears that the Libertarian Party will not be holding caucus
meetings this year, but will have a state convention on April 19th.
See http://www.lputah.org for further details.

__________________________________________
That concludes GOUtah! Alert #296 â€" 22 March 2008.
Copyright 2008 by GOUtah!. All rights reserved.

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