Bronco Mendenhall and Susan Hutchison and lessons I have learned from them

It was about four years ago when I first got to know Susan Hutchison. It was at that time when I first wrote about my experiences with Susan. I did so based on an analogy comparing her to another amazing person by the name of Bronco Mendenhall. For those of you who didn't get a chance to read the first story. Bronco is the head football coach at Brigham Young University.


Bronco is now in his fifth year as head coach. Since that time he is doing exactly as I knew he would. He has ignited the fan base and the team has enjoyed three straight 10 win seasons and they appear to be on there way to another.



But there's more, Bronco is unlike any other college football coach in America today. The man is a spiritual giant. One of the things that Bronco and the team do is the night before every game they hold a special religious service where everyone in the community is invited. Now this is not a pep rally its an uplifting meeting where Bronco and his wife Holly and couple members of the team give motivating talks about life and how they do things at BYU. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of those meetings a year ago the night before they played the Washington Huskies. One of the key things I learned from Bronco are these five priorities he has in place for the team. They are listed here in order of importance.

1. FAITH
2. Family
3.Knowledge
4.Friends
5.Football


Amazing isn't it football is the fifth priority. From the moment I knew who Bronco Mendenhall was I knew he was a special person. I also knew that we were supposed to meet. Though at the time I didn't know why. I still don't know completely why but I do know more. God is slowly opening the door that has separated us. I look forward to the day when that door is finally opened.


As to Susan I can never say enough good things about one of my most favorite individuals in the world. To this day it still stuns me that I really know her. After all those years of watching her on the news I never thought, I never dreamed I would actually get to know Susan. This whole thing with Susan caught me by complete surprise. There is no doubt in my mind and heart that it happened through the power of God.



The most important thing I have learned from Susan is to never do anything to embarrass yourself,your family,your faith or your team. Once you lose your honor and integrity you have lost everything. To be honest there was time not all that long ago that it almost happened to me.
Were not for Susan and my wife Michele,with a little help from Larry Gelwix, Bronco Mendenhall and Glenn Beck I would not be the person I am today. Susan's powerful example has changed my life in ways I never thought possible. She has also inspired me to believe in myself and to do things I once thought were impossible.


I know your all wondering about Susan's run for King County Executive and what I think about the whole thing so far. Well I would be lying if I said I agreed with everything that has gone on.
But you know what? none of it matters to me. Because I know the real Susan and that's good enough for me. Whether she wins or not I will always believe in her because I know who she really is and the kind of person she can and will ultimately be.


Susan has in almost every way become the big sister I always wished I had. I am very blessed to know her in a way most people don't. I will always be grateful for the gift of a big sister that God gave me and her name is Susan.


Thanks for listening


Phil Spackman

SUSAN FOR GOVERNOR 2008

Well hello again its been a very long time since I have posted.
Back in the summer of 2005 the idea of Susan Hutchison running
for the United States senate first came together. We all know what
happened so there's no point in covering old ground.




However as we get a little closer to the 2008 elections it occurs to
me we have a wonderful opportunity to turn this state around.There
are those who think Luke Esser could do that. Anyone that opposes
property rights will have a hard time attempting to do so. Dino Rossi
as much as I like him can't do it anymore. I simply don't believe the base
of the party will support him the way they did in 2004. Unfortunately Dino
has made some questionable moves that have hurt his chances in 2008.



I know I know I didn't paint a very good picture of the future of GOP politics
in the state Washington. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. God
let me know in a pretty convincing way that this state needs Susan Hutchison
to be our next Governor.I realize this will make some of the State GOP Leadership
and establishment crowd very unhappy.They will probably try to do some of the
same things to hurt Susan chances like they did in the previous election cycle.
So let them make fools of themselves again. These people have no idea how
to win almost anything..Its amazing to me what some people will do to hold on to
power in a losing party. Dino Rossi cant win this race. Irregardless of what happens
in King County Dino cant win. But Susan Hutchison will!! This bares repeating Susan
inspires those around her. The majority of the party will rally around her.Just like the
head coach of BYU football Bronco Mendenhall. Who in two short years has done
what I knew he would do. Bronco has restored pride in the program and made them into
winners again.



Susan will do that in the state of Washington. This state and this party need Susan Hutchison.
They don't deserve Susan but they really need her. For the record Susan knows nothing about
this. I have not even discussed this with her to this point in time. So yeah I don't know what
she thinks yet. We can help make this happen. In the next couple weeks there will be a website
put up called Susanhutchison2008.com. There all of you will be able to show your support for
Susan and her run for governor. Together we will make this happen. Thank you for reading this.

Across The Great State GOP Divide

Good Evening, Its been quite sometime since I posted a story last.
So here it comes three weeks ago the Washington State Republican
party had there most recent quarterly state committee meeting.As part
of that meeting they elected a new State vice chairman. The race was
between Joe Elenbaas State committeeman from Whatcom county and Rep
Cathy McMorris's brother. Sorry despite many attempts I have been
unable to get Mr McMorris's first name.Anyway prior to the vote taking
place McMorris's people (ie the party leadership and establishment crowd)
told the person who was to give the nominating speech for Mr Elenbaas that if he had any
aspirations of running for the state legislature that he would not give the nominating speech. If he didn't they would make sure that he would never be
able to hold another office. So he didn't give the Speech.





This is just unbelievable that anyone in the state GOP would do such
a thing. Has this party really sunk that low now?These people have run
this Party into the ground and still they think they have a divine right
to any political office they want.I guess are illustrious state chairwoman
Diane Tebelius thinks that the State legislative isn't winnable.She has
moved close to 300.000 thousand dollars to the State Parties federal account.
It would appear as though Diane is resting her whole reelection chances
on Mike McGavick winning.Giving the State legislative races a grand
total of 5,500 thousand dollars.In addition to that the state party has recently
sent out a new flier telling us to vote for State GOP because there
pro life. Its pretty clear that its an attempt to convince the party base that
Mike McGavick is Pro-life. When in reality he isn't.





Its this kind of behavior that has caused a serious divide in the State GOP.
There is no way Diane Tebelius or Mr McMorris or Mike McGavick can ever unite it.
In fact there are only two individuals that I know can.Mark Hulst and Susan Hutchison. Do I think it will happen? In Susan's Case the state party doesn't
deserve her anymore. As for Mark Hulst only time will tell...

Mike McGavick just what are you?

Good Evening,


First let me start by saying that I'm not a person
that just votes for someone because they have an R
by there name.The decision to write this was not an easy
one, but it needed to be done. So lets begin.






I have often said Mike McGavick is good at taking non
positions positions on almost every issue.Take for example
taxes now he doesn't say he whether or not he would vote to raise
them. The only thing McGavick says is that taxes should be
low, some of you are going to say well he signed the Americans
for tax reform pledge not to raise taxes.This is true he
most certainly did.





However its important to know that when Grover Norquist first
ask Mike McGavick to sign the pledge to not raise taxes he refused.
Only when it looked like Susan Hutchison was going run did he
sign it.You see back in July Susan had already signed the pledge.
The only reason Mike McGavick signed the pledge was because
he knew it could be used against him in the primary.




Some of you are probably saying how do you know this?Because after signing
the pledge in September of 2005 Mike McGavick ask ATR not to send out
a press release and not to add him to the pledge list on there website
but to wait.My question is to wait for how long?It was not until late
December that ATR finally added his name to the list they did so because
they received so much flak from Doug Parris that they relented and posted
McGavick's name. Otherwise I am not convinced you would have ever seen
Mike McGavick's name listed on ATR's website.





My first question to Mr McGavick would be why would you want to hide
something like this? If it were me I would be proud to acknowledge that
I signed it.To this day you see nothing on his website even mentioning
that fact. McGavick's answers about some other issues boggles the
mind.Take for example his position on the immigration plank of the state
GOP platform. He said I am opposed to the state GOP positions but I
understand why they feel that way. Bill Clinton couldn't have said it any
better than that.






Back on March 21st when Mike McGavick had his fundraiser with John
McCain. He was asked by Stefan Sharkansky what he thought about
the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law his response was
the only problem I have with it is they need to close the loop
hole on 527's.For those of you who don't believe me the audio of
this statement is still on Soundpolitics.com.Just go to the archive
section and click on March 2006 and about half way down the page
and you will see it.That Mike McGavick would be in favor of restricting
the right to free speech is scary.






Mike McGavick said not one word about the federal amendment on
marriage that was voted on back in the early part of this month.
So far we have no idea how he would have voted. We do know that he
is pro choice, he very clearly stated that back on march 2nd to
the Seattle pi.The McGavick Campaign I think is of the belief that
the party base will vote for him because he is the lone republican
candidate.So they think that gives them license to say and do
whatever they want.






First of all Mike McGavick is not the only republican candidate
still in the race.Has anyone ever heard of Brad Klippert?I will
state right now that I support Brad Klippert.The fact of the matter is
I could never support anyone who is trying to win by deceiving
his party base.That my friends is just what Mike McGavick is
attempting to do.So take that Joe Feiten and Human life of Washington
State.

The Last Straw

Good Afternoon,


It has been a while since I have posted anything.So here it comes.
Its been almost a week since the king county republican convention.
During that time I have watched and waited to see if anyone would
write about it.Since it hasn't happened I will do it myself.
Stefan Sharkansky,Andy McDonald and Matt Rosenberg were all in
attendance and yet not one of them has written a word about it.
I have to conclude that either they were to embarrassed or just didn't
care.Either way it speaks volumes about how aligned they are with
the GOP in king county.






For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about,
one of the things that happens is that the delegates vote on who
gets to be there representatives on the state committees at the
convention. One of those positions happened to be for the state platform
committee. Doug Parris decided he was going to run against
Lori Sotelo for the position. I think that Michael Young found
out Doug was going to run and decided he wouldn't let it happen.
So Mr Young made a motion from the floor for the delegates to just
vote for those that had ran the committees to be on the state
committees as well.I don't want to bore anyone with all the
details needless to say the motion was passed and over some
objections that's how it ended up.




Mr Parris never got a chance to speak to the delegates or even be
voted on.The reasons for this are 1.the convention chairman Kirby Wilbur
does not know the rules of the convention very well at all. 2. When you
have more than half of the delegates that just accept at face value
whatever the leadership tells them you got an uphill battle anyway.
3.Michael Young once again tried to silence those that don't agree
with everything he does.For the last three years I have watched all of
the various things that have gone on under the Herbold- Young leadership.
They are systematically destroying what was once a great county party.




What happened Saturday at the convention was the last straw. I have had
it with Michael Young and his friends. From there involvement in the Dunn
Hammond race. To silencing Phil Fortunato at last years convention. To
threatening to have a 72 year old lady arrested for exercising her right
to free speech at last years county picnic.To there repeated harassment
of Brian Thomas which culminated in there decision not to support him
last year when he ran for county council.I could go on with more but I think
you get the idea.





I simply am tired watching an out of control county chairman continue
on this power trip.Just so he can feed his insatiable ego.I am sick
of an executive board that does whatever the hell they want irregardless
of what there central committee might think.I am tired of seeing good
people losing races because they don't get the support they need from
the county party.I am not just talking about Brian Thomas.These people
pick and choose who they support based on there political leanings.
In other words its hardly ever a conservative that they will back.



For over three years I have lived in kent.The fargo precinct
has not had a PCO for at least that long.I volunteered many
times to do it but they turned me down every time. Would you
like to know why? Julie Holbrook who was then the district
chair didn't like the fact I was critical of the king gop
they wanted a robot.It didn't matter that the previous 9
years I spent in Skagit I was a PCO and an area chair.
They question my loyalty when they thwart the will of there
members all the time.





They continue to lose races at an alarming rate and they still don't
know why.When you do almost nothing to get out the vote you almost never
win.Trying to appeal to democrats to join your party has never worked and
it won't now.All you end up doing is driving your base away.I submit that is
exactly what has been happening.I am sick of having to do the job of talk
radio and the other bloggers. They would just as soon sweep it under the rug
instead of talking about it all for the sake of party unity.




I have decided I cannot watch this go on any longer.I have not determined
what I'm going to do just yet. But when I do everyone will know what
it is.Some of you are probably saying couldn't this also describe the
State Republican party.Well in the past I would agree with you.However
the one good thing that happened at the county convention is I actually had
a good talk with our State Chair Diane Tebelius.This was the first time we
had actually met.She seems open to having more discussions with me in
the future. So I will reserve judgment for now.God bless My wife Michele
and my Sister Susan Hutchison for inspiring me to do this.As well as
Mark Hulst and Doug Parris.Thank you Joey Styles for the actual idea of how
to write this.(I do not know Mr Styles.)Just hang on for a little while
I promise something will happen.This isn't just that crazy spackman talking
again. It was the last straw. In case any of you are wondering whatever I
end up doing will be of a legal and non violent nature.So don't worry.

The Story of the King County GOP as it implodes over and over again

Good Evening,


Well it has been a while since I have posted.
This one won't be easy to do.Many of you know
I have been pretty critical of the King GOP leadership
in the past and for good reason.They continue to
lose elections at an alarming rate.



What I observed at State GOP meetings a couple
weeks ago was pathetic.The leadership sucking
up to Susan Hutchison left a lot to be desired.
My only question is what are they up to?



I guess Michael Young must have realized he
screwed up big time with his behavior in the
district five county council race.Recently
Michael attended a district 31 meeting where
he praised Steve Hammond for his efforts.
To my way of thinking it was to little to late.
It will take considerably more than that
to win the district 5 supporters of Steve
Hammond back.





Let me step back for a moment here. I have lived
in King county for over four years now.I live in
district 47 in what is called the Fargo precinct.
In the entire time I have been here my precinct
has never had a Pco.I have volunteered to do it
more times than I care to mention.Because I am
an outspoken conservative they refuse to allow
me to do it.



The district 47 chairs and there have been two
since I have lived here.Are a couple of hypocrites.
Both Julie Holbrook and Wendy Johnson were outspoken
supporters of Reagan Dunn prior to the primary election.
That is inappropriate behavior for a district chair
to engage in before an election. Yet they both have
the gall to shut me out because I don't agree with
them.





Now with there Lincoln day event coming up pretty
soon,they have Ken Mehlman's assistant begging people
to come to the meeting. It amazes me to this day that
they can't figure out why these kind of things keep
happening to them.The ideas they come up with are
just plain bizarre.some of you may remember the ill fated
idea to motivate republicans to vote because they
have given up trying anymore.I guess it shouldn't surprise
me that they would blame the voters for there problems.






Least you think that I was complaining with no solutions
in mind think again.First of all you don't blame your
constituents for your problems.Also it is of critical
importance to listen to your voters instead of shoving
candidates down there throats.More often than not you
will find they know better than the leadership does.
Usually it will be a conservative that they want.




In this county in particular they don't seem to understand
this.Instead they are of the belief that conservatives can't
win. In reality its just the exact opposite.If they get the
support they need they win almost everytime.When you don't
have a party leader that understands this it makes it very
difficult to succeed.So yes I am advocating a new chairperson.
For my money Joshua Freed is the only person who can turn
things around here.I met Joshua for the first time at the state
GOP meetings a couple weeks ago.Having heard a great deal
about him I was eager to meet him.I can see now what others
were talking about.He would be a great leader
for king county Joshua will probably become the next state
vice chair.They just may have missed there chance here.






My only question is will they ever wake up here?
One final thought I'm sure many of you are wondering
about What Susan Hutchison is going to do now?
Honestly I don't know.I do know Susan is headed for
even greater things.I know a number of you have
also wondered whether I will support Mike McGavick?
The answer is no.Unless he publicly admits to trying
to damage susan's reputation and tells the truth
about the situation with the Americans for tax reform.
Believe me he will never agree to this.Then there is
no way I will ever support him.



Coming next week:Dino Rossi what could he possibly be thinking.

Its been an incredible five months and I am more convinced now that I have ever been

Good Evening,


Tonight I am in Clearfield,Utah as I write this.
Pretty soon we will all know if Mike McGavick is
the only republican candidate for US Senate.It will
be unfortunate if he is because I know we can do
better.The State Gop continues to unravel day after
day.Sadly even Dino Rossi appears to be part of
this mess.Lets face it they are in big trouble and the
excitement for Mike McGavick just isn't there.




I know it may sound hopeless but its not.There is
a light at the end of the tunnel.In fact its a very
bright one.Susan Hutchison has been shining that light
for quite sometime now.In the almost twelve years I
have been involved in Washington State politics never
before have I seen anything like this happen. The state
party establishment is scared to death of her and a whole
lot of party members are so excited over Susan possibly
running for this office.Even more so than Dino Rossi.





Even before I met Susan a little over five months ago I knew
she was the right person for this office.The fact
is I didn't think I could be anymore convinced.Well I was
wrong,As I have gotten to know Susan more its become very
clear to me what an amazing and special person she is.
Back at the end of November She was speaking to a republican
organization that is known for being probably the toughest
group to win over.What I observed that night really had
me in awe.Going in I knew Susan would do just fine.




What I didn't realize is how good she really is.Susan was
sensational.Never in a million years did I think anyone could win
that organization over the way she did.They have all strongly
committed to supporting her.I now know that given the opportunity
she can convince anyone to support her.Why? because Susan is real
what she says come from inside her.She really connects with people.
The republicans in this state need Susan Hutchison.When any of you
get the chance to hear her speak don't pass it up.




Well its been an amazing five months for me.The fact is its been
life changing.I am so honored to be able to know Susan and call
her a friend.This bares repeating, some of you have discarded me
and the blog since this all began.It doesn't matter because in my
heart I know Susan Hutchison is the right choice to be our next
senator.Susan I hope you run.