Jake Sawyer is a Republican candidate for the House District 9 seat. Below are his responses to a six-question survey sent to him by the Standard-Examiner. The Standard-Examiner made an attempt to contact each candidate involved in a competitive race in Weber and Davis counties.

1. Why is the position you are running for important?

Like you, I feel the pinch of the cost of living. Gas prices are too high. Grocery prices are unkind. Government is meant to ensure that we have safe neighborhoods, fair play for businesses and a good environment to live and raise our families. Ensuring we have good streets, excellent policing and fire protection is required. We must make sure that large data centers play by the same rules as our existing companies do. We also facie a very dire situation with the Great Salt Lake. It is imperative we take the generations of pioneering spirit and do all we can to save the lake. A healthy Great Salt Lake is a major component to Utah’s physical and economic health.

2. What unique qualities, attributes, skills, and experiences do you possess that make you the best candidate in this race?

I have spent a great deal of my life self-employed in the mortgage and housing fields. Given our housing crisis and the rise in outside bad actors trying to make our housing situation worse, I believe my skills in this area have direct benefits to addressing these challenges. I have sponsored legislation to protect consumers while buying a home to ensure criminals don’t come in at the last moment and steal the money our hard-working people have saved to buy their home. I have also sponsored legislation to ensure that the standard raise in education for top administrators isn’t a higher pay raise than the teacher in the classroom. We need more of your money getting into the classroom. Superintendents should not make 2 or 3 times what our Governor makes.

3. Please explain your priorities if elected, as well as why you believe you are uniquely capable of achieving those priorities.

My priorities are simple, keep the government as small as we can, to save you money, ensure that large companies are playing by the same rules that our already established local companies do and to protect and help ensure we have a healthy Great Salt Lake. How can I do this, first and most important is that I am Republican. That doesn’t mean I am better than my opponent, but it means I am a member of the veto proof majority. I am in the room as the discussions are had about solving Utah’s Issues. My voice has a far better opportunity to influence decisions and to better represent you in making those decisions. Second, I have a voting record. I have voted to lower taxes 2 years in a row without cutting services to our population. I am open, transparent and have a record you can follow. You can look up everything I have voted on, sponsored, or voted against at House.Utah.gov

4. Please describe how you view the importance of compromise in politics and provide an example from your own experiences that highlights your perspective.

I believe in cooperation. No one should compromise their beliefs, values or principle’s. We agree far more about most issues than we disagree, so find the areas on issues where we do agree and let’s cooperate to write good policy that benefits us all. Bad policy may disproportionately harm one group and so correcting it may disproportionately help one group of people, but never should we deliberately create policy that doesn’t have the ability to benefit all Utahans.

5. How will you balance the views of the vocal public, your political party, and your own understanding and knowledge as an elected representative?