Over the course of the past six weeks we've followed, with growing amusement, the series of highly politically-partisan Brad Dee guest commentaries appearing in the Sunday edition of the Standard-Examiner. Brad Dee is of course state representative Brad Dee, assistant majority whip of the Utah House of Representatives. These articles, written by an obvious Weber County up-and-comer in GOP legislative leadership, have represented quite a propaganda coup for the Weber County Republican Party; and we'd wondered, frankly, how long the Std-Ex editors and local Democrats would let the dominant party in Weber County politics get away with all the one-sided free column space.
Last Sunday, Rep. Dee contributed this guest commentary, praising the teamwork of the Weber County legislative delegation, and reeling off a few examples of legislative teamwork, but neglecting to mention either of its two Democratic Party members.
And while it's also true that several GOP team members were also left out of Rep. Dee's article, Weber County Democratic Party Chair LaFray Kelley has nevertheless taken umbrage at these perceived omissions, and has now contributed her own responsive guest commentary to this morning's Std-Ex editorial page, from which we incorporate Ms. Kelly's opening paragraph:
Brad Dee’s Feb. 17 installment of his legislative report removed any doubt about what this series really is: free political advertising for the Republican Party. His column on “teamwork” praising the work of “our Weber County legislative team” comes across as a little self-serving when you realize he blatantly left out the names of the two Democratic members of that team: Neal Hansen and LaWanna Shurtliff.Ms. Kelley then takes advantage of a little more free column space, goes on to highlight the accomplishments of these two legislators, and then caroms off into a discussion of other more general political issues, and a call for "balance." All in all it's an interesting read; and you can find the full article here.
We love a good political scrap, and it appears the 2008 Weber County election front burner is heating up.
And what say our gentle readers about all this? Is it just your blogmaster, or are there others among us who perceive signs of life from the formerly moribund Weber County Democratic Party?
