Tuesday June 20 is "Meet the Governor" Day

One really cool thing about being friends with Wayne Holland (Utah's Democratic Party Chairman) is that when I'm in Salt Lake City for any number of reasons, I get to visit with Wayne Holland, and sometimes he introduces me to important people.

Yesterday, June 20, I went up to SLC to attend the Democratic Candidate Legislative Fundraiser Breakfast. I talked to several people at the breakfast, including Senator Mike Dimitrich who is from Price and who is a *really* nice guy. I also had a good conversation with Pat Jones and Carol Spackman-Moss, who are *both* classy women whom I admire.

After the breakfast, Wayne Holland asked me if I wanted to go a swearing in ceremony for Darcy Dixon Pignanelli, who is a new tax commissioner for the state of Utah. I agreed, and a group of us headed for the ceremony. After the ceremony, Wayne introduced me to Darcy, who congratulated me on my bid for political office. Right after that, I was introduced to Mayor Dan Snarr, Mayor of Murray, Utah. We had a wonderful conversation about how hard it is to run as a Democrat in such a "red" state, but he congratulated me and said that it sometimes is harder to stick to your guns and stay with your convictions - a lesser person would have registered as a Republican to ensure political clout and a win. He said that no matter what, Doing What's Right is indicative of a strong character and he was happy that I had done the right thing. These conversations are *always* inspiring to me. Mayor Snarr is also Trisha Beck's brother - Trisha is running for Senate District 9 and was instrumental in helping me to make my decision to run for office. Great family.

Before we left, Wayne marched us right up to the front of the room, and introduced us to Governor Jon Huntsman. I have always liked Governor Huntsman, and I was not surprised that he was kind and cordial, and even wished me the best of luck in my race for Senate District 28, even as a Democrat. We had a nice 90 second chat and the governor was on his way.

All in all, a great day.