Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Council Candidate Phipps Fesses Up to Another Campaign Mailer Endorsement "Error"

Today's troubling admission goes beyond mere incompetence

In the aftermath of Sunday's Weber County Forum article, the Standard-Examiner informs its general readership of the latest David Phipps campaign fowl-up, in the race for the Ogden City Council At Large Seat "B". Yessiree, it turns out that our Sunday report was correct. Mark Johnson, Management Services Director for Ogden City is another campaign mailer endorser who didn't actually endorse the local real estate development industry's favorite candidate:
Mark Johnson endorsement on Phipps' mailer an error
So here's the tally of Phipps blunders which are publicly revealed so far (with a full 41 days remaining until the general election):

1) During the month of July, At Large "B" candidate Mr. Phipps plants scores of giant campaign signs all over Ogden, erroneously announcing that he's a candidate for Ogden Council Seat "A." Months later, some of these signs are still on display around Ogden, such as this one on the lawn in front of Provident Partners' Harrison Boulevard office:


(Sorry folks. The resolution of this cell phone image ain't so hot. Take our word for it though... the sign says "Ogden City Council Seat 'A.'")

2) 9/20/09 - Candidate Phipps admits his first campaign mailer endorsement screw-up. An honest mistake, says Phipps. Open and accountable Ogden city government is "centerpiece of [his] campaign...," Phipps reminds everyone:
Council candidate offers apology
3) 9/22/09 - Phipps today publicly fesses up to his second campaign mailer endorsement boo-boo [ See our first link above]. Significantly, we note, this morning's story reveals that Mr. Phipps was well aware of the bogus Johnson endorsement when he confessed to the Karen Thurber "error" on 9/20/09. Yet he was silent about it until this very morning. This active and wilful suppression of important material fact leads us to wonder just what Mr. Phipps means, exactly, when he says he stands for "open and accountable Ogden city government."

Ask yourselves, gentle readers, taking into account the intentional concealment of fact which plays out in this morning's second campaign mailer "error" story, whether Phipps is a man who can be trusted with a city council seat. Today's belated admission goes beyond mere incompetence. It reveals that Mr. Phipps was willing, at least in this instance, to get by with a half truth... a lie, in other words. Ask yourselves whether Mr. Phipps would have voluntarily come clean about this latter false endorsement, if Weber County Forum hadn't flushed out the true story on Sunday.

That's it for now.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

14 comments:

Bob Becker said...

Rudi:

You wrote: Significantly, we note, this morning's story reveals that Mr. Phipps was well aware of the bogus Johnson endorsement when he confessed to the Karen Thurber "error" on 9/20/09. Yet he was silent about it until this very morning.

Nice catch! I missed that when I read the SE story last night. And it raises precisely the questions you asked about it. Good work.

Dr Honeydew said...

Well done WCF

Biker Babe said...

Stay tuned; after all, he's getting FREE press coverage and name recognition all over the place with all these blunders. Maybe the same people who didn't read his campaign signs will only see his name in the paper

Wait a minit, this could be a problem!

just sayin

BB

Dr honeydew said...

Chill bb this idiot is going nowhere, He overstepped his boundries and now its time for a spanking.

wildcat said...

Looks like Phipps will be a good addition to our city council -- for the mayor. Afterall, how could Phipps see a problem with all of the "honest mistakes" that have come out of the mayor's office.

ozboy said...

Ah cummon Rudi, what's this implied outrage I'm reading in your editorial on Mr. Pipps? Hey, you and this blog already outed him as a bonified, certified Godfreyite.

This "honest mistake" biz is part of the Godfreyite basic creed. This kid, only one year into his Ogden chapter and presumably his Godfreyite membership, has picked up the routine pretty fast and can shuffle his feet, run his lyin tongue and pick the tax payer's pockets with the best of them!

Credit where credit is due Mr Rudizink.

What a suprise said...

He should have had a endorsement by the Gov. Huntsman, Just like the mayor had two years ago. Why stop there, he should use Pres. G.W. Bush too. After all one republican is as good as another. How about that guy that stole the mayors bike that was an honest mistake. but the poor guy was part of the crime stats. I wish he had said this is just a mistake.
When I do something wrong I will just say It was a mistake especially when I blow the gang members in my neighborhood away. this is such a good excuse.

Danny said...

There has been a suggestion that Phipps looks like the cartoon character, Alfred E. Newman.

If I'm not mistaken, Newman is supposed to be an idiot.

Could it be that the resemblance is more than appearance?

Godfrey clearly recruited this guy to run. It appears the pool of people willing to do his bidding grows smaller, and he had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for his candidates this time.

I wonder if Phipps supporters know what it is they are really voting for?

ozboy said...

Danny

Sorry, but Alfred E. Newman was not an idiot by any means. He was a very hip and knowing counter culture figure in the mid fifties. It was only our clueless parents that thought he was an idiot.

Now if you really want to be up on pop culture just get a load of this Pipps guy that's running for council. How could the voters of Ogden not get excited about having a council man who sang back up for Gladys Knight and who is just like Gladys in the MoMo thing?

joe said...

Danny-
I don't know if Phipps supporters knew what they were in for when they voted in the Primaries for him. I'm sure they are starting to learn, as we all are, who the real Phipps really is. Any more goof-ups and Mr. Blair will not have to worry about competing for $.

phipps said...

I just wanted to let curm know that this error was not a lie. It was just a honest mistake and I would not lie about an endorsement.

Bob Becker said...

Phipps:

Well, then, it's a reflection of worrying incompetence. And it happened twice in a single mailer.

I can understand why Hizzonah is so eager to have Mr. Phipps elected. He sees in him, probably, a kindred soul since the Administration too has had to resort to pleading incompetence to counter suspicions of duplicity.

If Mr. Phipps knew in advance of the mailer that he did not have the two endorsements he claimed to have, and he sent it out anyway, he was dishonest, but not incompetent. If he did not know of the claims he sent out were false, he was incompetent but not dishonest.

Hell of choice to be left with, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

To pretend that he did not check his own circular,when running as a first-timeer for public office, would be a flat-out lie.

Regarding campaign media, first and even second and third timers: preen and adjust their picture, read and re-read the text, carry drafts around and show off to confidantes, when running a small campaign of this sort.

Politics, eventually, comes down to an ego locating an exploitable power vacuum.

For Phipps, what this suggests is a penchant for deceit if he thinks it will obtain him more power.

Bob Becker said...

RJ:

Or it shows a cavalier lack of interest in details. Could be he conceives on himself as a "big idea" kinda guy who "leaves details to my staff." The problem is, being a good City Council member is, above all, a get-into-the-details-and-master-them kind of job if ever there was one. If you're going to do it well, that is.

Had he had a well-trained history student staffing his run, he'd have had someone who understood that before you send anything to a printer, you check the facts to make sure they're accurate. Then you check them again, just to be sure. And when you're absolutely certain you've double checked everything and it's all OK, then --- especially then --- you check it all again.

At least.

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