Ogden Valley man hoping to launch new party to challenge Sen. Mike Lee
-
- Mike Seguin discusses his efforts to create the Utah Bull-Moose Party at the Standard-Examiner offices on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. He’s hoping to run for the U.S. Senate under the party banner.
-
- The Utah Bull-Moose Party logo, photographed Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. Mike Seguin of the Ogden Valley is spearheading creation of the new party.
-
- Mike Seguin, center, with some of the staffers at his Eden-area restaurant, the Mad Moose Cafe, in an undated photo. Seguin, with the help of some of his employees, is seeking creation of the Utah Bull-Moose Party.
OGDEN — Mike Seguin isn’t just running for the U.S. Senate.
He’s pushing for the creation of a new political party in laying the groundwork for a bid for the seat now held by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican. The Ogden Valley resident, who operates a restaurant in the Eden area, the Mad Moose Cafe, has been spearheading collection of signatures on petitions to create what he dubs the Utah Bull-Moose Party.
“We’re pretty fledgling. This is the first shot out of the stable, so to speak,” he said.
He needs 2,000 signatures from registered voters to create the party and says he’s collected around 3,000, though his application faces review by the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which oversees such matters. He submitted the paperwork to state officials late last week.
Seguin joins a long list of candidates with their eye on the seat now held by Lee, a Utah County resident going for his third term. Regardless of the long odds he likely faces, he says his candidacy stands out because he’s bypassing the traditional route to office through the Republican or Democratic parties.
“We’re all about putting the American voter first,” he said.
The name of Seguin’s proposed party is a nod to 1912 U.S. presidential hopeful Teddy Roosevelt, an erstwhile Republican who sought a third presidential term under the banner of the Progressive Party, also known as the Bull Moose Party. A key focus for Seguin, in the modern day, is health care reform.
“Affordable health care for our families is the Utah Bull-Moose Party’s most important underlying theme. We know it can be managed more intelligently to make it accessible and financially manageable for all working Americans,” reads the online party platform. The platform expresses support for limits on deductibles and opposition to implementation of a single-payer system.
Beyond that, Seguin says he steers clear of policy fixes that align strictly with one side of the political spectrum or the other.
“We don’t like to go down that path. We’re not right or left,” said Seguin, a retired U.S. Army colonel and U.S. State Department. He offered up his views during a visit to the Standard-Examiner offices.
Seguin had never really mulled a bid for office until after he left military and diplomatic service in the mid-2010s and launched his restaurant. Some of his younger employees weren’t as engaged in civic affairs as he thought they should be, Seguin said. That spurred him to try to drum up conversation on political matters, ultimately leading to his bid to create the party and run for office.
“It’s kind of a serendipitous journey into it,” he said. This would be his first bid for office and he honed in on the U.S. Senate seat because he thinks that’s where he’s best suited given his military and State Department background.
The Utah Bull-Moose Party platform was a team effort — created and adjusted with the input of customers and employees at Sequin’s restaurant. Seguin would place policy platform proposals on sheets of paper on the walls of the restaurant and patrons would add to them, crossing things out or jotting down their own ideas.
Accordingly, the wording on the platform positions can sometimes sound general.
“A strong economy and intelligent tax policy are key components of our national security,” reads part of the platform statement on the economy and taxes. It goes on to voice support for federal policy that “rewards innovation and innovative approaches” to business to help bolster the U.S. economy.
On the budget and federal deficit, the platform calls for federal officials to work on annual, five-year and 25-year budgets to create a “realistic map to sound fiscal management and being debt free.”
The platform notes how divisive the Second Amendment can be. “I support the right of responsible, emotionally stable, law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms,” it reads.
On “matters of morality,” the platform stays on the fence, deferring “to the will of the constituency.”
Seguin maintains that his bid isn’t symbolic, however a long-shot his candidacy would be. If his bid to create a new party falls short, he added, he still plans to run, even if that means waging a write-in campaign.
“We’re going to stay with it even if they do shoot us down on the signatures,” he said.
