Show t 4 t r. r I IL If f Woo L rz ry B Cr Cros os J 0 f 1 A s r J 1 i iI I I l i I Pete Ashdown prepares for US U.S. Senate race Hatchs Hatch's Dem challenger talks The Globe Interview Pete Pete-Ashdown with with Pete Ashdown Jeff Dixon The Globe Pete Ashdown's sparsely furnished headquarters on South Temple echo with the sound of his children playing staffers talking on the phone and of a man who's trying to get his message out to voters in inan inan inan an uphill battle versus a well-funded well powerful powerful powerful pow pow- erful incumbent He officially filed for candidacy for US U.S. Senate last month and is the only Democrat to do so Not having a primary election to deal with allows him to focus his resources solely on winning Hatchs Hatch's 5 seat n Ashdown 39 is a Bountiful native a 1 graduate of and the founder and g 2 president of Utah's first Internet Service i Provider He and his wife Z Robin have three children Madeleine L 1 Henry and Greta Below is an excerpt from the full ver- ver sion of this interview which can be read online at t i Globe Statistically all y n tm i T than a few Republicans and Independents to vote for you in order to win provided there are no competitive third-party third candi candi- dates What do you have to offer this group of potential swing or over cross-over voters as opposed to Orrin Hatch Ashdown What I 1 tell them is that fm Im a small businessman who was born bom and raised in Utah and that I reflect their then concerns concerns concerns con con- cerns in a better fashion than Senator Hatch does I 1 also espouse conservative views in the sense that I 1 believe in a smaller small small- er government I believe in an efficient government and I believe that taxation should be equal across the board It shouldn't be that a corporation has a tax advantage versus an independent ual I also talk about privacy and liberty which I 1 believe are dear to most conservatives conservatives' conservatives conservatives' conservatives conservatives' conser conser- hearts They dont don't want Ashdown Cont Cant on Page 3 Read The Globe Online Ashdown Cont from front Government coming into peoples peoples' peoples peoples' peo peo- ples' ples houses and telling them what to do They dont don't want to tobe tobe tobe be needlessly monitored without without with with- out warrant I also am a firm believer in the of the power con con- You look at Senator Hatchs Hatch's attempts to amend the Constitution he talks about his love for the Constitution but how can you love something something some some- thing that you want to change so much Globe On your you propose replacing all of the federal federal fed fed- eral health care programs with a single entity devoted towards complete health care insurance for all Americans How do you counter the argument that a run government health care system would stifle innovation unnecessarily impose itself upon the free market and create a situation similar to that in hi Canada where they have higher tax rates in hi order to fund their health program but have long waiting periods for treatment relative to the US U.S. Ashdown Im I'm not advocating government control of the health care system Im I'm advocating advocating advocating advocat advocat- ing government control of the health insurance system because I feel that's where weve we've had the breakdown breakdown that's that's where the free market has failed us If there was a way for the free freeto market to repair itself and cover coverall all aJl Americans e caI at a reasonable e on b cost cost without huge administrative tive overhead then Id I'd say great But my experience ov over over r the past decade as a business owner has shown me otherwise I dont don't believe the free market can repair itself and I believe our economy is damaged as a result of being dependent on this sub-par sub system in hi comparison comparison ison to what the rest of the world has in respect to i su ance In respect to health care I believe weve we've got the best system system system tem in the world Globe Would abortions be covered by such a system Ashdown I do believe they should be covered but if they arent aren't then we should absolutely absolute absolute- ly cover the care and education for every child that is born in America Globe You think the Iraqi people should vote to decide how long the US U.S. should stay there What if they want us there through the end of the presidents president's term which he has already assured us that we willbe will willbe willbe be or even l longer nger If that were the case the tab for this war will continue to increase and casualties both military and civilian will increase as well well- provided that the violence con con- Ashdown I think we should be compensated for being there If they want us to stay there they should pay for it going forward forward forward for for- ward and they should pay for what has already occurred provided provided pro pro- vided they get their society rebuilt and are able to bring their oil production back on line We put so much of our own tax dollars into defense spending spending spending spend spend- ing that benefits other countries and us indirectly that I think those other countries need to pony up now to pay that back or we need to get out of those other countries As far as the me loss of life I think a lot of that can be n mitigated mid miti ti- ti gated by supporting the troops logistically l' l ne Heard that at up up-t up fo eighty percent of injuries casualties casualties casu casu- aldes and deaths amongst our troops could be eliminated by better armor and I would like to see that done If the Iraqis want us to stay and they're willing to pay and if our troops are willing to enlist then I think it will be a working system Globe Would we only offer our services to Iraq just to help them keep or get their then country under control Ashdown Yeah to get that off the ground I dont don't like the idea of being the worlds world's policeman police police- man overall We have a lot of military bases worldwide I think weve we've overextended ourselves ourselves ourselves our our- selves that were we're in this Cold War mentality yet were we're not putting proper defenses on our own borders Globe Speaking of borders immigration is a hot topic right now What do you propose that we do to take care of this issue Grant everyone amnesty Build a fence A combination of the two Ashdown I think the fence is isa isa isa a ridiculous idea I dont don't think its it's cost effective Globe They'd have to make it pretty deep Ashdown Were We're in the process of dealing with tunnels in California as well What's interesting to me about illegal immigration is that it is very similar to what Ive I've seen on the internet in regards to illegal that behavior if people dont don't have a convenient legal alternative to a behavior then they'll take the illegal tive For example when was popular there wasn't an nunes and people used because it was the only option out there Now that nunes is available more of the people looking for music on the internet go to nUnes because its it's convenient its it's somewhat inexpensive and they know what what they e getting I translate that to immigration tion don in that I think we need a clean legal efficient alternative for immigration to offset the dangerous difficult and illegal option to immigration If we have a way for people to get across the border that's secure that's efficient and allows them to return to their country of origin origin on- on ori ori- gin in an efficient clean manner manner manner man man- ner then I think they're going to want to use that I hear that a lot of people come from other countries and have difficulty getting back home I think that there is a aneed aneed aneed need for limits on how many people come in to this country on a yearly basis I think its it's stupid stupid stupid stu stu- pid to kick everybody out and make them re-immigrate re as some people have been cating eating I think we need to have physical green cards that have counterfeiting anti-counterfeiting technology in hi them and that employers need to be responsible for checking those green cards That will also reduce the motivation motivation motivation moti moti- for illegal immigration for people to come here and work The one thing I worry about with this whole scheme is that Europe has had systems like this in place for the last twenty years and much of the angst that were we're seeing in hi Europe with immigrants is as a result of these systems Globe Is there anything else you'd like to say to the students I at Ashdown Well the 35 18 year old demographic ic is kind of the holy grail of politics and nobody has been able to engage them and get them out for vot vot- ing Its It's the largest demographic in hi Utah If the students of my alma mater have good ideas about how I can get people people peo peo- pie to not only be part of this process be process be part of this campaign cam cam- but but to get them registered and turned out to vote I would love to hear them |