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Wasatch County
Heber, Midway and Wasatch County

Representative John Curtis Attends GOP Fundraiser In Wasatch County

The Wasatch County Lincoln Breakfast, a fundraiser for the county’s Republican Party, included a visit from Representative John Curtis. Curtis is the county’s voice in the US House of Representatives.

Representative John Curtis said to the attendees of the Wasatch GOP fundraiser on Saturday morning at Soldier Hollow that although he doesn’t have a favorite of the seven counties he represents; he appreciates Wasatch County and called it a low-maintenance, high-yield county.  Representative Curtis shared a story from last year when he had the opportunity to preside on the house floor while the house was considering opioid legislation. “I watched as 60 bills came forward that they were voting on in the house,” Curtis continued. “One by one these bills come up and you do a debate. There’s time set aside for debate and sometimes these debates are very contentious, very partisan, but this is what I witnessed in the debate while I was on the house floor. Republicans stood up and said something like this, ‘These are good bills. We have worked hard on these with our democratic colleagues, we would like to thank the Democrats for their help on these bills,’ and then they sat down. Then the Democrats had a chance to rebuttal and the Democrats stoop up and said ‘These are good bills. We have worked hard with our Republican colleagues on these bills. We urge your support,’ and then they sat down. One by one these bills passed. We wrapped them into one bill, sent them to the senate and the senate passed those bills. They went to the president and they were signed into law. Those bills were passed in the house 435 members, only six dissenting votes on those opioid bills.”

Representative Curtis said that of the hundreds of bills passed through the senate last year two-thirds went through with majority votes from both parties.

“I just want to give you a little hope that there are good things, there are good people back in Washington D.C.” Curtis said. “I hardly meet a colleague, Republican or Democrat that I don’t walk away and say, ‘darn, that’s a really good person.’ We may have totally different perspectives, but they came here for the exact same reasons I did and a lot of good is happening.”

Senator Mitt Romney could not attend the breakfast, but he sent his Chief of Staff Matt Waldrip in his place. Waldrip said when Senator Romney won the 2018 election one of his first instructions was to hire Heber Valley native Kelsey Berg as deputy chief of staff. Waldrip explained Berg’s role on Senator Romney’s staff.

“She is to be in every meeting,” Waldrip explained. “She is to be in every discussion, every one that she chooses. Every high-level discussion to make sure that we always have a voice of Utah represented and not forget what’s going on here. She spends her whole day just reaching out to people here being a conduit for information from the state and always give that perspective. That is what she is tasked with. That’s what he said, I want her there I want to use her input. Make use of her intellect there so, that’s our other connection to the valley here.”

Senator Mike Lee did not attend or send a staff member to the breakfast.

KPCW reporter David Boyle covers all things in the Heber Valley as well as sports and breaking news.
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