ST. GEORGE – Organizer of the Dixie Republican Forum and St. George attorney Larry Meyers is driving to Utah’s Lieutenant Governor’s Office Wednesday to file for candidacy for Utah’s 2nd U.S. Congressional District. In doing so, Meyers will be challenging incumbent Rep. Chris Stewart for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Launching his campaign today, Meyers’ three-pronged platform directly targets his soon-to-be opponent.
“I’m very disappointed with Chris Stewart’s voting record in Congress,” Meyers said, “so I decided to challenge him on limited government, immigration and individual rights – personal liberty issues.”
Stewart did not stand with Sens. Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, Meyers said, but instead supported Speaker John Boehner in voting for more spending and more debt.
Meyers favors limiting the size of government and cutting taxes. On social issues, he aims to protect citizens’ liberties, including religious freedom, privacy, and the right to bear arms.
“I’m strongly pro-life,” he said, “I favor traditional marriage.”
Looking at the Republican Party, the divide Meyers sees in the party is between what he called “the more establishment-type Republicans, what one used to call Rockefeller Republicans, and Tea Party Republicans.” The establishment-type Republicans tend to support bigger government and therefore go along with government spending but are more moderate on social issues, he said, while the Tea Party Republicans generally go for less government spending and lower taxes.
On that political ambit, Meyers aligns more with Tea Party-Libertarian Republicans on the economics. And while he regards Reagan well for many reasons, he said no politician is perfect and criticized Reagan’s approach to illegal immigration.
“Do I idolize Ronald Reagan? He supported the amnesty bill.”
Immigration law
Meyers’ opposition to any type of amnesty for illegal immigration is a point on which he and Stewart differ.
“Stewart wants to give them legal status and let them stay,” Meyers said, “I think they should come here legally and get in line along with everyone else.”
Illegal immigration is one of the issues most relevant to Southern Utah, Meyers said, pointing to the building boom that saw a lot of illegal aliens come to Southern Utah to work in the construction industries and other related service industries.
“I think we should enforce our law and secure our borders.”
Limited government, spending
Advocating for limited government and limited spending, Meyers again criticized his opponent’s voting record. “He voted in favor of more government spending; he voted for the FARM bill that included a massive funding of the food stamp program,” Meyers said, “he voted for the Paul Ryan budget which was a compromise that increased spending and fees – all the conservatives opposed that and they proposed to balance the budget in four years.”
He said he would have opposed the Paul Ryan budget.
At the local level, Meyers discouraged receiving federal funds although allows for some programs, such as federal funding of roads and highways, as constitutionally appropriate. Accessing federal funding, though, is often seen as a gift, he said, when in fact those funds are a loan.
“I think as much as possible local government needs to not take federal funds,” Meyers said, “we’re borrowing money on the federal level that we don’t have that we can’t afford to repay. It comes at a cost and we’re going to have to pay the piper .”
Individuals, local government, and even state government need to get off federal money, he said.
“It’s hard for individuals, it’s hard for cities, hard for counties because they need the money but in the end it’s not real money because it’s borrowed,” Meyers said. “We’re so far in debt that every year we’re borrowing billions every year,” he said, speaking of the national debt.
In that much of the land in Utah is “owned by the U.S. government,” Meyers said in his position statement that he would seek the return of those public lands to the state and to private ownership as well as supporting many uses of those lands, including mining, drilling, ranching and recreation.
“I will oppose radical environmental schemes to limit Utah’s access to water (such as draining Lake Powell),” he said, “and to lock up Utah lands as wilderness or national monuments.”
Personal liberty
On liberty issues, legislation that Meyers said he sees as one of the worst is a military bill that allows for indefinite detention of American citizens. If the president designates someone as an enemy combatant, a terrorist, Meyers said, a citizen can be held without the right to a trial.
“If you’re a citizen and you spoke out against the government and are designated … ,” he said, “you should have all those constitutional rights.”
In a position statement posted on his Facebook, Meyers said: “America was founded on the self-evident truth that all people are endowed by God with the rights to life, liberty, and property. The proper role of government is to protect these rights, so the people can govern themselves ….”
He also supports the right to bear arms, religious freedom and values. He opposes the ACLU and the so-called homosexual agenda. He supports the right to life and overturning Roe v. Wade. He supports public prayer, public displays of faith in God, and the right of religious people to participate in government. He opposes the NSA spying in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Property rights are privacy rights, Meyers said. Although not the purview of a U.S. congressman, he said he supports the lawsuit brought by St. George attorney Aaron Prisbrey on behalf of residents who claim their constitutional rights were violated by the City of St. George’s code enforcement division.
“I personally support the lawsuit that Aaron has,” he said. “I disagree with illegal searches. I think the city should not be conducting unconstitutional searches.”
About Larry Meyers
Meyers is a former prosecuting attorney for Washington County and the City of St. George City, is a cum laude graduate of BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He has been a leading conservative activist, helping organize the Southern Utah Coalition for Life, the Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration, and the Dixie Republican Forum. Meyers has also been a long-time Republican Party volunteer, having served as a precinct officer, county, state, and national delegate, county party officer, and state central committee member.
“I’m not going to be a ‘bring home the bacon’ kind of congressman,” Meyers said, “I think we all have to tighten our belts, get the budget balanced, get rid of unconstitutional programs.”
Note: Invitation to Rep. Chris Stewart to respond to this report has been extended, and will be reported separately as received.
Resources
• Meyers campaign: Email [email protected] | Facebook | Telephone 435-668-6292.
Related posts
- Stewart, Bishop on president’s proposed budget; Hatch addresses Senate Finance Committee
- Rep. Chris Stewart: State of the Union no recipe for trust
- Unwritten rules allow for flexibility? Judge denies dismissal of code enforcement action
- St. George is sued for code enforcement practices; settlement nearly reached just hours earlier
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @JoyceKuzmanic
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.
My kind of a rational representative/ Congressman. ( hum, are we required to call him a Congressperson?)
Larry Meyers has my support. Congressman Stewart is a nice guy, but he doesn’t understand the proper role of government the way Larry does. For example, Rep. Stewart told me that he has absolutely no problem with the NSA spying on all of us. Larry understands that what the NSA is doing is a gross violation of the 4th Amendment.
Good grief, I thought Stewart was bad enough. Now we have someone who is even further to the right. Maybe while those two fight it out we can return the seat to a rational Democrat. Here’s hoping!
Funny, “rational Democat”. Oxymoron?
Whoop, whoop. Incoming from the loony right Congressman Stewart. Shields up, Lurch to the Tea Party, Romney style.
Larry has my full support. He is truly conservative and understands the proper role of government very well. He’s down to earth, accessible, and deeply rooted in the fundamentals of government and the Constitution. There are few people I’d trust to go to D.C. without losing their soul, but I trust Larry to stay on the same conservative course that he’s been on his whole life. He walks the walk.
Democrats are for the people, Republicans are for big companies. Don’t believe me? Think about who the big activists for their party are. I’ll give you the first two:
The Koch Brothers
Thomas Monson (Der Fuhrer)
I don’t always vote Democrat but I have NEVER even considered voting Republican. Here’s why:
Bill Clinton, a Democrat, left the country in a budget surplus.
George Bush Jr., a Republican, signed the USA Patriot Act, left the country over 10 TRILLION dollars in DEBT, in two wars and in the greatest depression since the 1930s.
Barack Obama, a Democrat, has raised the debt 7 Trillion, Yes. He also captured Osama Bin Laden, ended the wars, created the beginnings of a national healthcare system (Republicans went as far as to shut down the government there, putting thousands of people out of work for a few weeks. Their salaries were still paid though) and got the unemployment rate back down to pre-recession levels. He did so much good for this country that Republicans have resorted to making up bad stuff to say about him. Here are just two of the gems Republicans have come up with.
They said he was born in Kenya= LIE!
They said he was a Muslim. Why does that even matter? Whatever. It’s a LIE!
What have you been smoking Simone? Maybe you should get your facts somewhere other than Obama’s website. Even lefties are now coming to an understanding that Obama is making a mess. He is making Carter look like a genius.
Obama, Kenya, Muslim, socialist… the tea party is where the most idiotic of the Republican party flock.
You have to realize that their only source of information is right-wing talk radio…
No that’s just the only source they choose to listen to.
Wow! Obama caught Bin Laden. This entire time I thought it was our brave military Navy Seals. Thanks Simone. This entire state of Republicans has now decided to vote democrat because of your thoughtful and truthful statement.
Maybe you should just stick with your usual and repetitive statements on your passion for gay marriage. At least that way you will have SOME liberals agreeing with you on the trash that you are trying to feed us.
Oh Iim sorry I misspoke, Obama gave the order to capture him after US intelligence officials found out where he was. The SEALS actually captured him. That being said Steve who could have given that same order years earlier but didn’t for some strange reason? Oh that’s right it was George W. Bush. I guess his Texas “edumacation” taught him that intelligence is a bad thing. Oh and I wouldn’t consider myself a liberally but if treating people equally and making informed voting decisions based on information I got from sources other then Fox News or msnbc, don’t worry I watch bith of those too, makes me one then so be it.
Liberal* both* autocorrect stinks sometimes. 🙂
Obama caught Binladen and now OBAMA comin’ to personally take away ur guns. Better hide them guns… maybe bury ’em out in the back yard til the coast in clear.
As a personal friend to Larry Meyers, I can tell you that he is an outstanding citizen who loves our country. I have so much respect for him in that he has great moral values that he is not willing to sell. Utah would be extremely lucky to have him fight for us.
“He supports public prayer, public displays of faith in God, and the right of religious people to participate in government” …last I checked none of these were illegal or even under threat?
…
Just what we need, another religious extremist nutbag.
Let’s see, for 200 years you could pray in school and as a team before a game, now you can’t. For 200 years you could take a Bible to school and read it like any other book on your personal time, now you can’t (in many, many places). For 200 years you could have the 10 commandments and crosses in public squares, now you can’t. Yeah, nothing has changed, and people that want to keep it the way the Founding Fathers intended are religious extremists. You just keep telling yourself that.
Don’t be an idiot Brian. You can take your bible to school and read it any time you want. Just the teacher can’t preach and proselytize to the students. Maybe if you read your New Testament a few more times you wouldn’t be such a right-wing nutter…
You can pray in school. You can pray on the sidewalk. You can pray in the public square. You can pray whenever and wherever you want to pray. You just can’t make others pray with you, especially children from diverse religions and cultures attending public schools. Get over it. Say a prayer for a little patience and tolerance.
” he would seek the return of those public lands to the state ”
The public lands never belonged to the state. So, how can they be “returned”?