Curt Bramble
Encyclopedia
Curtis Scott Bramble is a contentious American politician
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...

 and Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

 from Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

. A Republican
Utah Republican Party
The Utah State Republican Party works to nominate and support the election of Republican candidates in partisan races for public office in the state of Utah...

, he is a member of the Utah State Senate
Utah State Senate
The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of constituent senatorial districts. Each senatorial district is composed of approximately 91,000 people...

, representing the state's 16th senate district
16th Utah Senate District
The 16th Utah Senate District is located in Provo, Utah and includes Utah House Districts 61, 62, 63, and 64. The current State Senator representing the 16th district is Curt Bramble. Bramble was elected to the Utah Senate in 2000 and is up for re-election in 2008...

 in Provo
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...

. Bramble was the Majority Leader in the Utah Senate from 2006 to 2008.

Early life and career

Curt Bramble was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois where he graduated from Crown High School. He grew up as a Methodist and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while attending Notre Dame University where he studied chemical engineering and math. After Notre Dame, Bramble attended Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...

 where he graduated with a B.S in Accounting and MS in Accounting. Bramble was elected to the Utah Senate
Utah State Senate
The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of constituent senatorial districts. Each senatorial district is composed of approximately 91,000 people...

 in 2000, defeating Democratic
Utah Democratic Party
The Utah State Democratic Party works to elect Democrats to office in the state of Utah. The Utah Democratic Party, like other national, state, and county parties, maintains a party platform that lists general principles or issues of importance to members of the Utah Democratic Party and maintains...

 candidate John R. Curtis
John R. Curtis
-Career:Curtis attended high school at Skyline, Utah, where he met his future wife, Sue Snarr. He attended Brigham Young University and graduated with a degree in Business Management...

 in the general election. Bramble was re-elected to the Utah Senate in 2004 and currently resides in Provo
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...

 with his wife Susan. He has 6 children and 5 grandchildren.

Senate career

Bramble was elected to the Utah Senate on Tuesday, November 7, 2000 and took office on January 15, 2001. During his first legislature in the Utah Senate Bramble served on the Business, Labor and Economic Development, and Revenue and Taxation Standing Committees; and on the Health and Human Services Joint Appropriation Committee. In 2004, Bramble became the Majority Leader of the Utah Senate for the 57th Utah Legislature and the Co-Chair of the Retirement and Independent Entities Joint Appropriation Committee. He also served on the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice, and Higher Education Joint Appropriations committees and Chaired the Retirement and Independent Entities Standing Committee. He also served on the Revenue and Taxation Committee for the 57th Utah State Legislature. In 2008 Bramble received the National Legislator of the Year Award from ALEC, a conservative advocacy group criticized by some as a front for tobacco companies and other corporations. Bramble was reelected to his third term to the Utah Senate on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, after defeating Democrat Radene Hatfied.

PizzaGate

Bramble achieved national notoriety when on August 18, 2008, a local pizza delivery driver delivered pizza to his home in Provo, Utah. Bramble admitted to reporters that he became upset when he learned that the business did not accept personal checks as a form of payment, and told the driver to take the pizzas back to the restaurant. He then began to lecture the delivery person about forms of payment, and tried to use his position in the state legislature as a way to get his personal check accepted. Speaking to the restaurant owner on the telephone, Bramble allegedly impugned the owner's scruples, intimating that, by providing payment via credit card, Bramble would likely see fraudulent credit card charges on his next billing statement. Eventually providing payment over the phone, Bramble complimented the driver on her "professionalism" and provided a 6.67% tip, meager by U.S. social conventions.

The delivery driver later wrote about the experience on her personal blog, and it became an Internet sensation and was featured on the widely read Daily Kos
Daily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...

. Due to the resulting attention, she appeared on a talk radio station in Salt Lake City to talk about her experience with Senator Bramble.

Ties to Paul Rogers and the Italian Villa

Bramble shared an Italian Villa for two weeks with two lobbyists and their families. Lobbyist Stan Lockhart and his wife Rep. Rebecca Lockhart attended, as did controversial lobbyist Paul Rogers. Bramble has fought for numerous pieces of legislation benefiting or protecting Rogers' clients such as a bill that would have made it more difficult for KwikMed to sell Viagra over the Internet. Bramble and Rogers have been friends for many years and both parties paid for their own trips.,

Legislative Consultant

Sometime between 2005 and 2007, Bramble was hired by Allied Waste (a client of lobbyist Paul Rogers from the Italian Villa controversy) to act as a “consultant.” The solid waste company frequently has legislation before the legislature and in 2006 sponsored a bill that benifited Allied Waste by imposing new state fees on its competitors. Bramble never declared the “consulting” job as a conflict. At the same time Bramble approached Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn and asked him to sell a public solid-waste transfer facility to Allied Waste. Critics said it was inappropriate for Bramble to take money from Allied Waste because of his influence over the mayor and waste management legislation.,

ParadeGate

Both the Deseret Morning News and The Salt Lake Tribune called for an ethics investigation into an incident involving Bramble, Representative Becky Lockhart and Mountainland Applied Technology College. Bramble and Lockhart, who have significant influence over the funding the school receives asked the college to build the Republican party a float to use in parades. The college used its money to pay for the float which violated Utah law, "a public entity may not make expenditures from public funds for political purposes." When questions arose, college President Clay Christensen told State Auditor Auston Johnson he was under "tremendous pressure" by the Utah County GOP and lawmakers to build the float. But later that same day, after a conversation with Bramble, he changed his statement. Bramble first denied speaking with Christiansen but later acknowledged he "may have called," but couldn't "recall what was said."
-. Both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News printed editorials calling for a full investigation. However, Bramble is the chair of the Ethics committee and no investigations ever occurred.

Electoral results

External links

Legislative Information

Voting Record
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK