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.