Primary Election Post-Mortem

Now that the smoke has cleared from yesterday's primary election, I suppose it's time to offer a few comments about yesterday's results, which were reported in real-time last night on this board. My web stats software registered over 500 page-loads between the hours of 7-11:30 p.m. last night, so I know many of you were following closely. Weber County Forum was really hopping as the vote tally rolled in.

First, however, I'd like to thank all the candidates who participated in this race. It was heartening, to say the least, to have observed so many citizens step up to the plate, and involve themselves in the municipal election, the most basic level of grass-roots politics.

I'd also like to give special thanks to those council candidates who took the extra time and effort to submit candidate statements and questionaire responses to this forum. I've received many reader responses, thanking me for the information that you folks provided here. WCF has also been linked by other websites too, for this reason. I believe the voters of Ogden city went into this primary election with more available information than ever before, in no small part because of your willingness to put forth your information on Weber County Forum.

And of course I'd like to congratulate the candidates who made the final cut: Jesse Garcia, Dori Mosher, Doug Stephens, Steve Larsen, Bill Glasmann, Kent Jorgensen, Dorrene Jeske and Donna Burdett.

And once again, I'd like to offer my hearty thanks to Bill Glasmann, who did not hesitate at my late-afternoon request that he phone in the vote tally from the council chamber at regular intervals last night. It was a lot to ask of Bill, I thought, as he sat amidst the pandemonium of last night's vote-counting; but he perfomed admirably, demonstrating that he does indeed have the blood of a true newspaperman flowing through his arteries.

For a nutshell wrap-up of the primary election, you can read John Wright's excellent report here.

And I'll hold off on my own analysis for now, except to say that I believe yesterday's results did reflect the strong grass-roots anti-incumbent sentiment that I've been writing about on this blog.

Although incumbents led in the vote-count in each of the contested races, none of them managed even to approach 50% of the tallied votes. Here's the breakdown of incumbents by council seat. Even Councilman Garcia, who can by no means be characterized as a member of the "gang of six," failed to receive a majority of the cast votes:

Ward 1 - Garcia 45%
At Large A - Jorgensen 40%
At Large B - Burdett 38%

Interestingly, Steve Larsen, Councilman Filiaga's hand-picked Ward 3 successor, (also the administration's favorite 'gang of six" replacement,) garnered only 29% of the votes.

And last night's "Cinderella story" was Doug Stephens, who "came out of nowhere" in Ward 3, besting Steve Larsen, who's been campaigning for over a year, in the ward that Mr. Larsen believed he "owned." I spoke by phone with candidate Stephens late last night. It appears he's been working quietly "behind the scenes" in Ward 3, and has managed to muster significant grass-roots support. Doug Stephens has solid credentials, and now appears to be the candidate to beat -- for Filiaga's seat. Check out his candidate information in the right sidebar, if you'd like to learn more about this strong contender.

All-in-all, It's going to be an interesting race, as we now move into the final sprint. I'll have more commentary on the general election as the horses run down the stretch, so keep on checking back.

Does anybody else have any thoughts or observations on what yesterday's primary results mean?

It's your forum, people. So please don't hesitate to chime in.

Don't let the cat get your tongue.