Somebody Drops the Hatch Act Dime on Ogden City Councilman Garcia

Incumbent City Councilman and State House Representative candidate charges "dirty politics"

Fascinating article in this morning's Standard-Examiner, reporting that "somebody" has dropped the "Hatch Act" dime on democratic House Legislative District 9 candidate and current Emerald City Councilman Jesse Garcia. It's deja vu all over again in Emerald City. The situation is reminiscent of the 2006 general election campaign, when Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner nearly dropped out of the State Senate District 18 race, under similar Hatch Act violation accusations. Of course we all remember what happened in the case of Greiner. He ultimately lawyered-up and fired right back at the meddling attorneys from the US Office of Special Counsel, employing the same successful legal strategy previously perfected by Assemblyman Richard Perkins of Nevada. As a result, and as reported in this morning's Ace Reporter Schwebke story, Greiner just now completed his second State Senate session, and hasn't heard word one from federal attorneys in almost two years.

According to this morning's article however, Garcia's problem is more complicated than that of Greiner. Garcia is not only running for a State House of Representatives seat, but has already served as an elected Ogden City Councilman for fifteen years. Moreover, his main employment is with Weber County Human Services, a recipient of federal grants, from which Garcia's salary is probably at least partly derived, thus arguably bringing him within Hatch Act jurisdiction.

From the tone of today's article, it appears that Garcia is prepared to cut and run. Although he's talking about consulting with legal counsel, he's also making noise about abandoning his State House race -- and resigning his City Council seat. That he would consider such a course of action is understandable. It goes without saying that he lacks the considerable financial resources of a Jon Greiner, who was evidently able to successfully stand toe-to-toe with federal lawyers in 2006.

As an aside, Ace Reporter Schwebke begins the pursuit of what we believe to be an interesting story angle this morning -- and he gets off to a fair start with the query: Who, exactly, dropped the dime on Councilman Garcia? Good question, we believe.

In a somewhat perfunctory manner, we think, Mr. Schwebke reports on the responses of all candidates in the Legislative 9 race. Neil Hansen denies any involvement. He says he prefers to play within the system. GOP challenger Jeremy Peterson also issues his own denial. Frankly we believe both of them. Hansen is the hands-down favorite to win the 2008 Democratic Party nomination. His re-nomination will likely be a Weber County Democratic Convention cake-walk. Why would he bring such unnecessary complications into his race? As for GOP challenger Peterson, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that he'd prefer to face Garcia in November, rather than Hansen, a five term incumbent, who's basically owned Ogden's House District 9 for the past ten years.

Following up on Mr. Schwebke's question, ask yourselves, gentle readers... who stands to gain the most if Councilman Garcia is forced to resign his city council seat? Somebody with an office on the ninth floor of the municipal building? Some "visionary" who'd like nothing more than to break the opposition lag-jam in the city council/RDA? Somebody who'd like to take a crack at the appointment of a new city councilman who, unlike Garcia, hasn't been a burr under the administration saddle since he took the mayoral oath of office in 2000? Somebody with a seemingly pathological obsession for GONDOLAS, perhaps, hmmm? So many questrions... so few answers.

Jesse Garcia attributes this latest development to "dirty politics;" and we think he's absolutely right. The trouble is, we believe he's obviously pointing his finger at the wrong suspects.

We sit perched on the edge of our seat awaiting our gentle readers' comments re this.

The floor is now open for further discussion of what we deem to be a VERY meaty topic.