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Author: chrissyfanaat
Added: 29/04/2021
viernes, 30 de abril de 2021
Southern Utah man charged with attacking officers during U.S. Capitol riot
A Washington County man was arrested Wednesday and charged with attacking police officers during the deadly insurrection and riot at the U.S. Capitol in January while Congress was in the process of counting electoral votes.
Landon Kenneth Copeland, 33, of Apple Valley, is charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds. He is the fifth Utahn charged with participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Copeland is accused of grabbing a riot shield, shoving another crowd member into the police line and throwing a “metal bike rack fence barricade” toward officers after a tug-of-war over the bike rack, according to Department of Justice and a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
The complaint says Capitol Police footage, YouTube video and Instagram video “depict Copeland’s assaultive and obstructive conduct.”
Copeland stood at the front of a crowd of people that appeared to be trying to breach the police line at the Capitol, the complaint states, when an unknown person approached an officer and began shouting.
“From behind, Copeland pushed that unknown person into the officer, and the officer appeared to fall to the ground. Other officers, bearing riot shields, pushed forward against the crowd in an apparent attempt to protect the fallen officer. Copeland grabbed one of the riot shields and pushed back against the police line. He also grabbed at an officer’s jacket and pushed that officer backward. Then he lowered his body to block officers as they advanced. After a brief struggle, the police forced Copeland back,” according to the complaint.
Copeland is also accused of grabbing a metal fence serving as a barricade and trying to pull it away from police when pepper spray was deployed on him and others in the crowd. “In response, Copeland pushed or threw the fence toward multiple law enforcement officers,” the complaint says.
An FBI analyst assessed social media accounts of those involved in the insurrection and identified photos of Copeland taken at sites in Washington. The complaint says Copeland was wearing the same clothing in those photos as he was wearing in Capitol Police footage taken of the Capitol riot.
An FBI agent interviewed an acquaintance of Copeland on Feb. 1 in southern Utah who said that Copeland had taken a week off of work to travel to Washington to attend the rally on Jan. 6. The acquaintance said that Copeland told them about the events and admitted to engaging with police outside the Capitol, according to court documents.
In a Feb. 11 interview with the FBI, Copeland admitted he attended the rally, identified himself in photographs and “admitted to fighting with police officers,” the complaint states. Copeland allegedly told agents that he felt that “police officers were trying to ‘penetrate the line’ of the protesters and ‘steal’ individual members of the crowd.”
A series of Facebook posts from an account with the name Landon Copeland from Apple Valley addressed the case.
“So that everyone knows I go to see the FBI and a judge tomorrow,” one post from Wednesday states. “I guess peacefully protesting at the Capitol is now illegal and they are trying to hunt us all down to try and teach us a lesson. Unfortunately only one option remains when we return. We bring guns and take the Capitol building without intention of being peaceful. This ends with the government bombing their own people. I had hopes it wouldn’t. But here we are.”
Another post read: “A champion I stood that day before your soldiers and your dog men. May we never forget Ashli Babbit.”
Babbit was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach a set of doors in the Capitol during the riot. Federal prosecutors cleared the officer of any wrongdoing, indicating that the officer was firing in self-defense.
Copeland’s case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington field office and the Metropolitan Police Department, DOJ officials said, “with significant assistance provided by the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office.”
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3gRf3uP
Stampede at Israeli religious festival kills nearly 40
JERUSALEM — A stampede broke out early Friday at a Jewish religious festival attended by tens of thousands of people in northern Israel, killing nearly 40 people and leaving some 150 hospitalized, medical officials said.
The stampede, one of the deadliest civilian disasters in Israeli history, occurred during the celebrations of Lag BaOmer at Mount Meron. Tens of thousands of people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, gather each year to honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage and mystic who is buried there. Large crowds traditionally light bonfires, pray and dance as part of the celebrations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “great tragedy,” and said everyone was praying for the victims.
Media estimated the crowd at about 100,000 people.
Eli Beer, director of the Hatzalah rescue service, said he was horrified by how crowded the event was, saying the site was equipped to handle perhaps a quarter of the number who were there.
“Close to 40 people died as a result of this tragedy,” he told the station.
The incident happened after midnight, and the cause of the stampede was not immediately clear. Videos circulating on social media showed large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed together in tight spaces.
A 24-year-old witness, identified only by his first name Dvir, told the Army Radio station that “masses of people were pushed into the same corner and a vortex was created.” He said a first row of people fell down, and then a second row, where he was standing, also began to fall down from the pressure of the stampede.
“I felt like I was about to die,” he said.
Zaki Heller, spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service, said 150 people had been hospitalized, several dozen in serious or critical condition. Army Radio, citing anonymous medical officials, said the death toll had risen to 44.
That would match the death toll of a 2010 forest fire, which is believed to be the deadliest civilian tragedy in the country’s history.
Heller told the station “no one had ever dreamed” something like this could happen. “In one moment, we went from a happy event to an immense tragedy,” he said.
Photos from the scene showed rows of wrapped bodies.
The Israeli military said it had dispatched medics and search and rescue teams along with helicopters to assist with a “mass casualty incident” in the area. It did not provide details on the nature of the disaster.
It was the first huge religious gathering to be held legally since Israel lifted nearly all restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. The country has seen cases plummet since launching one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns late last year.
Health authorities had nevertheless warned against holding such a large gathering.
But when the celebrations started, the Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, police chief Yaakov Shabtai and other top officials visited the event and met with police, who had deployed 5,000 extra forces to maintain order.
Ohana, a close ally of Netanyahu, thanked police for their hard work and dedication “for protecting the well-being and security for the many participants” as he wished the country a happy holiday.
Netanyahu is struggling to form a governing coalition ahead of a Tuesday deadline, and the national tragedy is sure to complicate those efforts.
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Here is who Zach Wilson thanked for getting him there after being the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft
‘Zach’s Fifth Avenue,’ as internet wags starting calling him moments after the New York Jets picked him, said the club is ‘going to the Super Bowl’ to the delight of Jets nation
CLEVELAND — Before he slapped hands with overjoyed New York fans lining the runway at a makeshift stage adjacent to Lake Erie, hugged vaccinated NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and promised some of the most long-suffering patrons in the league that the Jets are “going to be a special team, baby” and “are going to the Super Bowl,” former BYU quarterback Zach Wilson shared a special moment with his parents, siblings and former coaches in the famed “green room” waiting area in Cleveland on Thursday night.
“We made it,” Wilson whispered to each as he hugged them and his girlfriend, Abbey Gile. “How amazing is this?”
Amazing, indeed.
For a few unforgettable minutes, the fresh-faced kid from Draper, a Salt Lake City suburb some 20 minutes away from Utah’s capital city, owned the country’s spotlight, and started to win the hearts of the denizens of its biggest city. As almost everyone expected, the Jets selected Wilson with the No. 2 pick of the 2021 NFL draft.
“I had a pretty good idea, but I wasn’t certain that I would be picked by the Jets,” Wilson said in an eight-minute news conference nearly an hour after the selection. “Just the emotions that went into it is what I will remember, and how excited I was to be in that situation and hugging both my parents and my siblings. … And then thinking forward to how we can get to the next step and how this is a steppingstone for what is to come.”
That’s right, within minutes of getting picked, the stylish quarterback with the bushy hair and otherworldly confidence, uber-prepared as usual, donned a green cap and immediately began plotting his future.
“There is not another team I would rather play for besides the Jets, so I am going to give it everything I have,” he said, both on the stage and in the media center a couple long bombs away from the draft theatre.
Wilson won the post-draft news conference, deftly answering the usual questions about playing for a non-Power Five conference team in a media market — Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo — much smaller than New York City, handling the criticism that will surely come after a bad game and not playing difficult opponents, especially in his junior season when the Cougars went 11-1 and were ranked No. 11 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.
“I will be ready for New York City,” he said. “I don’t think there is a better place to play. I am excited to play there, to be a part of that team, that culture, that fan base. It is going to be extraordinary.”
Can’t believe the day has finally come! Thank you for following me up to the big moment at the #NFLDraft! Really excited for where I land tonight! @verizon #VerizonPartner pic.twitter.com/VrjHmvBbJO
— Zachary Wilson (@zachkapono1) April 29, 2021
Confident and direct but rarely cocky or full of himself, Wilson said he fully expects to thrive in the Big Apple, even as internet wags tagged his arrival as “Zach’s Fifth Avenue,” a shoutout to the famed Manhattan street and high-end store considered one of the most expensive to live on and shop at in the world.
The kid from Draper can certainly afford it now, although friends say he will live as close to the Jets’ practice facility in New Jersey as possible because he hates to waste time traveling. Wilson said his grandparents on his mother’s side — Gary and Rose Neeleman — and parents — Mike and Lisa Wilson — instilled traits in him that will serve him well in a diverse city very unlike his hometown in Utah.
“I feel like I have the ability to relate with anyone. I feel like that is so important at this stage. These NFL guys all come from different backgrounds, and the cool part is we all come in with the same goal,” he said. “And I think that is what is special is we are all pushing for the same exact thing. I can’t wait to meet these guys.”
Moments after Wilson’s news conference wrapped up, the Jets got him some help, trading up for the No. 14 pick and getting offensive guard Alijah Vera-Tucker from USC.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake said “it was Zach’s idea” to have him, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, passing game coordinator Fesi Sitake, Corner Canyon High coach Eric Kjar and former BYU QB John Beck, his trainer the past few years, accompany him on the trip to Cleveland.
Just found out that on this huge night for @zachkapono1 at the NFL Draft, in addition to having his family and BYU coaches there, he made sure to invite his former high school coach at Corner Canyon, @KjarEric. Here's a few behind the scenes shots Kjar snapped from Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/aMpRtuhcHw
— James Edward (@DNewsPreps) April 30, 2021
Kalani Sitake described a scene at the hotel restaurant in downtown Cleveland Wednesday night a few hours after the entourage arrived in Ohio — a scene that brought tears to eyes as Zach Wilson personally thanked some of the many people who got him to this moment.
“I am so proud of Zach because this is his dream, and I am just really happy to be a small part of it,” Kalani Sitake said. “He belongs in this league, and obviously I am happy for him. Sad that I won’t have him another year, but really, really excited that he will have an opportunity to live out his dream and do it in the biggest media market in the world. How much fun is that?”
Zach Wilson hits the #NFLDraft Red Carpet @zachkapono1
— NFL (@NFL) April 29, 2021
: 2021 #NFLDraft -- 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/bK3BKyhd55
Because of Sitake and his More2Life Foundation, Wilson has been to Manhattan before. Sitake annually takes players to NYC to help run camps for the Harlem Jets, a youth football program in the city. Sitake chose Harlem as the location of the service work to honor the late BYU coach LaVell Edwards, who served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the area after retiring from coaching.
“It never occurred to me when I was there that I would be playing there,” Wilson said. “New York is a faraway place. I used to love visiting. It was such a blast. Staying right in the city, in Times Square, and I think it was a week we would spend there, working with a lot of those kids. It was a blast.
“Did I think I would be there within a year? I didn’t,” he said. “But what an amazing opportunity to be in that situation now.”
Sitake said Wilson is ready to get started on his next reclamation project, having signed with BYU in December 2017 after the Cougars went 4-9, missed a bowl game for the first time since 2004, and fired offensive coordinator Ty Detmer, one of the most popular players in program history.
But while it took him half the season to break into the starting lineup as a freshman in 2018, he is expected to jump into the fray almost immediately for the Jets, who went 2-14 in 2020 and traded away starter Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers after watching Wilson do his thing at BYU’s pro day on March 26.
Having talked to former Jets QBs while preparing for the draft, Wilson said he was struck by “just how amazing an opportunity and situation this is, with the new coaches they are bringing in and what (general manager) Joe Douglas is establishing and how hungry this team is to win, how great these players are. Really, they just kinda left that impression that, you know what, they are not far off. It is getting closer. I can’t wait to be a part of that.”
The NFL has a rookie wage scale, which assigns dollar amounts to draft slots, so as the No. 2 player taken Wilson can expect to sign a contract with a total value of $35.2 million, which includes a guaranteed signing bonus of $22.9 million.
Wilson has already signed endorsement deals with Nike, Chipotle, Utah-based Traeger Grills and other companies, which will thicken his wallet considerably.
What will be his first major purchase?
He told BYUtv that he is going to have a “good surprise” for his mother, which will be announced on his Instagram account soon.
For himself, the first automobile he will buy as a pro will be Tesla, but he might have to wait a bit. The model he covets doesn’t come out for a month or two. That the car drives itself is a feature he envies.
“I would love to get one of those,” he said.
As for the monikers such as “Zach’s Fifth Avenue” and “Broadway Zach,” he said he’s fine with them, then quickly added they are meaningless if he doesn’t deliver. The construction management major at BYU was already reading the room.
“I mean, it is cool, but it really doesn’t mean anything until we go in there and do something, win some games,” he said.
He joked about the oddity of seeing his father, a former University of Utah football player, wearing BYU colors for the first time a few years ago, and of seeing him don a suit and tie for Thursday’s festivities.
Then he choked up slightly when he was asked about his role models.
“There is no way I could list every person who has helped get me here,” he said. “… My dad has sacrificed so much time and money to be able to get me to different basketball camps and football camps and tons of different things. And now obviously my college coaches and my high school coaches and obviously my teammates.
“I mean, no one talks about how amazing we were as a team this last year at BYU,” he continued. “I think that is the amazing thing about football is that it is truly a team game. Every single guy on that roster had a huge role in this.”
So one special guy could make it.
It’s about that time @zachkapono1 Nfl draft pic.twitter.com/JB4d79uwTA
— Mike Wilson (@wilsonohana) April 29, 2021
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Sound principles, new circumstances: In praise of the First and Second Amendments
What do 1969, Snapchat and the First Amendment have in common?
Answer: The Supreme Court and the potential to set a new precedent for free speech.
In 2017, “B.L.” was a high school sophomore who was upset she didn’t make the varsity cheerleading team, instead finding herself placed on the junior varsity squad. The teen posted a photo on Snapchat of her and a friend raising their middle fingers to the camera with a caption containing expletives directed at the school, softball, cheer and “everything.”
The cheer coaches reacted to this post by suspending her from cheerleading for a year. Her father retaliated by bringing a lawsuit, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming an infringement of the student’s First Amendment rights.
On the surface, it seems the sort of story one might hear about in passing, not one that has the potential to set a precedent for the country.
B.L. is no longer a high school student, but after the Supreme Court hears her case, it will likely be the new marker for free speech.
The last landmark decision in this arena was in 1969 — a year most current high school students’ grandparents were beginning high school. The idea of social media was decades in the future, and cyberbullying wasn’t a term even found in science fiction.
Tinker v. Des Moines ruled that students were allowed to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The decision maintained that students retained their free speech rights on campus, saying students “do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Schools do, however, have the right to punish students for speech that “would materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.”
Where does a social media post — that was made off campus and on the weekend — fall? And does it have a larger impact on constitutional freedoms?
The decision could impact the power schools have to rein in cyberbullying and harassment, much of which happens off campus and after school hours, but has very real — sometimes fatal — consequences for students.
But a move against B.L. could disrupt parents’ right to supervise their children, giving schools power to punish children for “anytime anywhere” speech, effectively allowing them to subject students to a constant monitoring of shared thoughts or opinions.
Add in the layer of Zoom school, and the line between what speech schools can regulate and what is in the hands of parents becomes even more blurred.
Thank goodness for the First Amendment. It is the foundation upon which the decision will be made.
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. is not the only case that holds significant implications for constitutional rights.
The court also announced it will hear an appeal of a New York law that restricts people from carrying concealed handguns in public.
After a devastating spree of mass shootings and President Joe Biden’s vow to pursue stronger gun control measures, the case has garnered widespread attention and stoked further debate about court packing and the influence of politics on the court.
With a 6-3 conservative majority, many expect the Supreme Court to vote in favor of the right to keep and bear arms. Regardless, it will be one of the most influential cases on gun control in years.
Thank goodness for the Second Amendment. It, too, is a foundational principle upon which the court will provide guidance.
These two cases evince the court’s role in maintaining the integrity of our Constitution and and Bill of Rights, protecting the freedoms outlined therein. It also shows how complex that role can be.
We hope the justices will exercise judicial neutrality and hear each side fully, free of the political shouting that tends to rise when such cases reach the high court. And we hope the public can respect the judicial branch of government as it balances time-honored and inspired principles against the challenges of a new day.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3e4GJuH
Salt Lake City is planning a tiny home village to house hundreds of homeless. But where will it be built?
The search for the future site of The Other Side Village begins
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to start building a master planned tiny home community to house the homeless — and have some homes ready for move-in before winter sets in this year.
To pull it off, the mayor announced a new partnership with a familiar nonprofit that she lauded as having a proven track record of helping those who are homeless, battling substance abuse or who carry a criminal record to turn their lives around, all “while being a positive neighbor”: The Other Side Academy.
“This is a huge step forward in this project,” Mendenhall said in a news conference outside the Salt Lake City-County building. “We’re moving at light speed here, given the scope and urgency of the challenge we’ve had to do that. It’s gone from concept to execution in less than a year. And I think that’s a testament to the commitment of this capital city and to our partners to confront the reality and the complexity of the issues we face surrounding homelessness.”
The Other Side Academy, a provider that already operates a residential program in the Central City neighborhood of Salt Lake City, is a “partner that is devoted to the success and empowerment of its current students,” the mayor said.
“They have a proven track record of successfully managing a peer-based community while being an asset to their neighborhood and this city,” Mendenhall said. “And I know that devotion and passion for success will carry over into their work on The Other Side Village.”
Mendenhall’s announcement comes after the Deseret News first reported the mayor was eying building a tiny home community modeled after one in Austin, Texas, called Community First! Village, which was built by the nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes after decades of hard-fought not-in-my-backyard battles.
The Texas tiny home village has attracted nationwide attention for its charming neighborhood feel, its quirky houses of all shapes and sizes, its paved roads, manicured lawns, gardens and patio areas. But it’s not just a subdivision of tiny homes with the feel of a KOA campground. It’s also a community with wrap-around social services, shared bathroom and cooking spaces, a marketplace, and workshops where tenants can learn trades like vehicle repair, carpentry, pottery, painting, metal work. The tenants there earn their living with jobs like gardening, mowing and landscaping.
“We have needed to think creatively to get outside of the box and to get more people sheltered, and a tiny home community is one way that we can better serve our residents who are unhoused,” Mendenhall said. “The ambition of our creativity should match the enormity and complexity of challenges facing our residents who are unhoused in Salt Lake City.
“There’s no silver bullet. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for homelessness,” she said. “But this bold and new and first-in-our-state model could create an important addition to the suite of services that we currently have to offer those experiencing homelessness.”
Cost and location
The Texas village is also expensive. Its cost is upward of $45 million, with plans to expand beyond 51 acres. When the Deseret News visited the community in October last year, the village spanned 27 acres and included about 100 RV/park homes and 130 micro homes. It was expected to eventually house an additional 310 homes.
For The Other Side Village in Salt Lake City, it’s envisioned to eventually house 400 to 500 on 30 to 40 acres. The mayor wants a portion of those homes, not all, to be open by this fall.
But the location and total cost of the project are details that still need to be figured out, Mendenhall said.
“Those are questions we can’t answer just yet,” the mayor told reporters, though she noted the city could possibly fund it using $87 million Salt Lake City is slated to receive from the latest round of federal COVID-19 relief dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“As we get closer to determining where this village will be in the city, we will have a better sense of the costs,” Mendenhall said.
“I will say,” the mayor added, “there has been a tremendous amount of interest from the community at large. Not only, I think, philanthropic interest, but the building community, the architectural community, wanting to be a part of this.”
A website, theothersidevillage.com, has already been launched to begin taking donations.
Additionally, The Other Side Academy announced a $50,000 pledge to help kick-start the pilot project.
Joseph Grenny, chairman and founder of The Other Side Academy, said the intention is to set up The Other Side Village to be “self-reliant” and not need subsidy for ongoing operations. He noted The Other Side Academy was self-reliant within nine months of opening. At Community First! Village in Texas, residents are required to pay rent, ranging from about $230 a month up to $440 a month, depending on the unit type.
To determine The Other Side Village’s future location “with all haste,” Grenny said, a search team has been convened, comprised of former Salt Lake County mayor and real estate developer Peter Corroon, Clark Ivory, of Ivory Homes, the Miller Family Foundation, members of the Pioneer Park Coalition and others.
Mendenhall said she wants the site that’s chosen for the first pilot homes to be permanent — and have room for expansion.
“So it’s a significant piece of land size that we’re looking for,” she said.
When it’s built, Mendenhall said she also hopes it will “inspire and motivate other parts of the state of Utah to build similar tiny home communities.”
“We need this kind of housing throughout the state of Utah.”
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Laura Seitz, Deseret News
The Other Side culture
Grenny acknowledged simply building the “infrastructure” for a tiny home neighborhood alone “doesn’t solve the problem” of homelessness.
“Tiny homes are a great concept,” he said. “But tiny homes without the right culture could be a tiny disaster at some point.”
Grenny said the reason his nonprofit decided it had a role to play in this project “is because we know some things about building a strong, inclusive, loving and virtuous community.”
“The seven men and women standing behind me,” Grenny said, pointing to several Other Side students who joined Thursday’s news conference, “collectively spent 45 years living on our streets. Five years ago, they and about 100 of their brothers and sisters moved into a historic home in downtown Salt Lake City.”
Describing how Other Side’s average student has been arrested over 25 times, and almost all have long histories of addiction, crime or homelessness, Grenny said, “you’d think having 100 people with such profound challenges move into a historic downtown neighborhood would be a recipe for disaster.”
“But it wasn’t,” he said. “Since we began, our neighborhood has become more beautiful. The crime rate has dropped. And neighbors are regular beneficiaries of our students’ services.”
Grenny acknowledged “this kind of announcement can create apprehension for those who have images of tent cities and disorderly or even criminal behavior.”
“To any with these concerns, we say look at our history,” he said. “In the past five years, we have had governors, senators, mayors and business leaders from around the world spend hours and days with our students. All leave with one impression above the rest: that our students live at a higher level of morality, integrity and selfless service than most any group in our state.”
He joked that Other Side’s residential program is more “chaste and sober than a BYU dorm” and “more cooperative and respectful than a legislative session. And we are more productive than a hive of bees.”
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Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Jesse Goertzen, 31, was among the Other Side students who attended Thursday’s announcement. Having attended the academy for over four years, Goertzen had earned the title of “master student.”
But before he came to Other Side, Goertzen said he “destroyed” his life with “drugs and bad decisions I made over a 10-year period, which led me to be homeless.”
Goertzen said after he heard about The Other Side Academy from his sister, it still took him a year to be ready to voluntarily take on the program. But once he did, he said it changed his life.
“We all just hold each other accountable to a higher level than any of us have ever been held to,” he said, describing how it’s that principle of peer accountability that makes The Other Side successful.
But it’s not for everyone, Goertzen noted. “You have to want it. If you’re in jail, you have to write a letter. Or if you’re on the street, you have to show up yourself. You can’t have your family members sign you up. You can’t have the judge sign you up. ... They’re going to have to want it.”
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Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
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The West may be turning blue. What it means for Utah Republicans
That’s what’s at stake and why the race for Utah’s next Republican leader matters, outgoing Utah GOP chairman says
As surrounding states in the West continue to trend Democratic, will Utah remain a red stronghold? Or will it eventually become overtaken in an emerging sea of blue?
That’s what’s at stake for Utah Republicans in the race for the Utah GOP’s next chairperson, a position largely off the radar of a public consumed by COVID-19 updates and the promise of better weather. Yet when delegates make their selection from five candidates at this weekend’s state convention, it will help determine the future of their party and its influence on Utah politics, said Derek Brown, the state GOP’s outgoing chairman, who announced last month he wouldn’t be seeking another term to spend more time with his family.
“Anyone who is paying attention to the trends and to the numbers who is a Republican should be very concerned,” Brown told the Deseret News in an interview this week. “The demographic and geographic trends are not boding well for Republicans — both nationally and here in the state of Utah.”
Rewind to the year 2000, when George W. Bush beat Al Gore for president. That year, the entire western U.S. voted red except for Oregon, California, Washington and purple New Mexico — though New Mexico tipped blue on a fraction of a percentage point. Since then, “one by one we’ve had states surrounding Utah that have flipped blue,” Brown said.
New Mexico, though it voted red in 2004, flipped Democratic in 2008 for former President Barack Obama, and has since stayed blue. Other purple states like Colorado and Nevada have faded blue. Then Arizona, a state that has voted red since 2000, made the flip last year, when the state turned blue for President Joe Biden.
“That is a Democratic shift in the western U.S. that does not bode well for Republicans, and we have not done a good job nationally of (addressing it),” Brown said, describing the difficulties Republicans have had engaging millennial voters and unifying around their platform.
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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Nate Silver, the editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight who is a well-known predictor of political elections, last year said “people underrate the chance that Utah could become a swing state in another couple of cycles.” In 2017, Silver told the Deseret News he’s fascinated by Utah because it looks and breathes like a blue state, even though it’s traditionally red.
He said Utah “increasingly has the markers of a blue state, meaning high education levels, big tech sector, young population. So you can kind of envision a world in eight years, 12 years, 16 years in which Utah behaves more like Colorado or something, right?”
“And this was before COVID,” Brown said.
Add in the pandemic, which Brown said has put these concerning trends for Republicans on “steroids” because of the number of people moving from other states like New York or California and “flooding” Utah.
“The people coming here ... that may help our economy, but it will definitely have an impact on the political landscape,” Brown said.
So while the Utah GOP for decades has “had the luxury of a super majority,” Brown said assuming that “luxury” will last forever could spell trouble for Utah Republicans.
“The luxury of a super majority can also allow a party to be sloppy and unfocused and still win elections,” Brown said. “My concern is we may not have that luxury in the next five to 10 years. And whether that is the case has everything to do with the party remaining strong and funded.”
Brown said he saw it happen in Arizona last year, where he said a “weak and fractured party focused on infighting” lost in a crucial presidential year and lost a Republican seat in the U.S. Senate.
“My concern is whenever a party becomes weak and unfunded and unfocused and allows itself to engage in infighting, the day follows the night. The party will begin to lose elections,” he said. “And we (in Utah) have not done that in the last few years. We have reversed that trend. But as a party we need to remain vigilant — or else we will go the way of our surrounding states.”
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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Utah’s GOP
Before Brown was elected in May 2019, the Utah GOP was plagued by inner turmoil: divided into camps by years of infighting over the controversial election law SB54 and in debt, owing more than $137,000.
“They couldn’t pay their bills,” Brown said. “They had just lost a number of races including a congressional seat, and the fundraising was abysmal.”
In 2018, former Rep. Ben McAdams beat former Rep. Mia Love and became the first Democrat to win a congressional seat in Utah since 2012.
“Fast forward two years,” Brown said. “We pulled the party out of debt within a month or two. ... The party is unified in a way that it hasn’t been, notwithstanding the challenges we’ve faced. We’ve raised over $1 million. And we’ve won almost every election we’ve set out to win, including the seat in Congress that we lost.”
Rep. Burgess Owens last year defeated McAdams and took back Utah’s 4th Congressional District seat for Republicans.
Now, the Utah GOP must continue in the “positive direction” Brown said. Who emerges during the weekend convention to become chairperson, vice chairman, secretary and treasurer will set the future course.
Who will lead?
“The most important thing for a party is to support the candidates and support the brand and have an organization that is well funded and organizationally sound,” Brown said. “For me, this election is about are we going to continue to move that direction, or are we going to major in minor things? Sometimes I think political parties can focus on internal squabbles that don’t necessarily help them win elections.”
Brown said he needed to remain “neutral” ahead of Saturday’s convention, so he didn’t have any endorsements or anti-endorsements for the candidates vying to take his place.
But Brown did list some characteristics he believes the Utah GOP’s chairperson needs to have, including the basic ability to raise funds effectively, the ability to understand how elections are managed and won — while also having the temperament and ability to unite Utah’s Republicans rather than divide.
Unity and civility is a style of politics employed by Gov. Spencer Cox — who successfully won his election last year and has seen upward trending approval ratings. It’s also a style that’s the opposite of the leader national and the majority of Utah Republicans coalesced around in 2016 and 2020 — former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s divisive and polarizing style ultimately fell short on the national level in November last year. In Utah, division and polarization is not a style that’s typically successful — and not one that Brown said will position Utah’s GOP for success.
“Someone who is a unifier and someone who cannot just recognize that you have people all over the political spectrum in one party, but someone who actually reaches out to all of them to bring them together is the best way forward,” Brown said. “I think someone who is divisive and focused on their own personal agenda, not only will they not unify the party, but they will force anyone who differs with them from the party.
“And for a state like Utah that may trend blue,” Brown said, “that’s exactly the opposite of what we need to do.”
The candidates
Five candidates are running to succeed Brown, and they range in backgrounds and demographics. A look at who they are provides a picture of the GOP in Utah.
There’s Tina Cannon, a former Morgan County GOP chairwoman and Morgan County councilwoman who would be the first woman to lead Utah’s GOP.
There’s Stewart Peay, current chairman of the Utah County Republican Party who’s been endorsed by Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, among other legislative leaders.
There’s Brad Baker, who at 22 is likely the youngest state party candidate in Utah’s party’s history.
There’s Carson Jorgensen, a 31-year-old sheep rancher with a passion for agriculture and public lands.
And there’s Scott Miller, former Salt Lake County GOP chairman who resigned amid controversy last month, but for which he has since rescinded his apology, defending himself by saying he’d been “Kavanaughed.”
Scott Miller
Miller, who lives in Riverton and was chairman of the Salt Lake County GOP for more than three years, made headlines last month after he was accused by multiple women within the Salt Lake County GOP for allowing “bullying” to occur within the party.
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Scott Miller
While his four opponents agreed to phone interviews with the Deseret News this week for this story, Miller did not accept multiple requests for an interview and only answered questions via email.
After initially calling the women accusers “sore losers who failed to win their respective races” in an email last month that preempted the first media report of the accusations, Miller later resigned and apologized, saying he “made a mistake with how I handled” the complaints.
Since then, Miller’s backtracked.
In an email sent to the Deseret News on Tuesday, Miller said he had withdrawn his apology.
“I stand by my actions,” he wrote “Throughout the campaign, I immediately addressed any and all issues and complaints and I have documentation and witnesses to prove it. I never heard several of the complaints until it was presented in the press.”
Miller also wrote he’s been “Kavanaughed,” comparing himself to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the federal judge who was accused of sexual assault from the ’80s during his 2018 confirmation hearings.
“I believe certain women and others strategically timed salatious (sic) allegations against me to derail my campaign for state chair,” he wrote. “Many Utah Republicans seem to believe in ‘guilt by accusation’ and seem intent to deny due process to the accused. This is very disturbing.”
He added: “I believe we have an obligation to investigate,” Miller wrote. “We need to get to the bottom of this issue. Let’s have due process, a fair investigation, and let the public see the facts.”
Miller argues he’s the right person to lead Utah’s GOP, saying under his leadership the Salt Lake County GOP “successfully turned the Salt Lake County Council from purple to red.” He wrote he’ll keep Utah from turning purple by seeking to “expand the Republican tent. We expanded the tent in Salt Lake County. We recruited and encouraged good candidates,” saying those candidates included women, and people from diverse backgrounds. “We helped elect a greek, a doctor, and Congressman Burgess Owens, an African American.”
Tina Cannon
Cannon, 53, has 20 years of experience within the Utah Republican Party. She served as chairwoman for the Morgan County GOP, as well as a state convention committee member and a state convention credentials chairwoman. She was twice elected as a Morgan County councilwoman. She ran a bid last year to represent Utah’s 1st Congressional District, but faltered in the Republican convention.
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Tina Cannon
If it’s a strong organizational structure and fundraising backbone the Utah GOP needs, Cannon argues she’s the “only candidate in this race” that has that fundraising experience, pointing to her congressional run.
It wasn’t until after Brown announced he was stepping down and she started getting phone calls from supporters that Cannon said she’d considered running to replace him. And then when the Salt Lake County GOP/Miller controversy hit headlines, and she said her “phone blew up.”
“I was having a lot of friends in the party, particularly male friends, who were very concerned about the message this was sending and felt like it was time for another perspective,” she said.
There are “very few women in Republican politics in Utah,” Cannon said, and “we each have our stories.” But she said that story did not represent the “majority of men” in Utah’s GOP, noting she’s had “incredible mentors, supporters and donors.” But she worried that story wasn’t being told “and that’s sad to me.”
“Because when women see this, it discourages them from running,” she said. “Politics is hard. Politics is a blood sport. And women don’t run for the same reasons that men do. Women run to do something. Men run to be something.”
So, Cannon said she decided to “step into this chaos” — a decision she made 45 minutes before the filing deadline on April 1 — in order to “encourage good women to run.” When other women don’t see other women “who are strong enough, qualified, and win, they don’t run,” she said.
“This is a difficult thing,” Cannon added, “because I don’t want to run as a woman. I’m not running because I‘m a woman. I’m the best candidate. ... I have by far the most experience and the best background.”
Running as the only female candidate isn’t a message that will resonate with Utah GOP delegates, she said. “It’s about being well qualified.”
At the same time, increased diversity is what the Utah Republican party needs as it looks to the future, Cannon said. “We need to have a diversity of voices at the table because we are losing that demographic at the Republican Party.”
Stewart Peay
Peay, 47, a lawyer who lives in Alpine, was elected as chairman of the Utah County GOP in April 2019. By day, Peay works as a partner at Snell & Wilmer, where he’s worked for 18 years. He also served in the Utah National Guard for 13 years, including a tour in Iraq.
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Stewart Peay
In his two years as Utah County GOP chairman, Peay said he spent that time “unifying Utah County Republicans, which is no small task.” When he first came to the post, Peay said the county Republicans couldn’t get along to make decisions at the executive committee level, and he attributed that as a big reason why Love lost to McAdams in 2018.
Last year, Peay said the Utah County GOP energized more voters and helped push Owens to victory.
“One of the key things I did in Utah County is listen to everybody,” Peay said. “I encourage all parties to bring forward their positions, then as a leadership group we figure out a resolution that works for our party. It’s not perfect for everyone, but it’s great for the party, and that’s what we need.”
The emerging blue sea around Utah in the West, the changing political landscape and the threat it poses to Republicans’ future in Utah is “why I’m running” for the statewide party chairperson position.
During the past two years, Peay credited Miller for “getting the party back on track, and I feel like we need to stay on that track if we’re going to defend our traditional Republican values and strongholds here in Utah.”
As Utah’s population changes and as more people move in from states like California, Peay said the Utah Republican Party needs to “control its message.”
“We need to explain there is so much great economic opportunity here in Utah because for 40 years the Utah Republican Party has dominated state and local politics,” Peay said. “We need to educate people about that and help them understand that if we keep Utah Republican, those same opportunities will still be here for our children and even our grandchildren.”
Cox, Henderson, legislative leaders including House Speaker Brad Wilson and Senate President Stuart Adams, and others endorsed Peay in a letter circulated to delegates, mailed using the Utah Republican Party’s indicia — a service that’s offered to all Utah GOP candidates for cheaper postage.
Peay said those endorsements show he knows how to “build a team.”
“And that’s what we plan to do,” he said, along with his vice chairperson running mate Austin Cox. He says he plans to do that with a unifying style. “The role of state party leadership is to build a bigger tent. It’s not to divide. It’s not to offend. Rather, it’s to build a team and to get that team to coalesce around the ideas and values of the Republican Party.”
Carson Jorgensen
Jorgensen, 31, of Mount Pleasant in Sanpete County, is a sixth-generation sheep rancher in a family that’s lived in Utah for more than 150 years, he said. His family businesses are Skyline Sheep Co., as well as Skyline Bit and Spur, a small business that ships horse bridles and silver.
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Carson Jorgensen
His family’s heritage, Jorgensen said, tells the story of “why this race is important to me.”
“We rely heavily on public lands,” he said, describing how the sheep industry helped build Utah’s infrastructure. So that’s why he’s getting involved in politics, he said.
“Unfortunately, politics shapes a lot of these things,” he said. “Politics is getting increasingly militant around agriculture, and if we don’t start taking a key role in policy, agriculture is going to be one that is going to lose out big time, especially here in Utah where 75% of the state is federal land and most of it is used for agriculture.”
Jorgensen pointed to Biden’s “30 by 30” climate change policy and said “it’s going to drastically affect the agriculture sector here in Utah and it’s going to ruin the legacy of my family.”
So, Jorgensen said he wants to get involved to save the future of agriculture and public lands in Utah.
“I don’t want to see the history of Utahns thrown under the bus for progressive policy,” he said.
It’s not the first time Jorgensen has stepped into politics. Last year, he sent a letter to then-Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and others detailing the impacts to sheep ranching of the acquisition of a Colorado lamb processing facility, which led to an investigation. Jorgensen also ran an unsuccessful bid against Rep. Chris Stewart last year.
On his campaign website, Jorgensen discusses “expanding the tent” in Utah’s GOP, in order to attract new voters, especially young voters. He also prioritizes strengthening rural Utah, including wildfire mitigation, outdoor recreation, water quality, food supply chain and more to “bridge the urban and rural divide.”
Jorgensen also states Utah’s GOP must “tackle the issue” of SB54 and strengthen the party’s convention system.
Brad Baker
Baker, 22, a Weber State University student who lives in Sunset, said one of the biggest reasons why he’s decided to get involved is because he’s sick of the “mudslinging, backstabbing” that’s gone on at the national level.
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Brad Baker
“I firmly believe that’s not what being a Republican is about,” Baker said. “I would argue it’s something that both sides are guilty of, and as such the biggest thing we need as a party but as the state of Utah as a whole is more unity and more hope for the future.”
Baker acknowledges that he does not have as much political experience as his opponents, but he argued he’s the “best equipped candidate” to make the party more appealing to younger voters and therefore secure the party’s future.
“We also need to have more voices in the room from a wider variety of backgrounds, a wider variety of life experiences because how goes the Republican Party, so goes the state of Utah,” he said. “By voting for me, the delegates would get a candidate who is emphasizing unity, emphasizing greater diversity in encouraging people to run who might not otherwise.”
Baker said he would expand the party’s accessibility by modernizing the party’s tactics through use of social media and technology, make sure caucus nights are better advertised so younger Utahns would know how to get involved, and consider moving caucus night to the weekend to help make it more accessible to those who work during the week.
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