The joined their colleagues from Salt Lake County who passed a similar measure a few weeks ago.
Attendees reports:
Repeal Passes. 443 to 365.
55% with an attendance (vote) of 808 out of 1400 ? Total delegates in the home county of the Governor.
The Final Credentials Report said that 906 of 1445 delegates (63%) attended today.
Kerri Witte was awesome! Chris Herrod was calm as a cucumber! Kerri and Chris spoke calmly, respectfully and the other side just couldn't contain themselves with their bitterness and it came through.
Chris Herrod gave a persuasive presentation with charts and numbers on the projection screen behind him (although some parts of some of his slides were too faint to read). He contrasted the US of 100 years ago (where the percentages of people from other countries were approximately equal) with the US of today (where the percentage of people from Mexico is SIX times greater than the next highest country). He characterized the current US policy as institutional racism, and underscored how unfair the US is being to aliens who are trying to come in the front door. Standing behind Chris at the podium were Carl Wimmer, Margaret Dayton, Ken Sumsion I think, and Rep. Grover. Chris' wife provided the exclamation point of his ten-minute allotment when she the last 45 seconds to plead for fairness/equity in behalf of the many people who are waiting to come here legally.
Chris Herrod also did one of the best speeches I've heard him give on this topic. He was very classy, especially at the end when he acknowledged that he had great respect for those who are on the other side of the issue from him.
Holly Richardson and the gov who spoke against the resolution had bitter, angry voices and spoke loudly!
Holly Richardson spoke for seven minutes, and the Governor spoke for three. Behind them were John Valentine, Curt Bramble, Lt. Gov. Bell, and maybe one or two others. Holly focuses on the need to do something, she said HB 116 was constitutional and was not amnesty, and she described several aspects of the bill, and why it was the right thing to do. Governor Herbert was more animated and passionate in his speech than I've ever seen him. He was gesturing with his hands, leaning into the microphone at times, expressively declaring that this was a state sovereignty issue, and that Utah had to do something because the federal government was not doing their part.
In closing his remarks, Governor Herbert said something like this, "Doing NOTHING is NOT an OPTION!"
In opening her remarks seconds later, fiery Keri Witte (who might have been a little nervous before addressing the crowd of nearly 1000 delegates, but who was now angry :--) said, "With all due respect, Governor, doing the WRONG THING is NOT an OPTION!"
Keri Witte took three minutes to introduce the resolution--did great! Then came two or three speakers AGAINST, and the same number FOR. Brandon Beckham spoke FOR the resolution, eloquently and calmly. Arturo Morales-Llan brought the house down with his speech--very persuasive!
When the chair asked the body whether they wanted to hear more speakers, the body said no way--let's vote. So we did.
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