Our Emerald City 2007 municipal election is once again front-page news this morning, with Scott Schwebke reporting the final financial disclosure tallies for the mayoral and council races. To nobody's surprise, Boss Godfrey raised and spent more money on the mayoral race than all other candidates in all other Emerald City races combined. As we all know, when it comes to spending, Boss Godfrey plays second fiddle to no one. For those unfortunates who didn't find a Standard-Examiner hard-copy on their front porches this morning (as your blogmeister did,) we incorporate a few of Ace Reporter Schwebke's pertinent paragraphs as follows:
Enemies? We believe that may be a bit of an overstatement. Let's just say that almost half the voters in Emerald City apparently believed a reckless-spending authoritarian like Boss Godfrey is unfit for elective public office. That doesn't however mean any of us are enemies.OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey says he spent a record $181,948 in last month’s general election to fend off opposition to some of his controversial initiatives so he could win a third term.
“There is an old saying in politics that ‘Your friends come and go, but your enemies accumulate,’ ” he said.
“I have eight years of enemies who haven’t liked any of a number of my projects. I had to spend a lot more money to get my message out.”
Godfrey goes on to clumsily cherry-pick a few of his projects which he believes to have raised the lumpencitizens' hackles this year:
Godfrey said The Junction, an entertainment and retail development at the former Ogden City Mall site, and the Ogden River Project, which calls for the construction of businesses and residential units on 60 acres near downtown, are among his pet projects that have drawn the most criticism.Noticeably absent from Godfrey's "issues list" is of course the gondola/landgrab issue, the radioactive problem that caused a near civil war in our formerly bucolic community over the past several years. Except for fancy footwork on Boss Godfrey's part, this politically toxic issue probably would have scuttled Godfrey's re-election campaign entirely -- yet Godfrey fails to recognise it as having been a "problem" issue. We suppose however that it's OK for Boss Godfrey to ignore this pesky issue, and to continue to live in his world of self-delusion. The voters of Emerald City had the opportunity to give Godfrey a dose of true reality in November after all... and Boss Godfrey's "mushroom vision" prevailed (fair and square) by 449 votes.
Further down the article, Ace Reporter Schwebke (forever the Godfrey apologist) attempts to put Boss Godfrey's extravagant campaign war chest into context. "It's just peanuts," Schwebke suggests, compared to the massive monies frittered away by candidates Becker and Buhler in the Salt Lake City mayoral race:
However, those amounts pale when compared with the recent Salt Lake City mayoral race between Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler.Being the curious type, we went back to the official Weber County election data, did a quick calculation and determined that Boss Godfrey spent approximately $25.10 per vote, a few pennies more than the prevailing SLC mayoral candidate Becker, who reportedly spent $24.26 per vote. Godfrey's campaign spending wasn't necessarily over extravagant therefore, at least when taking into consideration the standards of our big-city neighbor down south. Nevertheless, (so long as we're keeping it all in context) we'll make the point that candidate Becker's unsuccessful opponent Buhler actually outspent Becker (per vote) -- on a relatively equal financial playing field -- whereas Godfrey outspent Van Hooser by nearly a 3 to 1 margin -- on a financial playing field that was anything but even. And we can't overlook Godfrey's own proud admission: "Godfrey said the amounts raised and spent by his campaign are the most ever by a local candidate."
Becker raised $683,201 in campaign contributions and spent $668,580; Buhler raised $489,952 and spent $485,682.
We think former Republican National Committee Chairman Richard Richards said it best at last week's WSU Government Ethics Symposium: "Money is the mother's milk of politics."
We'll also briefly mention another story appearing in this morning's Std-Ex. Ogden's only downtown independent bookstore is now calling it quits. Pat Ortega, who has owned and operated "The Bookshelf" on Washington Blvd. for 27 years, is liquidating his inventory and accepting an "offer he can't refuse" from (surprise of surprises) a Friend Of Matt Godfrey (FOM.) And the FOM in question...? None other than G-Train Wilkerson herself!!!
Soon all downtown properties will be owned by "Friends of Matt," we suspect, and our whole downtown area will be littered with nothing but cute & trendy restaurants and boutiques. But remember... if you need to buy books... we have our own Weber County Forum Bookstore in our left sidebar.
That's it for the moment. Consider this another open topic thread.
Update 12/16/07 3:25 p.m. MT: Charlie Trentleman has a touching article this morning, regarding the closure of "The Bookshelf." We incorporate here his opening graphs:
After The Bookshelf is closed, there’s going to be this moment when I stand outside, pound on the glass and yell, “Books! Books!”You can read the rest of the article here.
If you are familiar with the movie “The Graduate,” Dustin Hoffman does the same thing, for the same reason, at a church door. It is a last-gasp attempt to stop agonizing, gut-wrenching loss.
OK, he is calling “Elaine!”, played by actress Katharine Ross, who is, I’m pretty sure, not a book. Other than that, the parallel is complete.
I’ve been in Ogden 29 years. The Bookshelf, between 24th and 25th streets on Washington Boulevard, has been here 27.
It is something one assumes will never go away –– then Pat Ortega, the owner, gets this silly idea he can sell the building and retire.
Really, Pat, isn’t the world cruel enough?
