Dear Fellow Republican,

When I decided to run to become your new Utah County Republican Party Secretary, I campaigned on a need for responsible change for our Party.

Not a change of our core values, but real change of how we go about listening to our delegates, how we communicate our message from the bottom up to our Republican leaders. We need and can get ourselves to be better organized to win elections with the best GOP representatives. A fair, open dialog and healthy competition amongst Republicans gives us the best Republican leaders to step forward and lead our GOP party. It simply is not enough to say you’re a Republican anymore. We need to see our leaders live it to the core. As Jason Chaffetz is sleeping in his cot.

While I'm excited about the challenges and opportunities we face, I have no illusions. I am fully aware of the hard work ahead and obstacles we must overcome to give ourselves some fair and balanced Republican blood.

But this isn't about me -- I can't do this alone.

It's about you and every Republican grassroots leader who believes in restoring the voice to the people.

And it's about empowering you to lead and giving you the tools to help our Party set a new direction for our country.

Successful campaigns cannot be run from inside an office building. The strength of our Party comes from people like you who believe in our values and ideals and promote them in their communities. It’s time to adapt to the social networking and not adapt to socialism.  Our Party deserves much more then just a hand shake once a year by our establishment.  Or a great speech at the Convention. We need the establishment to listen to our concerns, fears, and proposals for solutions for our State and Local Government. If they won’t listen to us then we need to replace them with someone (Republican) who will.

I'm asking you to do two very important things for me:

1)     Please take a moment right now to visit our Utah County Republican Party website  http://www.utahgop.org/NewsnPress.htm and look at all of the candidates who have worked hard to earn your vote.

2) Please consider all of the political scandals you have heard of in our Utah County Politics and please consider it is the tip of the iceberg.  There are more.  Politicians work hard to keep things private and the media finds ways to see their mistakes. The question has been asked for the Federal Government, When is Enough…Enough? Now I ask you the same question in regards to our local level, When is Enough….Enough?  

It is so important that you hear my plea to be involved with your Utah County Republican Party.  We need to campaign to educate and mobilize each Republican who wants our State Legislators and Washington to listen to the voice of the people. We may not have Joe the Plumber living in Utah County but I stand with you as your Keith the Tech Guru and Marketing Guru. I want to speak up and lift up our values so everyone knows we all care and are fed up.  Democrats are pushing down our throats there liberal minded agenda attack on our children’s future.  Debt in the Trillions will be held on your grand-children’s shoulders, my shoulders, and my children’s shoulders. I am getting involved to get the Young Republican’s voice heard by seasoned Republicans. I am putting the status quo on check and I need your vote do just that.

Please know that your guidance vote matters tomorrow.  

Our Party cannot do anything without you so please attend tomorrow.

Utah County Organizing Convention info


Sincerely,

Keith Kuder

Keith Kuder
Secretary, Utah County Republican Party Candidate

P.S. I am eager to have all delegates be informed of Utah County Republican politics in real time so please inform every delegate you know to subscribe to my newsletter.

Link: http://tiny.cc/Delegates_Newsletter

Thank you.

I've written a number of times about the control freaks who run the Utah County Republican Party and their efforts to make sure their clique remains in power.

Here's the latest example.

Keith Kuder is running for party secretary in Utah County to replace Susan Bramble, wife of Sen. Curtis Bramble, who is stepping down. Two other candidates for party secretary are Lisa Shepherd, who got a bit sideways with the party establishment last year when she had the audacity to challenge an incumbent legislator in the GOP convention, and Matt Thompson, the son of Utah County Auditor-Treasurer Brian Thompson and the apparent favorite of the party bosses, according to the endorsements.

So perhaps it is not a surprise that Kuder, a relative newcomer to party politics, was told in a conference call from Susan Bramble and Party Chair Marian Monnahan that he had to remove the Republican logo featuring two elephants from his electronic newsletter he was sending out to delegates. He was not a representative of the party, the officers told him he is just a candidate, so he could not use the logo. Shepherd also was told she could not use the elephant logos, although she told the brass she would only remove them on her e-mails, not on materials already printed.

Funny. Taylor Oldroyd, who is running for party chair to replace Monnahan, who also is stepping down, has the Republican logo all over his mailers without an apparent problem. Oldroyd also is the favored candidate of the establishment, based on endorsements.

The Republican logo taboo is interesting in light of the fuss made by Utah County GOP officers when Democratic candidates for public office last year chose not to put the Democratic logo on their campaign signs.

Former Senate President John Valentine, R-Provo, a leader in the Utah County GOP, was a bit dumbfounded himself when learning of the rule against the logos.

"If you're a Republican candidate for anything, you ought to be able to display the Republican logo to show who you are," he says.
Cheers,
Paul Rolly

Article Link: http://blogs.sltrib.com/politics/

Rolly: Fun and games in Utah County By Paul Rolly
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune Updated:04/17/2009 07:09:12 PM MDT

The Utah County Republican Party for years has been an interesting animal to observe, with accusations of sophomoric shenanigans and clannish behavior.

Utah County's annual Lincoln Day dinner fundraiser often featured a straw vote among attendees for the Republican candidates running for office that particular year. In order to vote, you had to purchase a dinner, so it was a clever way to sell a lot of tables to the campaigns feeling like they needed votes for a good showing.

Then there was the party float incident in which then-Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Orem, and then-Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, persuaded the president of a state-run trade school, who was asking the Legislature for increased funding, to use school funds and resources to build a chassis for the Utah County Republican float.

And there was the formation of the Utah County Legislative PAC, a fundraising arm of the party that was separate from the official Utah County Republican Party with Valentine and Bramble in control, allowing them to determine which candidates got money from the PAC. Bramble also had at least one family member paid to do work for the PAC.

A few months ago, a candidate for president of Utah Valley University was told that in order to help himself become a finalist for the job, he had to apologize to the Utah County legislators because his wife had run for the Legislature as a Democrat and had made legislative ethics an issue.
Now, it's time for the party to elect new officers and Republican Central Committee members, and old suspicions are rising up between the so-called clique and those who have had the audacity to challenge that clique's power.

Lisa Shepherd got sideways with the insiders last year when she challenged incumbent Rep. Keith Grover of Provo for the Republican nomination. She heard from party and legislative leaders, including Bramble, and was discouraged from running.

Things seemed to have calmed after that intra-party struggle, which she lost, until now, when she is running for county party secretary to replace Bramble's wife, Susan, who is stepping down. The Brambles showed up at a recent meet-the-candidates meeting and Curt began leading the discussion, pointedly asking Shepherd questions about the propriety of a party official -- Shepherd is a legislative district chair -- running for public office.

Later, in private conversations, Bramble brought up concerns about Shepherd's daughter being appointed a precinct vice-chair, when there was an opening, and therefore becoming an automatic delegate.

The questions were curious since the Brambles showed no concern when the daughter of GOP State Chairman Stan Lockhart and his wife, Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, was allowed to run and be elected as a delegate in a precinct she had not yet moved into.

In another Utah County precinct, Hannah DeForest, the vice-chair, had learned she was the automatic head of the precinct when the chair moved, so she appointed a new vice-chair and delegate. Later, she was informed by party brass that she was not the chair and a different person had been appointed to fill that opening. Her sin? She had refused to support the candidacy of an incumbent legislator the year before.

Jacqueline deGaston became a controversial figure in Utah County when she challenged Bramble in the Republican convention last year. She reported favoritism toward the Brambleites and all sorts of manipulation to prevent her supporters from becoming delegates.

She lost at the convention and perhaps was reminded of her insubordination this year when she filed by e-mail to run for one of the Utah County slots on the Republican State Central Committee.

Even though she filed on time, her name was not included in the candidate list submitted to the delegates attending Saturday's convention. After a number of people questioned that omission, her name finally was included.

But she got the message.

Lisa Shephard has made some story clarifications on her website.

Paul Rolly 4/18/09  Salt Lake Tribune Story Clarification
http://web.me.com/lisamshepherd/www.lisamshepherd/My_Responses.html

  Hello Delegates, Mass Media, & Constiuents,
             I am Keith Kuder and I am piloting this free email subscription service in my campaign for Secretary. I spoke with Susan Bramble, Secretary of the Utah County Republican Party, and she mentioned she has been wanting to do a newsletter for some time.  Susan Bramble said she did some research and the price for mass e-mailing was roughly about $100 a month.  Well I am using a free online blog and this blog has a free RSS feed.  A free tool called FeedBurner is syncing up my blog to a mass email newsletter service, all for free. 

            Within the last week hundreds of delegates, news reporters, constituents all over Utah, and even Independents and Democrats have been subscribing to my Delegate Republican Newsletter.

            My goal with this newsletter was to provide a means of economical communication between all Delegates in Utah County. Now its taking on a bigger purpose. How many of you are tired of multiple phone calls from candidates running for office?  Are you tired of multiple emails from Candidates?  Why doesn't our County Republican Party have a newsletter? Is someone hindering our success as Republicans just so an incumbent can protect himself from another great Republican?  Or is an elected Republican official not wanting us to be active within the Republican Party because his power has gone to his head?  With the use of modern technology such as: Facebook, Blogs, and even Twitter we find ourselves with free social networking tools.  We have a President who is turning our Constitution upside down.  We are living in days where our US Congress is voting for socialistic reform. Conservatives across the United States are want to be heard.  We are the great GOP, but we will need to use new technology to have our voices heard in many more ways.  We need Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid, and President Obama to stop their socialistic agenda and give us the real change we need. 

Thank you for subscribing. Please inform every Republican Delegate you know of to sign up to this newsletter.

Newsletter Link:
http://tiny.cc/Delegates_Newsletter
      
           Also, when this Newsletter was created it had the Republican Elephant symbol on either side.  I was asked by Susan Bramble and Marian Monnahan on Saturday April 18th to remove the Republican Symbol.  I honestly felt torn.  I have placed a new picture of the American Flag with the Constitution on either side now.  We are a Nation Under God and I want to see to it that we can all stand up and lift up our Republican Party onward and upward.

Kind Regards,

Keith Kuder

Made by the Campaign of Keith Kuder for Utah County Republican Party Secretary

Contact Info:
Keith Kuder
[email protected]
www.keithforsecretary.com
Cell (801) 471-6037

Special Event  
WHAT'S REALLY IN DANGER: CLIMATE OR FREEDOM?

April 22-23 from 9:00-11:00 am at Sutherland Institute and April 24 from 9:00-11:00 am at the Megaplex 12 Movie Theater in downtown Salt Lake City.
 
We invite you to join Sutherland Institute for Earth Week 2009.  This three-day event will take a closer look at the science and economics of the environmental movement.  All sessions begin at 9:00 am and end at 11:00 am.  The Wednesday and Thursday sessions will be held at Sutherland's offices in the Crane Building, 307 West 200 South, Suite 5005, in downtown Salt Lake City.  The Friday screening of Not Evil Just Wrong will be held at the Megaplex 12 Movie Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. >> Read More
 
Wednesday, April 22: "The Science, History and Politics of Global Warming" with John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, and John Christy, Alabama State Climatologist.
Thursday, April 23: "The Western Climate Initiative: Good for Utah or an Undue Burden?" with Frank Conte of the Beacon Hill Institute, and John Charles, CEO of the Cascade Policy Institute.
Friday, April 24: Not Evil Just Wrong documentary film screening, with producer/director Phelim McAleer.  For a sneak preview click here.
 The program is free to the public and you can attend any session on any day, but you must RSVP -online, by phone (801-355-1272), or by email to [email protected], today.   Please forward this e-mail to your friends, neighbors, family, and colleagues.  This is an important event.  We look forward to seeing you there.  Click here for a PDF program at a glance.

The Unofficial Utah County GOP Wiki (a ‘wiki‘ is a sort of group blog) is covering the 2009 Organising (the editor must be British <grin>–spelling Organizing with an ’s’ instead of with a ‘z’) Convention. A link to their coverage can be found on my Newsroom page’s Blogosphere section.

This is interesting to me not only for the coverage of the convention (which of course is important), but because this website is an unofficial effort of some public service-minded private citizens. The site describes itself as:

A free resource for anyone that cares, that anyone can edit and contribute to.

Whether you agree with some or all of the content, a lot of effort has gone into this–the very kind of grass-roots effort the Utah County GOP needs!

As Utah County Republican Party Chair, I will reach out to people in the Party who make these kinds of contributions, understand their perspective, work with them, and have them work with us to strengthen and benefit the cause of conservatism.

Oh, and these kinds of contributions will only improve and energize our future Utah County Republican Party Website.

Are you aware of any other resources like this out there? Please point them out with a comment.



Steven Diamond

 

Candidate—Chairman of the Utah County Republican Party

                —Transparency, Inclusion, Neutrality, Technology

 

Learn more about my candidacy by visiting www.diamond4chairman.com

cell phone:  801-830-2400

 

 Hello,
         I do apologize for blogging with my mobile phone.  The online blog sends out the e-mail for the newsletter.  Using my mobile phone to blog has caused me to use predictive text, which at times uses the wrong words. Also my Hispanic background at times causes me to have poor grammar. 

I promise to have someone proof read my blog updates /emails before I publish them and send them out.

This is a link to my online blog with grammar corrections.
http://keithforsecretary.weebly.com/news.html

I am not going to send an update for a few days as I will work to grow the subscription list.

Thank you for understanding,



Keith Kuder

Candidate—Secretary of the Utah County Republican Party

                —Transparency and Technology is what we need!

 

Learn more about my candidacy by visiting www.KeithforSecretary.com

Cell phone:  801-471-6037

[email protected]

I had the opportunity to speak with Susan Bramble on Monday evening.  She and I discussed mass emailing to all of the delegates. She explained that she has been eagerly wanting to do mass email for all of the delegates.  But she explained the reason she hasn't is because a local private company that provides mass emails for about $100 a month, which was something the party could not budget for.  I (Keith Kuder) am doing a mass email to all Delegates for $0 dollars using a online blog and I can save our Utah County Republican Party $1200 a year by using this free technical tool.  I am using the free too for us right now. 

I believe I have the skills necessary to save our Utah County Republican Party some real money.  My grammar may need to be double checked at time due to my Hispanic background, but one of our core Republican beliefs is "Fiscal Responsibility."  So elect me and you will get that!

So please inform others about this by forwarding this email to any delegate you know or by using the Facebook post tool below. The link to subscribe to this newsletter is  http://tiny.cc/Delegates_Newsletter



Keith Kuder

Candidate—Secretary of the Utah County Republican Party

                —Transparency and Technology is what we need!

 

Learn more about my candidacy by visiting www.KeithforSecretary.com

Cell phone:  801-471-6037

[email protected]

Hello Delegates,
             I am Keith Kuder and I am piloting this free email subscription service in my campaign for Secretary. We have the option to create this email subscription service with a password requirement if we want?  Or we can keep it open and transparent for any constituent to subscribe. 
           
             My goal is provide a means of economical communication between all Delegates. Are you tired of multiple phone calls?  There is no better way of reaching all 1200 plus delegates then by using a free blog online with a RSS feed converted to a free email subscription service. I know that may be very technical but this technology is free and available for us to use today.  Thank you for subscribing.  Please inform your surrounding delegates in Utah County about this email subscription.

           Now let's see how many subscribe! Onward and Upward the Republican Party goes!

Thank you,

Keith Kuder
[email protected]
Cell (801) 471-6037

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Canyon View Jr. High School

655 East 950 North, Orem

Check-in Desk opens - 6:30 am

Candidate Meeting - 7:00 am

Central Committee Meeting - 7:30 am

Senate District meetings - 8:00 am

Legislative District meetings - 8:40 am

Convention Starts - 9:30 am