This is the text of the speech I delivered late election night:
My deepest thanks to all of Utah and America for the friendship, the time, and the effort that thousands have put into my campaign. It has been a deeply humbling experience to have carried your hopes.
Thank you to my staff for the long hours and their creativity.
Thank you to my brothers and sisters for cheering me on.
Thank you to my 81-year-old father for his consistent boosterism and for having to crawl under that bucket of bolts 1976 motorhome repeatedly to keep it running.
Thank you to my kids and my wife.
I ran this race the best way I knew how. With honor. With integrity. Instead of pointing the finger at the numerous failures of my opponent and telling people to vote for me because I am not him, I told America what I could do. I gave clear plans, instead of muddled rhetoric.
- Accountability
- Communication
- Representation
- The Constitution
- and Peace
Simple concepts, yet so rare.
These ideals are what I believe in.
These ideals will save America.
These ideals are timeless and worth fighting for.
I believe in America’s future.
Over the past 18 months, I have seen the heart of Utah.
I have seen the spirit of Democracy.
I have peered into the souls of the founders and drawn on their courage.
I have often reflected upon Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence. Imagine what that was like. Jefferson did not know his document would found a nation that would last much beyond his lifetime. He most likely believed he would be hanging from the highest tree before the end of the year. People have told me what I have done is courageous, but running for office holds no compare to what Jefferson and others did.
I merely wanted to make things better. I looked at our government and found nobody that I admired. No vision, no courage, no leadership. I ran because I knew I could do better.
People from all over this country and planet have written me telling of their support for my campaign. They lament that there is no Pete Ashdown in their state. No Pete Ashdown in their country. If there is one message I want everyone to remember in this campaign, it is we are all the change we wish to make. The only important requirement is your will.
Stand up.
Run for office.
And I will help you.
I want to thank all the Republicans and Independents who looked at what I stand for, crossed party lines, and realized I was a candidate worth voting for.
I am bruised, but I am not beaten.
I am down, but I am not defeated.
This election is over, BUT I AM NOT DONE.
This is not the end of money and politics.
This is not the end of lobbyist control of Washington.
This is not the end of the American people being shut out of government.
It is the beginning of the end.
This is the beginning of a return to protecting the Constitution.
This is the beginning of efficient government.
This is the beginning of citizen participation.
This is the beginning of making our representatives accountable.
This is the beginning of taking back America.
My wife Robin and I voted this morning and we asked for paper ballots. Being a candidate with a computer background causes a frequent question about voting that I happily answer, “Paper and pencil.”
Sometimes the best solution is the simplest. The Canadians vote on paper ballots and are able to count their national votes in around four hours.
There has been news of problems with machines throughout Utah. If you encounter a polling location that is having problems, it is the law that the poll workers give you a provisional ballot. Do not take “No” for an answer! Whether or not you ask for a paper ballot at a polling location with working machines is up to you.
If you do not know your polling location in Utah, go to this website. If you need help getting to the polls, drop me an email or call the campaign office at 801-983-7383.
Most of all, VOTE! Let your voice be heard!
The last opinion piece I submitted to the Salt Lake Tribune went unanswered for a week before I put it on my blog. I wrote a response to their endorsement of Senator Hatch and it was greeted with the same silence. Realizing time was of the essence, I emailed the editor and called their Reader Advocate. Last night, I received a call from Vern Anderson informing me that the Salt Lake Tribune does not publish opinion pieces from candidates. Not only that, the letter my wife wrote correcting Matt Canham’s mistaken statement that, my “friends and family told (me my campaign) was a waste of (my) time”, would also not be published.
So here once again is an Internet exclusive.
Seniority does not serve America. Seniority serves the interests of senior politicians. While public education is crumbling, our ports and borders are no more secure than they were on 9/11, our veterans ignored, and millions suffer and die without regular health care, I am ashamed that pork takes priority over fundamental need. It is with pleasure that I pledge to destroy the seniority system to return a balance of government interest to the people and help level the playing field for fair elections.
Orrin Hatch claims you should vote for him because of seniority. He states the Democrats are weak on security, that he is fiscally conservative and committed to small government. That in spite of obstructionist Democrats, only he displays the leadership which can serve Utah.
Where is Senator Hatch’s concern for national security when he displayed more self-promotion than national protection by spilling the details of secret intelligence monitoring of Osama bin Laden within hours of the attacks on September 11th? I do not believe the Republican nor the Democratic party has a desire for weak security, but Senator Hatch has demonstrated he is a security risk all on his own.
Where is the fiscal responsibility when Senator Hatch does not show restraint in securing a lavish $100 million for an expansion to the Utah Federal Courthouse? This is a project which will literally move a building across a street, raze a popular nightspot “Port o’ Call”, and replace a characteristic portion of Salt Lake’s downtown with an enormous “Justice Cube” eyesore. Expensive, out of place, and useless, this will be an appropriate tribute to pork and the Senator who secured it.
Where is Senator Hatch’s leadership when he begs Utahns to petition the Bureau of Land Management to keep nuclear waste out of Utah? True leadership does not require thousands of citizen letters to communicate the obvious. Last I checked, Congress was in charge of the BLM and not the other way around.
I do not require 30 years to get traction in Washington. In Orrin Hatch’s first term, this country grappled with many of the same problems we confront today. Energy prices, Mid-East turmoil, terrorism, child predators, and education were all primary concerns in 1976 as they are today in 2006. Why has Hatch’s mantra of “18 years is long enough” been extended to a need for 36? Who, but those elected representatives who have legislated through the past five administrations, should take responsibility for today’s crushing debt, imbalanced budgets and global instability?
According to Senator Hatch, the Democrats are to shoulder all of the blame for his inability to resolve America’s problems. I reach out to all Utahns, regardless of their political beliefs, and it is in the spirit of bringing our country together, that I set about to solve this nation’s gravest problems. Blaming his ineffectiveness on Democratic obstructionism does nothing except highlight his continual demonization of anyone who does not hold the same philosophy as he.
For every failure, there is opportunity. I have a plan for a better America and I have been executing it throughout this campaign. I have demonstrated how I will hold myself and the government accountable to the people. I have displayed the ability and the commitment to secure consensus and advice. I am committed to fiscal conservatism, limited government, and constitutional respect.
I have a vision for the future of our nation. Senator Hatch questioned me on the need for rapid rail throughout rural America in a recent debate. According to his opinion, it is too hard and too expensive. Thank goodness this man wasn’t in charge when we built the intercontinental railway, dammed the Colorado river, split the atom, established highways, and went to the moon. America desperately needs new vision and the leadership to execute it.
Barack Obama has been heralded as a new star in the Senate and is already under consideration for the presidency. All this in his FIRST term. Utah has an opportunity with this race that no amount of seniority can justify passing up. I pray the electorate will give careful consideration to what I stand for, my character, and what I have already done for Utah.
One of my favorite sayings is do not attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence. Many people have asked me what I think of voting machines and my answer is simple, we need to go back to paper and pencil and do distributed counting in precincts with multi-partisan oversight.
This came in from Sanpete County today:
When I went to vote, I was so pissed off at Republicans that I voted straight ticket Democrat and didn’t vote for ANY Republican - I left the screen blank when Republicans were running unchallenged. However, when I pressed the screen for a straight party Democrat vote, the paper in the machine printed out a Republican ticket. At the time I thought I was looking at someone else’s vote, since I’m in a heavily Republican district. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that the machines are printing a straight ticket Republican vote for every straight ticket Democrat vote cast without showing anything onscreen except a slight flicker as if you hadn’t hit the touch screen right. If the standard spiel from the Republicans is that this kind of thing is an alignment issue between the touch screen and the computer, then why would the machine allow me to vote twice - once the unauthorized Republican ticket, and once my actual Democratic ticket? And it’s obvious that a vote pattern like that cancels out my vote. Even if I was just seeing the vote for the prior voter, isn’t that still a breach of the confidential voting process?
The person at the County Clerk’s office did ask me if anything went wrong with my voting, and at the time I didn’t think anything about it and I told her no, but now I’m thinking something seriously weird is going on with our voting machines here in Utah. So I thought I should give you a heads up to look into the matter. If the paper trails show a straight party Republican ticket for every straight party Democratic vote - or for a suspiciously high number of them - immediately adjacent to each other, then we have serious problems with the voting systems in Utah. The County Clerks should be able to do a brief audit of the early voting results to see if this pattern emerges.
I imagined this had a possibility of being user error, then someone sent me this story.
When you vote, please look for similar irregularities.