The Standard-Examiner provides a heads-up this morning regarding the upcoming GOP Primary Election, which is scheduled for Tuesday, June 24, 2008. From this morning's Scott Schwebke story:
NORTH OGDEN — One candidate is counting on political experience while his opponent is banking on new ideas to secure the Republican nomination for the state House District 7 seat. State Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, 70, who is seeking a fifth term, is challenged by Ryan D. Wilcox, 30, a former legislative assistant, in Tuesday’s primary election.Although this morning's article focuses mainly on the House District 7 race, there are actually two GOP offices which will be affected by 2008 Weber County primary ballots. Listed below are the respective offices and candidates. Click the highlighted links for further candidate information:
District 7 takes in all of North Ogden, Harrisville and the northernmost portion of Ogden.
Wilcox earned a spot on the primary ballot with a one-vote margin over Donnelson
at the Weber County Republican Party Convention in April.
Polls for the primary election will open Tuesday at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Early voting began June 10 and concluded Friday.
House Legislative District 7
Glenn A. Donnelson (Incumbent)
Ryan Wilcox
The survivor of Tuesday's Legislative District 7 GOP Primary will face Democratic Party nominee Rob Reynolds in the November 4th General Election.
Utah State Treasurer
Richard Ellis
Mark Walker
The GOP candidate who emerges from this race will square off this fall with Democratic Party nominee Dick Clark.
According to the Weber County Clerk's office, public notice will be posted in the Standard-Examiner tomorrow, Sunday, June 22, 2008. GOP voters should be sure to check their newspaper for polling times and locations.
And being the curious type, we'll open the floor for comments regarding our gentle readers' own preferences in each of these races.
Who will be the first to comment?
9 comments:
I have to confess to being awfully confused about who said and did what in the State Treasurer brouhaha.
Can someone here explain this in plain and simple English? The newspaper accounts have been convoluted, to say the least.
Candidate plans new complaint in treasurer feud
Walker is a complete scumbag. Look at his website. He doesn't even list his college major, which it turns out is "political science," from BYU. He worked at Zion's BAnk in a low-level position for the last three years. Big Deal.
Ellis, on the other hand is perfectly qualified for the Treasurer job, and has stellar acedemic and professional credentials.
Ed Alter has been his mentor for 11 years.
Ellis is eminently qualified for the Treasurer's office because of his EXPERIENCE.
Walker's qualifications amount to endorsements from Utah GOP Neocons like Mark Shurtleff, Curt Bramble, and the rest of the Utah GOP Mafia from Utah County.
Thanks for the links, Rudy.
Despite Walker's political smoke and mirrors, the experienced Richard Ellis is the obvious "no brainer choice."
Use your brains on Tuesday, fellow GOP voters.
The front page of the Salt Lake Tribune screams "E-mail backs Ellis' claim that Walker offered job to get him out of race" Let's see if we can cobble together the email, since the Trib didn't bother to post the message in its entirety. Carl Empey, vice-president of public finance for Zions Bank, who was the go-between for the purported offer by Rep. Walker to Ellis for a job. Rep. Walker has claimed that there was some confusion of what he said, and that he didn't do anything illegal. Au contrare, wrote Empey to LG Gary Herbert on June 2nd:
"Mr. Walker came up and visited with me on many occasions and discussed the idea, the salary amount and asked me to pass it along to Mr. Ellis for his consideration," Empey wrote.
The current state treasurer, Ed Alter, makes $104,000 a year. The alleged job offer, according to Ellis and Empey, was $160,000.
"It wasn't until March 17 that Mr. Ellis and myself became aware that this activity was improper under state statute," Empey continued in the lengthy e-mail.
"At that point, Mr. Ellis stopped the consideration and discussions and decided to run and not withdraw from the election."
[...]
In the e-mail, Empey wrote that he was willing to risk everything, including his job, to defend Ellis' integrity.
[Steve] Hunter[, Walker's campaign manager,] believes his e-mail does the opposite.
"These guys are toast. What it does is incriminate Richard Ellis and Carl Empey," Hunter said. "They were complicit in a job offer and soliciting a job offer - both are illegal under state law."
Wait, let me get this straight, now the Walker campaign's line is that Ellis is just as guilty as Walker in offering and contemplating a higher paying job in exchange for dropping out of a political race? Because I don't get how this logic would allow for Ellis and Empey to be guilty without necessarily implicating Walker. After all, even if Ellis via Empey was guilty of the crime of soliciting a bribe, isn't Walker equally guilty of the crime of offering a bribe to Ellis? Or is Hunter claiming Ellis via Empey asked for a higher paying job for Ellis in exchange for Ellis withdrawing from the primary, and Walker refused? If so, I have yet to see any evidence offered to support that claim. Did Walker submit a self-serving affidavit to the Utah Supreme Court? I would think a contemporaneously written email would be much more reliable...although this email was written two weeks after the purported bribe was made. All in all, this email doesn't do much in the way of bolstering Ellis' case, but it sure doesn't undermine it or incriminate him, nor does it exonerate Walker. What do you make of it?
Judge for yourself
Read this damning Vanity Fair article about the giant chemical/agro company Monsanto. It traces the company's disreputable practices going back 50 years.
Here's the interesting part. Monsanto donates campaign contributions to various Republicans in the Utah legislature.
What's really interesting is that this corporation has already kicked in $1,000 to the campaign of this kid Wilcox, who's outfundraised Rep. Donnelson by about a 3:1 margin in the Leg. 7 contest.
There are some familiar Republican names on Lt. Gov. Herbert's list, some of whom are no better than political whores.
Looks like this Wilcox kid has already sold his soul to the devil too, even before being elected to any political office at all.
Vote Donnelson!
Why would anyone in their right mind vote for a BYU Policitcal Science major for Utah State Treasurer?
That's just what we need...another BYU political Science major from BYU to join in with the other low life's doing the "drinking duck" to whatever Senator Howard Stephenson suggests...or Curtis Bramble, Christensen, Dayton, Madson, Stowell, Valentine, Van Tassell, Waddoups, Carlene Walker, AAgard, David Clark, Stephen Clark, Daw, Dougall, Ferry, Fisher, Frank, Fowlke, Gowans Grover, Harper, Herrod, Holdaway, Hughes, Hutchings, King, Lockhart, Mathis, Morley, Newbold, Painter, Sandstrom, Sumsion, Tilton, Urquhart, & Wheeler.
That is 36 BYU schooled legislators. If we threw them all out of office maybe ethics reforms and campaign finance racketeering would be legislated away and we would have fair taxes based upon how many kids are in a family, for example, just might get finally passed.
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