For Immediate Release March 10, 2006 Contact: Brett Garner Office: 801.983.PETE Cell: 801.573.4759 brett@peteashdown.org ****PRESS RELEASE**** Ashdown Officially Files for US Senate SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Pete Ashdown, the founder and President of XMission, Utah's first Internet service provider, officially filed as a candidate for the United States Senate today, seeking the Democratic nomination. Ashdown, who announced his candidacy in March 2005 and has filed with the Federal Election Commission, laid out many of his positions on the issues and was joined by his wife and their baby daughter. Ashdown addressed the general reason why Utahns should elect him their new Senator. “Senator Hatch has done a good job looking after the interests of the last 30 years; I am looking forward the next 50 years of Utah and America. I represent the interests Utahns will have for the next 50 years.” Ashdown pointed out examples of this dichotomy in citing his three main issues: energy, health care, and infrastructure. “Energy is a major issue that affects our economy, our security, and our health,” Ashdown said. “We need to get off foreign sources of energy; I feel that Utah can lead the nation in this respect.” Ashdown noted that while Senator Hatch is still stuck digging for oil shale, he is looking forward to cleaner, cheaper energy. “There are areas of Utah with less than seven inches of precipitation a year; I would push for solar power arrays there. There is incredible potential at our educational institutions to innovate new ways of generating energy, including nuclear fusion.” Ashdown cited both his experience as a small businessman and the troubles of big businesses with health care costs. “I look my own business and health care costs have vastly exceeded benefits; I see GM going nearly bankrupt and moving factories to Canada because they can't afford health care for their workers.” Ashdown has proposed streamlining the disparate Federal health care agencies into one agency that will eventually pay for health care for all Americans. Ashdown also sees that more needs to be done to build up Utah's physical and technological infrastructure. “I support a more balanced approach in our transportation system; we need to balance more roads with other options, including trains.” Ashdown said the world is beating America in trains, with most countries having 300 mile-per-hour train networks nationwide while “We struggle to building one train line that goes 70 miles per hour.” Ashdown also cited the need to build up Utah's fiber optic network, giving high-speed Internet access to all Utahns. “We need to do more to give our rural areas broadband access. We have dropped from first in the world in broadband deployment to 16th. I will change that.” Ashdown also repeated his positions on two of the hottest issues of the day: Iraq and the culture of corruption in Washington. Ashdown noted how his open, collaborative campaign helped shape his policy on Iraq: “I had someone come to my website and anonymously give this great idea: Let's do a referendum.” Ashdown proposes putting the newly-minted Iraqi democracy to work, giving them the choice of continued US troop presence, in which case they should pay more, or redeployment to friendly regional bases in order to watch Iran. “I have had a front row seat for the changes that the Internet has had on our nation and world, and I think that we can change government and fight corruption with the Internet,” Ashdown said regarding ethics in DC. “I think that this is a bipartisan problem, both Democrats and Republicans have their problems.” Ashdown scoffed at national Democratic efforts to “sign declarations and call for more laws when they could just lead by example.” In that vein, Ashdown noted his open, collaborative campaign website where anyone can edit his policy or strategy, or see who he is meeting with on his calendar. Referencing the NSA spying program and PATRIOT Act, Ashdown said: “Right now, the government is asking the citizens to be transparent, wanting to know everything we are doing. But when we want to know what government is doing, they say we shouldn't care or we don't deserve to know. I think that situation should be reversed: government should be fully transparent and the citizens should be opaque.” Ashdown, born and raised in Bountiful, was joined by his wife, Robin, and their newborn daughter, Greta. The couple also have an twelve year old daughter and a five year old son. Ashdown started XMission in 1993, without any government assistance, and grew it to be Utah's largest independent ISP. Ashdown's community involvement includes: donating web space to any non-profit organization or political candidate; serving on the Salt Lake City Historic Landmarks Commission, the board of the Utah Heritage Foundation, Kingsbury Hall, and other community organizations. He is a member of the Salt Lake Rotary Club, the Salt Lake and many other Utah chambers of commerce. Ashdown's upcoming events include: participating in the St. Patrick's Day parade Saturday at the Gateway in Salt Lake; speaking to the Hurricane Valley and Cedar City Rotary Clubs at Noon on Monday and Tuesday, respectively; and visiting Logan for several events on March 23-24. The full campaign calendar, updated in real time, is available on the campaign website, www.peteashdown.org. The candidate and campaign are open to answering questions on any issue. Contact via the top information for comment.