Hatch's Democratic challenger speaks
The Globe interview with Pete Ashdown
Jeff Dixon
Issue date: 4/6/06 Section: News
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He officially filed for candidacy for U.S. Senate last month, and is the only Utah Democrat to do so. Not having a primary election to deal with allows him to focus his resources solely on winning Hatch's seat.
Ashdown, 39, is a Bountiful native, a graduate of SLCC and the founder and president of Utah's first Internet Service Provider, XMission. He and his wife Robin have three children: Madeleine, Henry and Greta.
Globe: You're a former DJ. Do you have any guilty pleasures, music-wise?
Ashdown: I used to have a taste for extremely hardcore Industrial, and because I've gone through the record collection, it's kind of nice to hear that stuff again.
Guilty pleasure is a good [way to put it], because I wouldn't play it with anybody else is sitting in the car, I won't play it in front of my wife. It brings back a lot of memories.
Globe: Should citizens have the ability to invest their Social Security withholdings?
Ashdown: I would like [to have an] examination of a sloped system where individuals in their twenties could invest in high-risk areas, but somebody in their sixties wouldn't have the same opportunity, so it would be sloped over time as to what kind of risk would be available to you.
At the same time, I think the call for privatization of Social Security is not needed. We talk about how Social Security is going to lose its solvency around 2046.
The joke I make is that its like we're in a car with the Republican Party, and we're going to run out of gas in forty miles, so we need to replace the engine.
There are small adjustments we can make to fill the gas tank up again, like lifting the cap, deciding who gets benefits, based on need; that will extend Social Security much further. I'm not against examination of these investment programs as long as it is sloped.
Globe: When and why did you decide to be a Democrat?
Ashdown: I actually considered myself an Independent for most of my life. My parents were Democrats growing up in Bountiful. A lot of my inspiration to become a Democrat was based on my experience with them and what they felt was important about being a Democrat.
