Mike Ridgway
Candidate Questionnaire

1.  In the past two years, what would you consider to have been the top three challenges for the Salt Lake County Republican Party?

1. Member Relations: Making all Republicans feel welcome in the party has to be our "number one" priority. We still have a ways to go.
    
2. Candidate Relations: We need to make our caucus, convention, and primary processes fairer and more predictable for the candidates and their supporters. Once our nominees have been chosen, we need to do more to support them in their races in the general elections in November.
    
3. Media Relations: Ill-advised ballot challenges (in the county clerk's race), multiple “purges," – even criticism of our delegates by elected officials (like Mike Leavitt, Bob Bennett, and Mark Shurtleff, etc.) and by our state chair (Joe Cannon), make us Republicans an easy target in the media. Our party leaders need to do more "bigger picture" thinking in order to try to avoid these kinds of regrettable representations. .

2. In your opinion, what will be the top three concerns facing the party in the next two years?

The challenges I've listed above will, in all likelihood, continue to be “top concerns.” The question, then, is “How do we best address these concerns?” I believe that...

1. By electing party officers who are committed to working with all party members in a spirit of good will, we can do much to re-instill a climate of respect and appreciation for each member's contributions to the party.
    
2. By electing party officers who are committed to fair rules and strict compliance to those rules, we can make our processes more fair for candidates and their supporters.
    
3. The Republican rank and file have spoken on many issues in recent conventions and central committee meetings – preservation of caucuses and conventions, closed Republican primaries, automatic delegates. But time and again, our collective will has been ignored (or worse) by our county and state party leaders. By electing party officers (and elected officials) who don't automatically presume to know better than the broad mass of grassroots Republicans, we can avoid the kinds of unflattering reports about our party that have appeared in the news in the last two years.

3. Do you believe that you sufficiently understand the make-up and operation of the party’s conventions, Central Committee and Executive Committee to do the job you are seeking? Why?

I do. I have years of hands-on experience in these bodies. In fact, I am the only candidate for party office to have served on the party’s State Executive Committee (two years), State Central Committee (three years), County Executive Committee (two years, elected Senate Chair) and on the County Central Committee (three years, elected Precinct Chair). I’m also an elected county and state delegate. Furthermore, until a hospital stay two months ago, I had 100% lifetime attendance in each of these bodies.

4.  Do you believe that you sufficiently understand the procedural and governing documents of the party? Why?

Yes, I've served on the State Constitution and Bylaws Committee and twice on the County Constitution and Bylaws committee. I also served on the County Convention Credentials Committee. I have an excellent understanding of our state and county Constitution and Bylaws, standing rules, convention rules, and our parliamentary authority, Robert’s Rules of Order. I've been successful in getting numerous amendments to the party's state and county constitution and bylaws adopted both in conventions and in central committee meetings. When it comes to ensuring that our rules are fair and that they are adhered to, my record is unsurpassed.

5. What special skills or experience do you possess that qualifies you for the office that you seek?

I have the ability to produce accurate, impartial minutes, to send calls to central committee meetings and conventions in a timely and appropriate manner, to use computerized tools effectively and efficiently, to deploy and maintain web sites, email systems, databases, etc, to implement proper archival systems (no more missing minutes or lost constitutions and bylaws), to make lists and instructional materials needed by caucus hosts and candidates available in a timely and efficient manner, and to be completely fair and impartial in the distribution of the same.

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Republicans for Civil and Informed Participation
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