Category: Uncategorized

My Personal Comments

We need to come out fighting in 2025

1. Ben Peck needs to be our UDP Chair. I think that Brian King can help the party build fundraising efforts and recruit candidates, but he’s not the right candidate to lead the Utah State Party. Jonathan Lopez wasn’t prepared and came across as angry.
2. The UDP has been running without a director, and has a disconnected outgoing chair. There has been a leadership void since well before the 2024 elections. It will be a scramble for a new team of leaders to come in, and that’s already hurting us.
3. This debate focused on the UDP chair role, but my personal opinion is that we need a new vice chair as well so that an entirely new leadership team can step in.
4. There was no discussion during the debate about the ethics of the role. There were questionable relationships and past behind-the-scenes collusion between the UDP board and campaign management companies. Candidate funneling, and some allegations of racism are legitimate.
5. Developing a candidate pipeline is critical. The UDP was late to the table in the last election, and made poor decisions of financial investment in qualified candidates. There needs to be better vetting and initial investment in candidate campaigns.
6. The UDP still has no established method of fundraising investment in Utah. There is no ‘blue circle’ to compete with the Utah Republicans ‘elephant club’ https://www.utahelephantclub.com/
7. Strategies like “contest every race” without training qualified candidates, not supporting qualified Democratic candidates in favor of unaffiliated candidates, preferring statistical advantage and failing to bring the fight to important districts are all signs of poor leadership in the past.

Tick Tock

For 2025 municipal elections, candidate filing opens June 2, 2025
For 2026 mid-terms elections, candidate filing opens January 2, 2026

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Video

See the timestamps below to jump to a specific question

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Video Timestamps

6:06
Opening Statement: Jonathan Lopez

8:11
Opening Statement: Brian King

10:02
Opening Statement: Ben Peck

11:55
Q1: What do you believe is the role of the UDP at the state level, and how should it serve its members and its candidates?

17:45
Q2: What are your top priorities as Chair for the first 100 days and long term? How will your efforts strengthen the party’s infrastructure and direction?

23:40
Q3: Recent polling shows Democratic party approval rating of 36% nationally. 52% think the party is on the wrong track. How would you work to improve trust within the Democratic party, transparency and communication here in the state; but also work externally to repair the Democratic party brand while maintaining communication with grass roots members in the state of Utah?

30:20
Q4: Regarding the struggles of leadership…. What steps will you take to build a cohesive, effective leadership team that reflects the diversity and values of Utah Democrats?

34:45
Q5: Regarding issue and identity caucuses at large, the necessity or existence of caucuses and a debate whether to eliminate caucuses within the state party. How do you commit to support our caucuses and how do you see their role in strengthening the party?

41:15
Q6: What will you do to ensure ADA access at all party events, to ensure that we are in compliance for people who need special accommodations?

44:10
Q7: The need to reach out to rural voters… How do you plan to support county parties across Utah in rural communities, or historically under-resourced communities like Davis, Weber and Utah?

49:58
Q8: Democratic party has a mandate to elect Democrats. This necessitates quality recruitment prior to campaign season. Talk to us about the approach you would take for candidate recruitment for municipal and statewide offices, and what systems you would put in place to support those candidates throughout their campaigns?

55:43
Q9: Ideas cost money. We have mentioned party branding issues, and no state budget passed. How exactly do you plan to raise money for the UDP? Please be specific about fundraising goals and strategies.

1:01:25
Q10: Let’s talk statistics: there are 242,000 active registered Democrats, and 934,000 active registered Republicans in Utah. The numbers are ugly, but demographics are shifting. What investments will you make in voter outreach, voter registration, to voters of color, young voters and immigrant populations?

1:07:15
Q11: Utah is diverse. 42% are LDS; and 24,000 showed up for Bernie and AOC. We have to unify across all of our people. How will you bridge the divide between progressive and moderates in the party to ensure that all voices are respected and engaged?

1:13:35
Q12: It’s fair to say that parties aren’t an efficient organization – you can look at the UDP bylaws as an example. How would you reform the party if you had the ability to make one big change overnight?

1:20:35
Q13: There are thousands of people gathering at protests and rallies, with different methods of mobilizing and organizing here and across the state. How do you plan to capture and engage these folks? How do you see the party’s involvement at these events?

1:28:05
Q14: Audience Question: Angel Vice, Chair of the UDP Women’s Caucus
Our caucuses have been at all the events, tabling, providing signs, providing training, inviting party officials. Disappointed to hear candidates say that caucuses aren’t engaged. Aside from Ben, why wasn’t Jonathan or Brian at these events?

1:32:45
Q15: Audience Question: Jennifer Miller-Smith, Chair of the UDP Disability Caucus
The Moab Art Center Building has a giant staircase, was site to host the UDP central committee meeting in December, and Grand county party held their convention. If disabled members are recruited, how are they supposed to go to these events, and what is the policy for not following our governing documents?

1:36:38
Q16: Audience Question: Angela, Black Caucus
In the past, candidates of color have experienced racism within the party. Examples include sending campaign materials without their consent less than 2 weeks before an election, or having vendors currently on payroll who support running independent candidates against our currently elected women of color. If elected Chair, how will you work to address to actively dismantle this racism?

1:40:45
Closing Statement: Ben Peck

1:42:57
Closing Statement: Brian King

1:44:49
Closing Statement: Jonathan Lopez

To: justin.w.aimonetti@doge.eop.gov, jacob.r.altik@doge.eop.gov, anthony.j.armstrong@doge.eop.gov, jennifer.balajadia@doge.eop.gov, alexandra.t.beynon@doge.eop.gov, riccardo.n.biasini@doge.eop.gov, akash.n.bobba@doge.eop.gov, ashley.s.boizelle@doge.eop.gov, emily.l.bryant@doge.eop.gov, james.burnham@doge.eop.gov, edward.h.coristine@doge.eop.gov, steven.m.davis@doge.eop.gov, marko.elez@doge.eop.gov, luke.e.farritor@doge.eop.gov, joshua.fox@doge.eop.gov, joshua.a.hanley@doge.eop.gov, stephanie.m.holmes2@doge.eop.gov, gautier.c.killian@doge.eop.gov, keenan.d.kmiec@doge.eop.gov, nicholas.lahera@doge.eop.gov, kendall.m.lindemann@doge.eop.gov, erm71@doge.eop.gov, noah.peters@doge.eop.gov, nikhil.rajpal@doge.eop.gov, adam.ramada@doge.eop.gov, austin.l.raynor@doge.eop.gov, kyle.l.schutt@doge.eop.gov, ethan.shaotran@doge.eop.gov, brad.m.smith@doge.eop.gov, christopher.stanley@doge.eop.gov, jordan.m.wick@doge.eop.gov, susan.s.wiles@doge.eop.gov, christopher.j.young@doge.eop.gov

DOGE, what are you doing?

You aren’t forensic auditors. You aren’t financial experts of any kind.
You aren’t government workers. You have never staffed or planned a headcount for an agency or department.
You aren’t supply chain managers. You have never negotiated a contract, let alone a government contract.
You have no experience with grants or administration of grants.
You have no experience with education administration. Or research administration. Or field administration.
You have no background in organizational change management.
You have no background in risk management. You don’t understand risk tolerance, risk avoidance, or risk mitigation.
You have no experience with crisis management. You don’t even know how to undo the things that you have broken by your actions.

You aren’t even very good at the job you purport to know; writing search queries, or parsing data, or analyzing large blocks of information.
You are breaking federal security standards.
You are breaking privacy laws.
You are stealing data.
You are compromising the personal information of US citizens.
And you are not transparent in your actions.

Everything you are doing right now goes against ethical coding.
Everything you are doing right now goes against developmental standards (ISO 31000, DevOps, Agile Practice, SAFe, Site Reliability Engineering).

The likelihood is that your actions open our data to compromise.
The likelihood is that our country, our security, and our people are more at-risk.
The likelihood is that your work will be successfully hacked by threat actors.
The likelihood is that you may already be personally compromised.

So, once again, what are you doing?

According to the Utah Constitution, Utah voters can initiate any desired legislation and cause it to be submitted to the people for adoption.

In response to HB267 Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, Utah voters need to consider going all the way to change Utah’s constitution to become a right-to-organize state. We can work on language and support for restructuring Utah Title 34 similar to Michigan’s 2023 HB4004 that overturned their “right-to-work” law in favor of workers’ rights.

It’s important to note the difference between right-to-work laws and right-to-organize laws. Right-to-work typically focuses on the individual employee, and weakens collective bargaining power. Employees not covered by a union can be subject to at-will work agreements where employers can reduce workforce, lay-off and re-organize with no significant repercussions to the business, but devastating impacts to the employee. Additionally, employees often discover that loyalty to a company isn’t rewarded through commensurate advancement, pay or recognition because employees are treated like assets rather than an investment. In contrast, right-to-organize typically focuses on the fundamental right of workers to form unions and perform collective bargaining, and strengthens collective bargaining power.

If it’s a veto referendum for HB267 that the newly formed “Protect Utah Workers” PIC is pursuing, consider that they are doing the same work to gather signatures that a citizen’s initiative would require. We can collect signatures for both.

It’s worth noting that the Utah legislature didn’t follow Utah law when submitting its own amendments to the people last year. There were four constitutional amendments in 2024, and none followed state laws to appear on ballots. Two were challenged in the courts and ignored, but two unchallenged amendments remained for voters to weigh in on.

The supermajority in our Utah legislature believes that it isn’t beholden to anyone, and they have plans to keep scrapping with everyone, picking fights with the Feds, picking fights with Utah courts, and picking fights with Utah voters.

This time, we need to bring the fight to them.

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References

Article 23 Amendment and Revision
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/ArticleXXIII/Article_XXIII,_Section_1.html
A constitutional amendment can be proposed by either chamber and is run via a joint resolution. The resolution must be approved by two-thirds of each body. If it is, then the question gets placed on the ballot for voters in the next general election.

Article 6 Legislative Department
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/ArticleVI/Article_VI,_Section_1.html
(1) The Legislative power of the State shall be vested in: (a) a Senate and House of Representatives which shall be designated the Legislature of the State of Utah; and (b) the people of the State of Utah as provided in Subsection (2).
(2)(a)(i) The legal voters of the State of Utah, in the numbers, under the conditions, in the manner, and within the time provided by statute, may: (A) initiate any desired legislation and cause it to be submitted to the people for adoption upon a majority vote of those voting on the legislation, as provided by statute; or (B) require any law passed by the Legislature, except those laws passed by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each house of the Legislature, to be submitted to the voters of the State, as provided by statute, before the law may take effect.

To Sen Daniel McCay and the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee

I urge you to vote “No” on SJR2 Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution – Statewide Initiatives. 

It is exceedingly clear that some members of the Utah legislature do not want to listen to Utah voters as they continue to submit bills that would make it harder for citizens initiatives to be passed. In 2024, HJR14 and its implementing statute HB284 failed when attempting to pass similar language. Sen. Lincoln Fillmore was the Senate Floor Sponsor for those failed bills, and is now the 2025 Bill Sponsor of SJR2. 

Citizen Initiatives are literally a tool for “We the People” to have a voice when our representatives don’t effectively represent its citizens. The resolution introduced this week is seeking to take away legislative power from Utah citizens, and give that authority to the Utah legislature. Keep in mind that if this passes, state legislators are TAKING AWAY POWER from Utah voters. Powers to introduce important legislation. Powers to approve constitutional amendments. Powers that belong to us unless we give them away.

There is a REASON that Citizens Initiatives exist. Our LAST AND SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT privilege is to raise a vote to the people when our representatives either lack political will or (in Utah) suffer under a super majority that obstructs the people’s will. Republican leadership wants to change the Utah constitution to limit the will of the people, and effectively neuter Citizen Initiatives by making it harder for initiatives to pass, and allowing the legislature to override successful ballot measures.

Lincoln Fillmore is my Senator, and he does not represent my voice, or other voting constituents in Senate District 17 with this bill.

Gregory Green, Resident
Senate District 17
South Jordan, Utah

For transparency, I am providing my answers to a survey from the Salt Lake Tribune so that my positions on these questions can be shared with constituents.

The Salt Lake Tribune is reaching out to competitors in this year’s election to help voters understand candidates’ policy positions in the Salt Lake Tribune 2024 legislative candidate voter guide.

To make this easy for candidates and readers, we’ve created a simple Google form with open-ended and yes/no questions. The open-ended questions have a character limit to ensure fairness in answer length for each candidate in the race. Questions that require written answers will be edited for grammar and clarity.

Jeff Parrott, The Tribune’s politics editor, can respond to any questions, concerns or comments and can be reached at jparrott@sltrib.com.

Responses will appear in https://www.sltrib.com/politics/voterguides/

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1) Utah’s largest electricity provider has canceled plans to replace its coal-fired power plants with nuclear power and has walked back comments about investing in clean energy. Should Utah be looking for more sustainable and less fossil fuel and carbon-dependent energy sources? If so, how? (150 chars)

Answer: We need to embrace clean energy by investing in development of clean energy tech & producing jobs to replace economies built on fossil fuel industry.

2) Water scarcity continues to be a challenge for the state. Recent legislation has attempted to conserve water and to get more water to the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River. Should Utah do more to subsidize homeowners’ efforts to conserve water? What other steps should be taken to deal with water scarcity? (250 chars)

Answer: Water rights are coming to a legal loggerhead, and we need to prepare for a revision on shared water resources. Reshape ag with less water intensive crops and stock. Revise community plans to support water conservation and more shared spaces.

3) What policy changes would you support to address Utah’s affordable housing crisis? (250 chars)

Answer: Infrastructure (public transit/broadband) to incentivize suburban growth, revised permitted use for combination business/residential, improve multi-generational tenancy & ADUs, home improvement programs, small home (<1200 sq/ft) and starter incentives

Oct 8 update (not part of my survey response): I met with some homeowners who had concerns about zoning changes in South Jordan residential properties that could negatively impact lifestyle and traffic in their area, and agree that these are legitimate concerns. Planning commissions are a first point of contact for residents to discuss city and county strategies, but there should be priority given to existing residents who wish to keep existing zoning laws that protect their investment in spacious communities that afford privacy and quiet space.

4) Following the Utah Supreme Court’s recent decision to keep a near-total abortion ban blocked, anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates called for additional legislative action to circumvent the court-ordered injunction. Would you support banning abortion after six weeks? (Y/N)

Answer: No

5) Would you support a state constitutional amendment to ban abortion? (Y/N)

Answer: No

6) Should there be other restrictions on reproductive health care — especially fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization? (150 chars)

Answer: Services need to be generally available to the public that start with appropriate sex education in schools, and no bans on reproductive health care.

7) Are you voting for or against the constitutional amendment that removes the requirement that income taxes be used for education and social services? Why? (250 chars)

Answer: Against. Legislators want access to spend that money, and force public education to compete in the general fund. This is one more step to dismantle public education in Utah.

8) A Utah judge has voided Amendment D and said votes for or against it cannot be counted, but the state is appealing. Do you support changing the Utah Constitution to guarantee that the Legislature can repeal or amend ballot initiatives? (Y/N)

Answer: No

Jordan Teuscher is a representative elected in South Jordan and West Jordan. However, Jordan does nothing to represent South Jordan, and Jordan does nothing to represent West Jordan. 

What Jordan Teuscher does is promote himself, and a growing right-wing ideology.   

What has Jordan done?

• He wants to suppress citizen initiatives.  He is the floor sponsor for SJR401 that will steal legislative rights away from hard working Utahns who draft, volunteer, collect signatures and vote on important citizen initiatives.
• He doesn’t support working families. He legislated against public employees and teachers. 
• He doesn’t like women. He voted against women’s access to private healthcare. 
• He doesn’t like public schools.  He’s funneling money away from public schools through vouchers.  He’s attacking teachers and public school administrators. 
• He doesn’t like LGBTQIA. Outside of our real priorities, he chose to legislate against 4 student athletes in Utah because they are trans
• He doesn’t like renters and home buyers. He supported realtors and HOAs to keep costs of living high. He has reported more than $14,000 in campaign donations from realtor groups, property groups, insurance companies and financial institutions since 2022. 
• He is rigging elections. He introduced a bill to knock out moderate candidates using the signature-gathering process (like Gov. Cox) who know the skewed Republican Primary is rigged against them. 
• He voted for the proposal to RAISE the percent approval required for a citizens initiative to pass.
• He is a copy/paste legislator introducing right-wing legislation from ALEC (https://www.commoncause.org/our-work/money-influence/alec/) that was also run in Texas and Florida. He’s doing the same thing working with the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_for_Government_Accountability) whose focus is to push, repackage & franchise other people’s ideas to implement. He literally takes his cues from national right-wing think tanks rather than the people in his district.  
• He is taking money from white nationalist groups. In 2022 he accepted money from the Young Americans for Liberty (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/kyle-bristow), a group with clear ties to the white nationalist movement in the US.

What has Jordan NOT done? 

• No bills sponsored for infrastructure
• No bills sponsored for public transit
• No bills sponsored for cost of living
• He doesn’t talk to South Jordan or West Jordan constituents
• He isn’t engaged with local City Councils
• He isn’t engaged with public employees 

What has Jordan done for himself? 

• He feigns outrage at the Utah Supreme Court decision to allow Better Boundaries proceed with their gerrymandering case against the Utah Legislature
• He is “deeply appalled” at the Utah Supreme Court decision to allow the Planned Parenthood injunction to remain in place while a lower court hears the case
• He legislated to loosen laws around campaign funds
• He wants to move oversight of elections from the Lt Governor’s office
• He sponsored bills to allow discrimination on the basis of “free exercise of religion”
• He introduced more bills on crypto currency and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

Teuscher could more easily be summed up with a report card.  He received a 2024 overall score of “F” from Alliance for a Better Utah 

Check it out for yourself: https://progressreport.betterutah.org/legislators/rep-jordan-d-teuscher/

• “F” for good government
• “F” for equal rights
• “F” for sustainable futures
• “F” for strong communities

Is this the person you want to represent you in 2025?  It’s time for a change.  

During a recorded Jan 13, 2024 Pre-Legislative town hall, Jordan Teuscher made a statement regarding the 2023 HB215 “Utah Fits All Scholarship” voucher program that was passed despite opposition from teachers and nearly every education organization in Utah. Teuscher says he wants to get special needs students out of public schools.

Here’s the part of the video from the townhall where he says exactly that. The full video is available here, with his comment made after 25 minutes into the video.

Apparently Teuscher doesn’t know much about the disability movement and the battle to move students with disabilities INTO public school systems. It wasn’t until 1975 that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was signed. EHA guarantees a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to each child with a disability in every state. The 1990 reauthorization changed the law’s name from EHA to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). That’s where IDEA and FAPE come from.

In 1992 Board of Ed v. Rowley case, the Supreme Court concluded that to provide FAPE, a school district must provide access to specialized instruction & related services that provide educational benefit to a child with a disability.

Integrated schools have better outcomes. Students (ALL students) do better when they experience integrated classrooms. Casel studies from as early as the 1960’s point to these improved outcomes.
Link: https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-does-the-research-say/

What Teuscher thinks is a “win-win” is a loss for everyone. His plan is regressive and exclusionary.

I have plenty to say about Sen. Lincoln Fillmore’s comments as well, but later. He says a bunch of stuff that’s either disingenuous, misleading or flat-out wrong. Keep in mind that Sen. Fillmore chairs the Public Education Budget Committee, but intentionally misspeaks.