I Appreciate You All

Two days ago, on Nov 4th, we finally had our day at the polls and I came in second! And second does not count in this contest.

Congratulations to my brother Warren who won his race for State Rep from Rochester. Warren, you will be a great addition to our state legislature.

I am writing to all of you who have read my blog to express my deep and sincere appreciation for all that you have done for me and for my campaign. So many of you helped in so many ways:

• Prayer - over and over again people told me that they were praying for me. I know that was a big factor in the excitement and enthusiasm of our campaign. I also know that it helped me to stay focused and energetic.
  
• Leadership team - a special thanks to Lydia, campaign manager; Leah Roth, volunteer coordinator; Mike Faiella, events and media coordinator; Doug Patteson, Fiscal Agent; Devin Robinson, media producer and Trent Robinson, web site manager. Without all of your help and leadership, I could not have done this. Lydia, your energetic, tireless work and and excellent organization on my campaign inspired me to push harder and to honor your work.
• Door to door help. We had many of you who helped with door to door contacts. With your help we were able to reach thousands of homes in my district. I have to extend special thanks to Bob and Margaret Bennett, senior citizens from our church who drove the car and kept the record list so often that I lost count!
• Organizing events - the kickoff party in July, the volunteer party in September, the Desert Fundraiser in October and the Election Night Party on November 4th were the major ones. Thanks to all who helped in so many ways.
• Addressing and stamping envelopes -we sent out over 18,000 hand addressed pieces of mail. Thanks so much. It almost gives me writer's cramp just to think about it.
• Signs - thanks to all who agreed to have signs in your yards and thanks to the many volunteers who put signs up all over the district. And I have to say a special thanks to my brother Warren and his team of volunteers who put up over 70 4x8 and 4x4 signs with his trademark 2x4 frames!
• Other, so many other tasks that were done by volunteers. Space does not allow me to list them all.

Some of you may wonder just what the vote count was. The latest numbers I have are as follows:

• Fenton Groen 10,132 43.7%
• Jackie Cilley 13,061 56.3%

I have been asked often, "what is next?" I am not sure. For all of those who have been praying for me, pray for wisdom and direction for the future. For all of you who have offered advice, keep it coming! I have not decided whether I will run again, but I am not throwing my signs away!

I am not discouraged, in fact I am still energized. There is still much to be done. I lost my part of this skirmish, but we cannot give up. There is to much at stake. We must reach out to our fellow citizens and build on the values that made our state and country great - values of limited government and personal responsibility, of protecting life, of protecting family values and marriage, of limiting regulation and of protecting constitutional principles that were established by our founding fathers.

This campaign for State Senate has been a rich and rewarding experience for me. I learned more about our state every day and I met thousands of wonderful people. If you feel the pull to serve your community or your state or our nation in elected office, I encourage you to jump in with both feet. Start getting ready for the next election.

May God bless you all,
Fenton

Three Days to the Only Poll in this Race

We are almost to the finish line! Three more days to election day.

Thanks to all of you who have helped to build the momentum of my campaign for State Senate. We have just finished a big day of door to door campaigning with 17 volunteers, 3 of whom are my sisters from Iowa and Minnesota. I finish each day of campaigning with new appreciation for the citizens of our state and with new gratitude for the many volunteers and contributors who are doing so much to help me succeed in this election.

It seems like eons ago, that week of June 6 to 13, when I made the hard decision to run. I think that it would be appropriate to recap why I am running for State Senate. Here are the basic values that I will bring to Concord. This is not intended to be an inclusive list of issues but a framework within which I believe our state government should operate.

• Practice Fiscal Responsibility. The overspending of our current legislature will result in a massive deficit next biennium. We must balance the budget by reducing spending, not by increasing taxes. We must not pass state overspending on to our citizens in increased taxes.
  
• Preserve Our Values. We must value all human life, including that of the most defenseless, the unborn. We must preserve family values, recognizing the family as one of the most basic foundation stones of our society. We must recognize and the protect time-proven institution of marriage. We must honor and respect parental rights and responsibilities.

• Preserve Our Freedom. We must limit and control regulations. Every regulation has a double cost, an economic cost and a loss of freedom. We must make sure that for every regulation, the benefit clearly exceeds the costs, or we must not implement it.

• Protect our constitutional rights. We must protect our clear right to bear arms. We must resist activist judges who would change the constitution without the due amendment process that our founders established.

• Provide limited government. Our founders wisely limited government to certain functions and prized individual responsibility and initiative. We should not expect the government, nor attempt to make government, the solution to every problem. This is and always will be a tough balance, but it is one we must answer on the side of limiting government to what our constitution proscribes.

I will serve you in Concord with fairness and integrity, utilizing my 35 years of business experience to bring innovation and efficiency to our state government. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to represent you in Concord.

May God bless you all,
Fenton