A Democratic Lovefest: Thoughts on the Senate District 2 Debate

It’s Tuesday night, the election is three weeks in the rear view mirror, and I’m already having withdrawals.

So, naturally, I found myself at the Utah Senate District 2 debate watching a bunch of bleeding heart Democrats try their best to convince the 160 Democratic delegates who will vote in the special election that each is the most liberal candidate.

It was like watching the Republican primary debates in reverse. Instead of trying to be the most conservative, they were trying to be the most liberal. I had to pinch myself to see if I was still awake. This is Utah, right?

This is Utah, and apparently there are liberals here, not just Democrats who would become moderate Republicans upon leaving the state. Real, bona fide, liberal Democrats. Granted, I think that nearly all of them were in the room there at the University of Utah’s Museum of Art and hosted by the Alliance for a Better UTAH and the ABU Education Fund. The room wasn’t full–probably only half the chairs were taken, but there was a healthy turn-out of delegates and news reporters.

Rather than do a play-by-play (you can check my twitter feed for that), here are a few impressions on the candidates who attended:

Will Carlson. If I remember right, Will was a class ahead of me in law school at the SJ Quinney. I completely disagreed with almost everything he said, but I found him to be refreshingly honest. Early in the debate, a topic turned to how Democrats, who have only five seats in the Utah Senate, will get anything done. Rather than act like he can find a way to compromise, Carlson said this:

Compromise is something you do when you have a seat at the table. Unfortunately, Utah Democrats have been on the table too long and we don’t have a place to compromise our power…when it’s time to stand for truth, compromise is not a top priority.”

I don’t think it will win him many votes, and I disagree with him on what he believes, but I do find his attitude refreshing. Carlson played the role of an outsider to Utah’s political elites throughout the night, and I think it was probably an honest self-assessment.

Robert Comstock. I found it difficult to follow Comstock’s rationale. Clearly he means well, but his reality sounded, well, a bit out there, even compared to Democrats. An ordained Christian minister and, by his own account, a community organizer, he seemed to be trying to throw out the reddest of the red meat to Democrats in the room, lambasting the legislature for intentionally trying to destroy the Great Basin through public lands policies and putting himself forward as a would-be advocate for the poor in Utah legislature (admirable, if Quixotic).

WinterPride: Selisse, Jackie, Peter Corroon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peter Corroon. Mr. Milquetoast, but, in the words of Barack Obama, he “punches above his weight.” He’s the favorite to win, though, and I suspect that’s because Utah Democrats see him as the candidate most able to appeal to the Utah legislature’s predominantly white, male demographic. In large part, I think they’re right. I spoke with Senator Scott Jenkins this morning, and he said that he liked Peter, having worked with him before and calling him “level headed.” Last night, Corroon seemed to fit that description, though dropping his cousin Howard Dean’s name felt gratuitous and pandering, as did his promise to fight Republicans on abortion. Corroon said he supports raising taxes (hard to question him on that since he’s trying to do it in Salt Lake County right now). His quote of the night: “When it comes to human dignity, standing up for people, especially those in need in our community, I think that’s where we don’t compromise, but where we stand strong as [Democrats].” That’s bleeding heart liberalism for you.

Jim Dabakis. Ah, Dabakis…the Democrat of Democrats. In many ways, Jim is the best thing to happen to Utah Democrats in recent memory. Clearly brilliant, clearly articulate, and clearly passionate, he’s acquired and embraced a reputation as a loud, vociferous critic of Utah Republicans, something that more than one of the candidates during the debate alluded to when they said they would not be a “barking dog” in the legislature. While that’s great as a party leader, I don’t think being shrill will play well, nor does exaggerating and vilifying the GOP give him credibility as a lawmaker. He will do well on Saturday because he has delegate respect, but he doubt he’ll win first place.

Brian Doughty. Doughty already has legislation ready to go, on day one…and he reminded delegates about it several times during the night. Like every other candidate on the stage, Doughty said that he thinks it’s time for a tax hike and he supports abortion, but went the extra mile to call the Republican members of the Utah legislature “sheep.” I can’t think that attitude will help engender a lot of good will for the minority party, and I think delegates will agree (if if they think Republicans are sheep).

Jenny Wilson. Wilson billed herself as the only candidate with legislative experience. In comparison with Mr. Milquetoast, she came across as the most consistentwith her past positions during her tenure as a Salt Lake County Councilmember. Where Corroon tries to talk a moderate stance while consistently taking liberal positions (raising taxes, supporting abortion, increasing gay marriage rights), Wilson’s rhetoric seemed to match her actions more consistently than other candidates. At one point, she became choked up while describing her disgust of Mitt Romney and her support for abortion, and I think she meant it, which is almost more scary than if she was pandering to the delegates.

English: Utah State Capitol. Taken by me in 2002. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Other observations:

If Corroon wins, he’ll represent a decreasing percentage of Democratic Party demographics: straight, married, white men. With three of the six candidates on the stage gay and only one a woman (a surprise to me, actually), odds are higher that a gay man will join the Utah Senate. In many ways, I think Democrats would be well served to have Dabakis in the legislature, but I doubt it’ll happen.
Taxes and teachers: they’ll vote for them. With the exception of the food tax, the candidates all want to raise taxes, especially to increase teachers’ salaries. Ironically, almost none of the candidates drew a relationship to increasing teachers’ salaries and increasing student success. Very simply, and clearly, they all said that just because Utah is not paying teachers as much as other states, taxes should increase to compensate, adding that they would defend teachers. It was bold faced pandering to UEA. I couldn’t help but wonder: what about the kids? Some, in some dark corner of the auditorium, came back an answer: kids, and their parents, don’t donate to campaigns–teachers’ unions do.
Jim Dabakis is smooth. It’s very hard not to like him, and he’s very good at being gracious to, well, almost everyone. He opened by complimenting just about everyone in the room, and other than caricaturing Republicans as governing from secretive, “smoke filled rooms” (he seemed to forget that most members of the Utah legislature are LDS and don’t smoke), he actually had fairly reasonable responses to most of the questions, including the gay marriage question, leaving me more interested in working with him on that issue than anyone else at the table.
English: Number of self-identified Democrats vs. self-identified Republicans, per state, according to Gallup, January-June 2010 http://www.gallup.com/poll/141548/States-Competitive-Terms-Party-Identification.aspx. 18 point Democratic advantage 10-17 point Democratic advantage 3-9 point Democratic advantage 2 point Democratic advantage through 2 point Republican advantage 3-9 point Republican advantage 10-17 point Republican advantage 18+ point Republican advantage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Utah Democrats are out of step with Utah voters. If the views of these candidates are truly representative of Utah Democrats, then Utah Democrats are in complete denial about why they keep losing elections. Despite taking a beating across the state (excepting Jim Matheson, who squeeked out a win by 768 votes, and Ben McAdams, who won by pretty much rebranding himself as something other than the most liberal member of the Utah Senate, a rating multiple organizations have given him), Democrats seem not to care about why. While Republicans nationwide are having a “come to Jesus” moment about why they lost the White House to Barack Obama when economic fundamentals should have given it to them, Democrats in Utah seem to blithely believe they can go on supporting higher taxes, abortion, teachers’ unions over students, gay marriage (versus civil unions) and entitlement expansion. These are all policies that have been pursued successfully in California, a state that is largely mired in heavy debt, while Utah, with near opposite policies, has grown at 3% or higher for over six months and has seen unemployment drop to 5.4% from 7.8% during the height of the recession.
A Utah first: cussing in a debate.

With only 160 delegates on the line, it’s hard to say who will win. Regardless of the winner, though, I believe the next senator from Senate District 2 is likely to be to the left of center and out of step, for better or worse, with mainstream Utahns.