“The Constitution is not an instrument for the
government to restrain the people, it is an
instrument for the people to restrain the
government - - lest it come to dominate our
lives and interests.”             -Patrick Henry

Friends:

After months of negotiations with the federal

Office of Special Counsel regarding federal

funds, that represent less than one percent of

the annual Ogden Police Department budget,

and trying to find a compliance program, previously

decided in recent case law, acceptable to the needs

of the Office of Special Counsel, and being able to find nothing, I have been advised by my legal representatives to withdraw my Declaration of Candidacy for the Senate District #18 of the State of Utah for the year 2010. 

On March 31, 2010, I did such at the office of the Utah Lieutenant Governor.

Our founding fathers would probably roll over in their graves at the notion that a part-time state or local citizen legislator would be denied his/her 1st amendment rights and all voters would be denied their rights by a 70 year old acto of congress that was originally passed to curb the currying of partisan political favor for federal employees.  This act today, the Hatch Act, has the potential for significantly lower civil penalties for federal employees than for state and local workers and it doesn’t even require an act of political currying.  It only requires that there may exist a potential of partisan political currying for any federal grant or loan anywhere in an organization that accepts federal money of any amount, as determined by the Office of Special Counsel.

I apologize to the citizens of Ogden City, Utah and to the elected leadership of Ogden City for the embarrassment this locally, legally, misunderstood process has taken over the last four years.

Jon Greiner