Lane Henderson - running for State Senate

I was able to go to a meet and greet with Lane Henderson. Here are the notes that I took:

WHY RUNNING? He wants to make a difference in the political arena.

CAMPAIGN & DONATIONS: He says that their is a network inside the machine as people have often said. He decided not to accept any campaign donations so that he doesn't owe anyone anything. Then while Mark Madsen was speaking at the county convention, someone threw a wadded up piece of paper to Lane. He opened it up and inside was $5. He didn't know who the $ came from and therefore couldn't give it back. So on his campaign donations he has $5 listed.

COUNTY CONVENTION: He was most hurt by the question asked from the lady from Eagle Mountain, regarding integrity in office. When he became major he had 5 objectives. He was able to accomplish all 5 of them, before his term was up. He gave the people of Salem ownership in their city that they have never had before.

$$$: He is the lowest paid mayor in the state. He doesn't feel that you should be overpaid for your office to serve the people. He feels that campaign donations (millions of dollars) should be put to better use for our economy.

POLICY: He has an open door policy. He invites all to talk to him about their issues and concerns. He likes to make things better than how he found it.

MADSEN'S LETTER: Senator Madsen sent out a letter to all the delegates attacking Lane. Madsen attacked his authenticity of being a republican and that he had special interests. He is a republican through and through and is not soft to democrats. There was a letter written by one of the residents of Salem in support of Lane. This lady happens to be a democrat and Mark thinks that's a horrible thing. Lane did not know at the time that she was a democrat. She was just being kind and trying to help. (Besides, don't we like it when democrats support our republican candidates?) He had 12 groups and around 100 individuals contact him and want to give him $ for his campaign. He turned them all down. He does not have special interests.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: He says the state has to take action. He thinks we all should carry our own weight. He lived in Italy for 5 years. He and his wife were there 4 months before their kids could join them legally. That's the way they did it because that was the legal way to do it. While there they contributed to their society, didn't take from it.

VOUCHERS: He disagrees with vouchers and open enrollment. He says that the private sector should remain private. He is not against vouchers in principle, but against private businesses getting a government check. He says that he is for free choice in education. He is against open enrollment in that schools can then recruit students and athletes that would give a school an unfair advantage.

SALEM TRAIL SYSTEM: Lane has been working with other cities and CW management for quite some time to get the Salem Trail System, a trail that connects 3 cities. To fund this they needed to get grants. Chris McCandless from CW Management drafted a letter to try and get a grant from the Lee Ray McCallister Fund. Senator Madsen in turn signed this letter, taking credit for getting the trail system. He in fact did not write the letter, he was just asked to sign it in hopes that it would help get the grant.

UEA: Madsen also accuses him of being a UEA delegate. Lane again says that he is not being carried by special interest groups. However Madsen is carrying the banner of special interests. Madsen has a bill that would allow 18 year olds to carry concealed weapons. Lane doesn't feel that they should be able to. Most of Madsen's contributions come from PAC.

DISTRICTING: He would like to see more uniform districting. Right now district 13 is in Tooele and Utah counties.

GRASSROOTS: Only way we are going to get control of our government is by starting in the grassroots.

TERM LIMITS: He is in favor of term limits for politicians. That way you have more fresh ideas and people aren't tied in with anyone. Let's stand up for something. They should also prohibit the amount of $ politicians can take. The role of government is to let the people know what is going on. He wants to see transparency.

PROPERTY: Never wants to condemn (eminent domain) people's property. People have the right to their land. When Salem city needed landed they bought it from different property owners. Originally one owner received more money than the other for the same amount of land. As mayor, Lane did not feel this was right and asked the city council to make it even amounts and they did.

PRIVATE SECTOR: He wants to keep government out of the private sector. As a private business owner, he doesn't think that the government has a right to compete against him, especially not at the tax payers expense.

OTHER: He wants to make everyone around him look good. He likes to give credit to the people it belongs to. He says he's a worker. He get in and gets it done. He doesn't believe we should just always be entitled. He wants to give government back to the people. One way he will do this by listening to the people and by responding to every letter and email he receives.

P.S. He says that if you haven't seen it before you need to come see the Salem Pond at Christmas time. It's called Pond Town Christmas. They float lit Christmas trees out on the pond.