This is a special invitation to all Log Cabin members, friends, and allies. Utah LCR along with the College Republicans on the U of U campus are hosting a special Senate Candidate Town Hall meeting this Wednesday, April 21st. We have already confirmed that six of the eight candidates will be there to answer questions and share their ideas with Republican State Delegates. We have 300 seats to fill and expect around 200 state delegates so there is plenty of room for all of you and your partners, friends, and guests to join with us.

If you are a state delegate it is critically important for you to attend as the candidates really want to meet each of you and find out where you stand on the issues affecting all of us every day, both GLBT issues and all issues in general. Even if you’re not a state delegate we still need you there to show these candidates who their constituents are, and how many of us that support GLBT issues will be voting in November.

The meeting will start at 7:00pm in the Saltair room in the Olpin Student Union Building. This room is in the northwest corner on the main floor past the main ballroom. Just follow the signs or ask at the main reception desk for directions. We have put together a very informative program with questions each candidate will need to respond to. After each group of questions all of you will be able to vote on weather the candidate did answer the question or not. This way the candidates will know immediately weather they answered or just skirted the issue right then, and that all the state delegate in attendance will know, too.

We have also invited all of the media and they need to see which candidates can actually answer these questions and where they really stand. Not all of our questions are GLBT related, but they are all relevant to what is happening in our daily lives such as health care, budget deficits, immigration, and more. If you really want to know where these Senate candidates stand then BE THERE! If there is a specific questions that you really want an answer to, please reply to this email with the question so we can get it included if possible.

Hi all,
James here again. As we prepare for the 2010 election I look around the Republican table for real national leaders.

So far our team of national leader is the same tired and losing team we have had for the last 4 years. Many are getting to be too old and the new “stars” have been troubled, by affairs and corruption.

Many of these people, Pallin, Romney, Sanford, Ensign believe in many conservative values, but let us remember that failing to live up to conservative principle’s is what got our collective asses kicked.

We failed to be fiscally conservative. We failed to lessen government in our lives. We failed to ensure the government was a neutral observer in our social lives.

The Republican revolution of 1994 lead by Newt was about Less government, and less government interference and therefore less spending, more state control and smaller government for less taxes. It was this class that balanced the budged with a democrat in the White House.

In 2000 Karl Rove took over. He used two presidential elections to push a social based agenda to give the Republicans a stronger majority. We ignored all other “true” conservative values. The result; two wars, a bloated government, that was more invasive, massive debt build up and serious social meddling. The American public gave us the benefit of the doubt in 04, but was fed up by 06. We failed to see the writing on the wall and continued down our, destructive social agenda above all else, path. We were completely trashed in 08.

The reaction to this defeat should be a return to core Republican values. We have a great opportunity, as the Democrats, drunk with power, keep screwing up, to ensure we balance the odds. Most of the time it take 2 election cycles to get back into balance. We have a unique opportunity to become more balanced in 2010 and so far we are blowing it!

We lost because we adopted the wrong strategy. Let us not make that same mistake twice. The principle of limited government interference does not blend well with demands from the left and right for major government interference on only a few issues, weather it is stem cell research or health care. Both are massive invasions of personal issues by the federal government.

And this kind of federal meddling is what make most Americans frustrated with government.

Everyone deserve a seat at the table and everyone’s opinions matter. We must stop ignoring those with somewhat different opinions in our party if we are to remain relevant in the next 100 years. I personally do not want to wait for Democrats to screw up to have more say in the federal government.

If they had played their cards right, they could have sidelined our party for a very long time after the complete failure for us to live up to our own values.

The time has come to get together and start listening to each other; to stop dictating to the majority. The jockeying for position among the most right wing of our party is such a mistake. The record speaks for itself on these issues. Those that only hold up their social record, fail! We have to have real leadership and come up with real alternatives to what is being done in Washington. We must stop being the party of “no” and become the party of ideas.

After failing to live up to our own standards it will take a while for the majority of Americans to trust us again. We must work extra hard and hope the Democrats keep tackling too much for us to regain the public trust.

I have deliberately left off Republican. It is good for recruiting in places like the Pride festival where we seem to be the minority. More importantly, we are a conservative group. We identify with the Republican party. However, there is currently a debate raging inside our party as to what defines a good Republican. Of coarse, we at LCR believe it is real conservative values, and we along with other groups, are debating with the religious right for the right to define conservative and therefore Republican.

I believe that the religious right is not conservative. We hear Republicans upset with the government for interfering with banks, the auto industry and health care currently. We do not like the spending that goes with that government interference in a Free Market economy. We are also unhappy with with the way the government has botched Social Security and Medicare for the elderly and disabled. Almost all Republicans alike are in agreement in these things. Conservatives the country over feel the government needs to be smaller and more efficient, not bloated with new spending and new social programs that continue to eat away at our liberty and economic power globally.

We hailed the governments decision, under the Bush administration, to create some national standards for schools, as imperfect as it was. We also welcomed that the Bush administration opened up federal funding to religious charities that provide services to the homeless and underprivileged. Creating a better playing field in education and making federal grants available to all institutions including religious ones creates fairness and equality. It does not punish those with ro without beliefs and lets all of the various groups compete with the same guidelines.

These are all good conservative principles. The government should be limited and create simple guidelines for us to share, and compete in, without concern for undo pressure from the big guys, and free of government micromanagement. The religious right wants all of these things. I find it funny then that they consistently want government at all levels to interfere in how we live our lives. They do not want the government in health care, but they want the government in our bedrooms. This contradiction is huge. The social agenda of the religious right does not meet the criteria for good limited government. It espouses limited government unless….

Many of our personal freedoms took a hit under the Republican Social agenda. This is what we must undo and repair in order to improve the quality of the lives all Americans lead.

As Republicans that espouse conservative principles, we should do all we can to get true conservatives back in charge of the party.

I believe the government should use the “my rights end where your rights begin” motto as a measuring test more often. The government should make sure the borders are secure, and that our national defense is strong and capable. They should want me, to not murder, steal, or defraud my neighbors. They should ensure that companies are responsible to the environment. These things affect us all. Abortion, stem cell research, and civil marriage for all, do not inherently meet this standard. These are almost exclusively individual or family decisions that have no impact on society at large. The do not infringe on the rights of others. Asking the government to micromanage or disallow individuals to make decisions on these things is very intrusive and inhibits our personal freedoms. We should resist any and all attempts to do this. Allow religions to continue to debate and change the minds of our people individually, but get the government out of the business of sanctioning any one belief system.

These ideas are a few of the reasons I am a Republican, and why, as a conservative, I want the party back in the hands of conservatives and out of the religious right. They have a place in the party, but under leadership from the religious right, we have failed to deliver on the promise that is America. Just like the Democrats, we have ballooned the national debt, spread our military too thin, allowed our border to leak like a sieve and seen more large government programs, that have eaten away our freedom while failing to provide all of the promised security we traded it for. Remembering real conservative values is the way to ensure the Republican party is more relevant in this political climate. Let’s use these values to demonstrate the true difference between the two parties and let the people choose.

Maine became the 5th state to allow same sex marriage on Wed, May 6th, 2009. The state will allow “any two people” to wed starting this summer. This was historic in several ways.

First, it was not court mandated.
Second, It was approved in the legislature with little opposition
Third, It was signed by the governor straight away.

We are seeing a trend in the northeast that is encouraging.

New Hampshire has a similar measure expected to be on the governor’s desk by next week and Rhode Island has a bill before its’ legislature that may not pass this years but seems sure to pass soon.

New York’s governor has indicated he will send a same sex marriage bill to the legislature soon as well. I spoke with the Hudson Valley Chapter President of Log Cabin last week about this and he indicated that Republican leadership in the legislature has been told it will be ok to vote for same sex marriage this time around. New York already recognizes same sex marriages performed legally from other states and the world.

Lastly, the Washington DC city council approved a measure this week to recognize all marriages including same sex marriages performed throughout the various states.

The tide is turning in our direction on this issue and we applaud all of the Republicans that has crossed the isle to vote for equal civil right for our LGBT community on this issue.