I exchanged emails yesterday with one of our gentle readers, thanking me for the candidate information included in the Weber County Forum sidebar. She complained that she'd been carefully reading the Standard-Examiner, and had found nothing about the Ogden city municipal primary race, (although she did feel quite up-to date on the happenings in places like Roy and Layton.) She would have no idea at all even who the council candidates were, she complained, nor any idea what they stood for.I responded with well-practiced snarkiness that this was typical of the Standard-Examiner. As a long-time Std-Ex reader, I said, I've observed that it's not uncommon for the Standard-Examiner to entirely ignore Ogden city elections, until a day or two before the actual voting occurs. I went on to explain that I've worked off and on over the years as a local poll-judge, and that it was quite common to have voters show up at their local polling-place in a state of utter confusion, having not the slightest idea even of the names of candidates, let alone what their respective positions might be.
I continued with the explanation that this was the reason I'd set up the the WCF candidate info section in the first place -- to do an end-run around the Std-Ex's observed historical pattern of nonchalance. I couldn't resist, in closing, to comment, (with much additional snarky self-satisfaction,) that I regard the Std-Ex editorial board as the city administration's unofficial house propaganda organ, and that I doubted we'd get any useful candidate information out of our home-town paper until close to October 4, if at all.
An absense of information favors incumbents in any election, of course. It's better to deal with the "devil you know... ," as the old saying goes, "...than the one you don't."
But lo and behold; I was just flat wrong. And it may thus may well be that I'll be sharing a plate of that tasty crow, right along with our board regular Ozboy.
It seems the Std-Ex has been busy working behind the scenes on timely election coverage. This morning's Standard-Examiner in fact features a decent little John Wright article, based upon interviews with the candidates for Ogden's At-Large Seat B. I'll assume this article will be part of a continuing series, which would be a very good thing, I think.
My calendar's busy today, so I'll just put this article up without any of my own comment, except to mention that some of these candidates' positions may have changed since these interviews were given. The Lift Ogden group announced just this week that the two-tier gondola project would be funded entirely with private money, whereas these interviews were conducted before that announcement. It's my understanding, though, based on an email received earlier this morning, that further Std-Ex articles on the other three council seats will contain updated position statements reflecting Lift Ogden's admirable change of posture.
I'll also add a link to this Std-Ex article, and all future articles, on the Weber County Forum sidebar, (within the candidate information section,) for the convenient reference of any of our gentle readers who'll need to review these articles prior to the primary election
Since I'll be out for the balance of the day, please feel free to also use this as an "open thread. "
Comments, anyone?
