Utah votes for principle, not the man

Below is an article from Examiner.com.  Essentially, several ensconced GOP members of Congress were removed from the Ballot, including three time Senator Bennett.

When a person gets 60% of the delegates at the Utah convention, he is the candidate. Clearly, the old saw that you have to vote for your man to keep power has given way to voting for principle.

There is hope.

Senator Robert Bennett and other Utah pro-illegal alien elected officials ousted

May 9, 11:07 PMSalt Lake City Immigration ExaminerRonald Mortensen

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Utah’s Republican Party conventions have not been good to elected officials who have consistently fought to protect the interests of illegal aliens. 

One senior United States Senator and two senior state legislators were denied the opportunity to run for the seats they currently hold. In addition, two legislators with spotty records on immigration related issues face primary election contests and four other legislators that the advocates for illegal aliens could count on for support are not running.

The ouster of three term U.S. Senator Robert Bennett by roughly 3,500 state delegates at Utah’s Republican state convention grabbed the major headlines. Immigration played a role in his defeat as he had supported comprehensive immigration reform that included amnesty from identity theft and a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens. 

In addition, Bennett slipped an amendment into a 2005 Agriculture appropriations bill that exempts religious organizations from immigration law and allows them to harbor, transport and use the volunteer services of illegal aliens.

At the Republican’s Salt Lake County convention, long time state Representative Steve Mascaro lost his seat when 77 percent of the 1,500 county delegates supported his opponent. (Under Utah’s convention system, any candidate who gets 60% of the delegate vote at their party’s convention automatically becomes their party’s nominee.)

Over the years, Mascaro consistently voted in favor of illegal aliens. He was a strong defender of in-state tuition for illegal aliens and he actively opposed all attempts to revoke Utah’s special in-state college tuition program for illegal aliens. 

In 2009, when a bill was introduced that left in-state tuition in place for illegal aliens but required them to refrain from committing document fraud, perjury on their I-9 forms and identity theft in order to get jobs to pay for their tuition, Mascaro helped kill it on the floor of the Utah House.

During the 2010 legislative session, Mascaro opposed a bill designed to protect Utah children from illegal alien driven, job-related identity theft. He initially attempted to replace it with amnesty for illegal aliens in Utah under a concept supported by the open-border, Sutherland Institute. When that failed, he proposed circling the bill which would have effectively killed it by putting it on hold on the last day of the 2010 legislative session. 

In addition to Mascaro, Representative Ben Ferry, the chair of the House Rules Committee, was knocked out of the running during the state GOP convention when his opponent received 60.3% of the delegate vote. Ferry is the son of a former President of the Utah Senate and was thought by some to be positioning himself to become Speaker of the Utah House of Represenatives.

Like Mascaro, Ferry was an untiring supporter of illegal aliens and the right of employers to hire illegal labor. In 2009, he voted to allow illegal aliens benefiting from Utah’s in-state tuition program to continue committing multiple job related felonies. 

In 2010, Ferry refused to release a bill that would have abolished in-state tuition for illegal aliens from the Rules Committee until it was too late for it to advance. Also, in 2010, he voted against efforts to protect Utah’s children from illegal alien driven, job-related identity theft.

In addition, two other Representatives who voted in 2009 to allow students to commit felonies while receiving in-state tuition benefits were forced into primary elections – Representative Becky Edwards and Representative Mel Brown. Both had voted in 2010 to protect children from illegal alien driven identity theft by requiring employers to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires.

Three others who voted in favor of allowing illegal aliens to continue to commit multiple, job related felonies in order to pay for their in-state tuition, chose not to run again – Representatives Sheryl Allen, Laurie Fowlke and Stephen Clark. In addition, in 2010 Fowlke refused to put a bill abolishing in-state tuition on her committee’s agenda thereby effectively killing it. 

House Majority Leader Kevin Garn who also supported the right of illegal aliens to commit multiple job-related felonies in order to pay for their in-state tuition was earlier forced from office due to a scandal.

Although Dave Clark, Speaker of the Utah House, voted to allow illegal alien students to commit multiple job-related felonies and held up the bill that would have abolished in-state tuition, he did vote for the bill that protects Utah children from identity theft.  He is running unopposed so he will hold his seat....