ST. GEORGE – Saturday, Dorothy Engelman, Democratic candidate for Utah House District 74, held a campaign kickoff in Bloomington Park, off of Man-of-War Road in St. George.
“If you look at our local voting turnout, I think people feel it doesn’t make a difference,” Engelman said. “I want to give them a reason to feel voting makes a difference this time.”
Engelman said she was hoping to not only capitalize on the success of Democrats like Jim Matheson but also show the Independents she is the right woman for the job.
“I think we need more voices in the state Legislature,” Engelman said. “We need a legislature that is not so monotone,and essentially speaks with one voice. We see in the state Legislature the same thing we are seeing in the federal Legislature: It’s extremely partisan.”
It’s also very important to get more women into politics, Engelman said. Sixty-one percent of women work outside the home, she said, yet less than 16 percent of all elected positions in Utah are held by women. Most of those positions are small-town leaders. Women need more of a voice in the state legislature, she said.
Engelman also talked about local influences and politics; she said:
Oftentimes, the voices that we hear from Southern Utah are voices who have been here a long time. When you look at the population, especially in my district, more than 50 percent of those have lived here 15 years or less. They are not folks who were born here with the red sand beneath their toes; they are people who chose to come here for a reason. They like what they saw and want to make things better.
The issues
A former high school and college educator, Engelman said education is at the top of the three biggest issues she wants to focus on.
“We have to find some more money for schools,” Engelman said. “There are some ways to do this.”
Engelman said every state around Utah has put a severance tax on natural resources that come out of the ground – natural resources that are not renewable like coal, gas or oil. Utah does not tax the coal that comes out of the ground. Engelman said we let the folks that take it out take it for free. Oil and gas have a severance tax, but coal does not.
The next issue Engelman addressed was the environment.
“Our environment is something that is extremely important, and we have to preserve that,” Engelman said. “As you come down I-15 from Cedar City into St. George, we are now seeing haze build up over the area.”
If population projections are correct, that haze could get much worse, Engelman said; we only have one permanent air quality monitoring system in the area.
“I think, as a state, we need to start monitoring our air quality down here,” Engelman said.
She said water conservation is also a very important part of the environment; however, she feels there are other options, besides building a pipeline, that won’t cost our future generations in the long run.
She added that the state of Utah Department of Transportation needs to start planning long term for public transportation in Washington, Iron and Kane Counties. As Washington County grows, she said, so will the other two.
The last of the issues Engelman addressed was the economy.
“We need to look into clean, diverse jobs for this area,” Engelman said. “That means technology.”
Engelman said if you look at the demographics of what new employers are looking for, one thing Southern Utah currently can’t supply is high-tech workers.
“We need to appeal to economy and business that can come in here and work on a smaller scale,” she said. “We are a perfect spot for telecommuting.”
Engelman closed by saying she wants to be “a new voice for Southern Utah, because more voices will make Utah Better.”
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Good luck Dorothy. I look forward to putting a check mark next to your name on the ballot.
Thank you and I look forward to meeting you at one of the campaign events. Please visit my Facebook page and website. http://www.dorothyforhd74.com.
You should not be running for office. In fact, your ample back side should be run out of Dixie. I hope voters don’t forget your little temper tantrum about the school raffle!
The school was allowing high school kids to raffle off guns sitting in the open in a table or something with no adults present. Please excuse her for not wanting a repeat of what happened during a local high schools production of “Oklahoma” in 2008.
This is a hunting community. There is absolutely no reason these high schoolers should have been prevented for raffling off a rifle. Simone, you are likely one of the fans of this busy body who has her nose into everyone’s business but her own. When she gets thrown under the bus on election day, you can have the honor of being the bus driver.
You seem to be campaigning in the wrong place as everyone knows only the dead, the poorest inner city dwelling folks, or illegal aliens vote democratic.
What’s wrong with the legislature speaking with one voice since it is the right voice? And of course as a liberal educator she wants more money to go to schools. Right now over 60% of the state budget goes to schools, a couple of billion dollars worth. Add to that all of the tuition, fees, and other costs levied on students, parents, and families and you will see that the schools make a LOT of money.
That’s better than the MILLIONS spent fighting same sex marriage…or supporting the brain dead politicians we now have in office.
If you believe in the bible you would also believe same sex marriage is a sin and would be fighting to prevent.Godless baby killers wouldn’t know about the bible though.And simone is the perfect example of one who only wants guns around ONLY when they are in the hands of criminals and gangs.Ordinary citizens should not have the right to protect themselves.Tired of all the rhetoric over gun owners.How about we talk about which takes more lives in the US each year-abortion or guns?
Actually Utah is second only to last in per pupil spending. Let’s just sat that your statement is true and 60% of the budget goes to education. Why isn’t that money going to children? Where is that “couple billion dollars” going? The answer the second question is Administrators pockets. The answer to the first, greed and the knowledge that people like you, Gary, will vote for people like them simply because they run on the Republican ticket. As far as voices go, that one voice Dorothy spoke about May be the right one for the good ole boy Republican school administrators who currently run things but it is the WRONG voice for our children.
The best man for the job is often a woman.
This Is the same woman that shut down the snow canyon rugby team fund raiser. I sure don’t want her being my voice in government.
Right because the organizers of that fundraiser sure made the best decision when they let unsupervised high school kids raffle off high powered rifles left unlocked in the open on a table. I see to recall a similar incident at a local high school”s production of Oklahoma in 2008. Of course no one put a stop to that one though and a kid died. Please excuse Dorothy for not wanting a repeat of that little incident
Hear, hear. I am a 2nd Amendment supporter but that was just irresponsible…and I dare say, a very stupid and foolish thing…for those parents, who organized the raffle, to do.
I agree but it could have been handled better. For example she could have offered to display the gun in a safer manor and help the kid with the raffle
@MAN That would not have worked. You see St george full of people like “Struth: above who think that it is okay to leave a gun out in the open air around a bunch of unsupervised high school student because “This is a hunting community”.
I understand your suggestion but I don’t think raffling a gun was at all appropriate for a fundraiser in the name of a public school. There are so many other items to raffle off that are more appropriate in that case (electronics, power tools, home appliances, etc). Now, if an outside adult organization such as Elks or Moose, etc. had run the raffle privately, on their own facility, having secured authorization to use the school’s name, and then donated all proceeds to the rugby team, it would be different. But not the schlocky way they were doing it. It was a good intention very poorly executed.
Simone says what’s the difference between a starter pistol and a hunting rifle ? why do democrats have to stretch the truth to make their point ?
Because Republicans and Libertarians NEVER do that, right?
There are many who aren’t Democratic but apparently don’t realize they should be. Dorothy’s message is a reasonable and sane message about what’s needed in this state regarding education, maintaining clean air through far-sighted transportation planning, reasonable decisions concerning expensive and unneeded water projected, and making extractive industries pay their fair share for the good of our educational system and the children for whom it provides knowledge and a solid future.
So you are saying you want Government in your back pocket on every social, environmental and business decision made in your life??? Wow, that sounds great…. A fool of fools
Watch the strawman burn.
Don’t turn your beautiful red state blue, the rest of the democratic machine is destroying entire cultures on the welfare plantation in America. Education is a fine talking point, but it has become Federalized monopoly money for the democrat elite, school costs too much and administrations make too much, and kids are getting less out of it, spend smarter and not more! Utah seems to have a strong conservative base and is one of the nicer places we have been to as far as people, community and culture. Don’t ruin it with Democrats. I am not saying Republicans are the answer, but they are the lesser of two evils no doubt!
What’s a democrat?
A Democrat is someone who puts people before money. As proved by people like John Swallow, Gary Herbert, Mark Shurtleff, Jeremy Johnson and Thomas S. Monson, putting people before money is a completely foreign concept here so I’m not surprised you didn’t know.
What is the difference between a starter pistol and a hunting rifle?
When left in the hands of unsupervised high school kids? None.
@ Simone… A Democrat puts people before money? Really? Like Barry Obama? Barry can find time for fundraisers and golf. Not quite the “people before money” activity. I’m sure you meant a different Dem. Anthony Weiner? Rahm Emanuel? Maybe John Edwards? How about Maxine Waters? OR, the plagiarizing Vice President? Solid citizens one and all.
On the one hand we have the Democrats:
Barack Obama plays golf yes but he also passed a law that gave a lot more people access to healthcare in this country. Anthony Weiner committed a sex crime. Rahm Emanuel hasn’t actually been accused of anything so i don’t know why you brought him up. John Edwards was accused but never convicted.
On the other hand we have the Republicans:
Dick Cheney Shot a man. Richard Nixon had Watergate. John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff are charged with accepting bribes, Jeremy Johnson stands accused of defrauding people out of MILLIONS of dollars, George W. Bush sent thousands of American soldiers to their death because he didn’t like oil prices. John Boehner led the charge in shutting down the government last year at the cost of millions of dollars. “President” Thomas S. Monson takes 10% of the gross annual income of more then 60% of the people in this state by threatening that they won’t get into Heaven if they don’t pay. Bob McDonnell was recently convicted of 11 counts of conspiracy bribery and extortion in Virginia.
All of those men mentioned above are Republicans politicians or sympathizers. All of them stole from American people. Bad eggs are in every basket, yes, but in this case there are far more “bad eggs” in the Republican basket. Your turn. 🙂
Barry passed a law along w/his Dem. cronies that FORCES people to buy over priced health insurance. He and his cronies LIED to the American people. If you like your plan BS sound familiar? And they have their nerve to call it The “Affordable” Care Act? It is anything BUT affordable. Unless of course you’re taking the govt. handouts. There’s sleaze on both sides of the aisle…but libs. like to come off as holier than thou. They like to BS to the American public about how compassionate they are? It’s a crock and we both know it. And don’t bother digging up cr@p about republicans because I think they’re bunch of sleaze bags too. And, if you don’t know about Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanual, you’re not paying attention.
And Obama didn’t take your guns nor take communist control over the country, and he isn’t Muslim. He also has an American certificate of birth because his mother is a US citizen. Remember all those lies spewed by the Republicans and their primary focus was on those lies? Gun manufacturers made record sales off those lies.
A democrat is one that turns babies into corpses
You forgot Hatch in that lot of names. He’s a prime example of a senator bought and paid for. IMO, I think a few shady characters exist in many Utah city governments.
In Utah, it’s an endangered species.
Good luck to you, Dorothy, I will be voting for you. You seem to be reasonable and looking to do some good for the whole community. Of course that, and the “D” by your name, means we will end up with the same closed-minded Republicannot we always end up with.
I know munchie a nickname she got from her pot smoking friends. If pot was legal in Utah we could all see things her way .
Simone, please answer my question, what is the difference between a starter pistol and a hunting rifle? Than I will tell you how a starter pistol can kill
A starter pistol is what a high schooler takes to school and kills himself with and a rifle is what a maniac takes to school and shoots students with.
I find her intimidating and anxious to start an argument. My experience of meeting her gave me a bad taste in my mouth.
ALICE, I have not had the unfortunate honor of meeting her in person…..and I honestly would rather not ever meet her. I have heard her radio interviews and have read her column in The Spectrum before she decided to run for office, and she DOES come across as intimidating and overly aggressive, especially if you do not agree with her or her views. She is not the type of representative the people of southern Utah want or need in SLC. She is as good as “done”.
As far as the gun raffle for the high school goes, Engleman would have preferred a free abortion be raffled off from the local Planned Parenthood office in town. Who knows, some lucky (or unlucky) gal would have really benefitted from winning a free abortion. Good luck Dorothy….you’re really going to need it here. However, you could save yourself and your supporters a lot of campaign money and just quit while you are ahead….for now.
If you are so concerned about the potential loss of life over a few guns on a table at a raffle then you must be OUTRAGED over the 1.5 million babies killed by abortion each year right?
RIGHT?
Oh wait ,that one is liberal approved so it is ok.
Remember the quote-“if we can save even one life”?
OK my turn-I will be happy to oblige.
Bad egg- “you can keep you plan”-lie
Bad egg-“they cling to their bibles and guns”-da** right we do/it’s called the 2nd amendment
Bad egg-“we must punish our enemies”-uhhm no comment can validate that statement
Bad egg-responsible gun owners are “gun nuts”even those that own one for self protection.But babies killers to the tune of 1.5 million a year are just swell citizens.
Bad egg-allows open border for political purposes and political gain even though terrorists and infectious diseases and cartel members and gang mambers are openly crossing this border.
Bad egg-Allows religious persecution of christians and christian business owners in a country that was founded on religious freedom.
Bad egg-demonizes or labels as racist or bigots ALL who have dissenting opinions
or ideals or want to enforce our laws on the books
Bad egg-arms the cartels and allow our border patrol to be killed with those very same weapons
Bad egg-allows illegal immigrants to enjoy the same PRIVILEGES as law abiding american citizens(not rights-illegals have no civil rights,only basic human rights)
Bad egg-Politicizes and uses what are supposed to be unbiased bi partisan government agencies against his “enemies”.Or those of opposite views.
I could go on and on.
Seems some only see what they want to see and are VERY willing to turn a blind eye to what they do not want to see.