There's lots of new 2009 Ogden City municipal election information available this morning, for the perusal of our gentle readers:
1) As promised, the Standard-Examiner delivers its-long awaited Ogden Council Candidate Questionnaire this morning, with responses from fourteen of the fifteen declared candidates for council seats At Large "B", Ward 1 and Ward 3. These materials are available for viewing on the Std-Ex website:
• Ogden At Large "B"For the sake of archival permanency, we'll also link these duplicate pages from the Std-Ex Digital Edition:
• Ogden Ward 1
• Ogden Ward 3
• Ogden Seat "B" & Ward 32) And thanks to the efforts of WCF reader and contributor Dan S., we're delighted to present the first set of financial disclosure statements, which are gleaned from the Ogden City website:
• Ogden Ward 1
• Contribution and Expenditure Reports 9/08/09We've already added the the financial disclosure materials to our 2009 election module in our right sidebar; and we'll set to work this morning to add all of this information to our 2009 Election Council Candidate Roster.
We'll rely upon our readers to carefully examine and digest this new information; and readers are invited, of course, to chime in with their ever-savvy comments. With five days remaining before the September 15 polling, there's still plenty of time to vet these candidates, and to separate the wheat from the chaff. We're also quite certain that our readers will be able to do just that.
(In that connection, we've also already moved over a few on-topic reader comments from yesterday's article comment section.)
Take it away, O Gentle Ones.
23 comments:
With reference to the first set of campaign disclosure statements, Here are the total amounts raised (first number) and spent (second number) so far:
Municipal Ward 1
Garner: $2658; $883
Garcia: $600; $195
Pate: $40; $31
Municipal Ward 3
Stephens: $2397; $1843
Dean: $575; $575
Hansen: $500; $387
Wolfgram: $100; $458
Thompson: $0; $0
At-Large Seat A
Hains: $2023; $5663
Van Hooser: $1950; $963
At-Large Seat B
Phipps: $4500; $3950
Blair: $2415; $1277
Morris: $992; $888
Neil: $626; $496
Roma: $100; $84
Poulter: $0; $55
McNamara: no report posted
There's some inconsistency in whether candidates have reported contributions and loans to their own campaigns--hence the negative balances for some candidates. The itemized contribution lists are also pretty interesting, but I don't have time to type them all here. The biggest single contributor is the Realtors Association, which is supporting Hains, Phipps, and Stephens.
A quick look at Mr. Phipps' statement reveals the following:
1. He is, indeed, running for At-Large Seat B.
2. Along with the Realtor (TM) contribution noted by Dan above, there is a mysterious contribution ($500) from a "BOBCO" (18484 Highway 18 Suite 165 Apple Valley CA). The address resolves to the office of John Hulterstrom, CPA.
The second large ($500) contribution looks like "WOPHOM" or "WOPWOM" and the address (212 Merchant St, Honolulu, HI) resolves to perhaps a drop box or series of offices. No suite number is listed. It could be a consignment shop, a realty office, or a number of other things based on the address and I'm not flying to Honolulu to find out.
Given our recent experience with FNURE, I am immediately suspicious of untraceable contributions from unnamed individuals who aren't easily found, and whose connection to Ogden and its well-being is not clear.
I hope Mr. Phipps will come here to answer some of these questions before the primary election. I think he has some 'splainin' to do.
Interesting how Stephens ran his whole first campaign on under a thousand dollars and one poorly designed, hand made, typed and copied brochure. And he won because he simply advocated for honest city government. Now look what he is spending on the first installment of the primary. It will be interesting to see if he sticks to his original premise of honest city government, or if he will go dishonest and Godfreyesque on us. It will also be interesting to see if Farmington's Owens will finance the bulk of Stephens' campaign like he did four years ago
Hmm. I think these numbers are quite fascinating. It would appear some realtor scum are trying to buy their damned council seats.
Not that this is surprising, just interesting to see actual numbers. $5600+, or $3900+, for a single candidate and we're still in the primaries? These numbers are breathtaking. Yeah, I'm sure these guys have pure hearts.. of gold.
Thanks for the heads up, Dan S. Definitely appreciate it.
Flipper Thaine Fisher group (real estate, mortgage brokers) is covert money behind realtors.DO NOT VOTE FOR PHIPPS OR HAINES.
Certainly not a flurry of comments here!
just sayin.
BB
A question for all those who post here and would like to see a Council that is possibly 6-1 against the Golf Course/Hotel/Condo/Gondola/Half-pipe/etc project and other things Godfrey. Which candidate has the best chance in the general election to defeat Phipps?
That would be me ... wait a minute, is this about Seat A or B?
JN
p.s. if Phipps makes it to the general election ...
Wait for the real numbers posted after the election..
... after the election, which is Next Tuesday, 15 September 2009!!!
VOTE!!!
JN
Hains: $2023; $5663
He'd fit right in ...
The mayor flagged these guys himself a week ago.
Godfrey's Picks
It's interesting that the ones who are plainly running to be Godfrey's rubber stamps are not identifying themselves as his strong supporters. This was the approach that Blain Johnson successfully used to fool the voters. So these questionnaires are of little use, since the Godfreyites just game them.
It is interesting that Godfrey runs a slate of candidates but he is so unpopular but he can't be forthright about it.
I do hope voters take the time to read "Godfrey's Picks" before the election.
Neighbors are reporting David Phipps visiting the Thaine Fischer household.
In fact, Fischer and his real estate cronies hosted a campaign fund party for Phipps at the Fischer home at 25th and Tyler two nights ago.
A VOTE FOR PHIPPS IS A VOTE FOR CARPETBAGGERS.
Received a flyer from Mr. Phipps today. It's the usual vagueness nearly all these flyers suffer from. He wants open government, better communication between Council and Mayor, and end to neighborhood crime, lower taxes, more jobs. This the campaign equivalent of announcing you like apple pie, motherhood and the flag. He wants "real solutions" and "will put Ogden residents first." Etc. The usual boilerplate one finds in these flyers.
But the phrasing of one of his points caught my eye: "Being a small business owner and entrepreneur has taught David Phipps the way to lower taxes is through growth. Growth brings stability, higher paying jobs and tax revenue. With his experience,David Phipps will make sure that Ogden will make smart fiscal decisions that benefit residents." That sounds to me like lightly warmed over Godfrey appeal last two elections.
What kind of growth? Encourage it how? What decisions does he think Ogden has made that were smart? Not smart? What would he do differently? What decisions already made would he have made the same way? Not a word about that. Not a single specific.
If any kind of open live Q and A develops, be a good idea to show with every candidate's flyer or mailer and start asking specific questions. Of all of them. Ask them about ice towers and velodromes, and The Junction bonds, and the River Project and how that's been handled. Ask them for specifics about what policies they would vote to change if they got on the council and demand specifics, not generalities.
Mr. Phipps flyer is the one that came to hand today, but I don't mean to focus only on him. When you do a mailer/flyer the tendency is to be very general in hopes of appealing by non-controversial statements to the widest number of voters. [Phipps e.g. is definitely opposed to neighborhood crime. Who's for it? That sort of thing.] The generalities are flying thick and fast in this election. Be useful, if possible to pin the candidates --- all of them --- down to some specifics. Not easy, I know, but worth trying.
Curm, my favorite aspect of the Phipps flyer is that the family on the front (not his by the way) is walking away from the cameras with their heads down. Why do they seem so sad? An odd picture for a campaign flyer. Aren't campaign flyers supposed to be upbeat, morning in America type stuff?
As for pinning candidates down on some specifics, the flyer from Morris does have some specifics about transportation, development of open space, etc. Looks good to me.
"Being a small business owner and entrepreneur has taught David Phipps the way to lower taxes is through growth"
What a Crock-O-Crap! The same old bull shit that Godfrey and all the rest of the lame NeoCon's have been spouting the last twenty years or so.
I guess my first question to this lame brain is: Ogden, and Utah, have grown a whole lot in the last few decades so where is the lower taxes? Has any one had their taxes go down in that time because of the growth? Can he show us any place that has ever had their taxes go down because they grew bigger?
As the population grows in any area, so grows the gummint. In fact gummint always grows faster than the population! The bigger a place gets, the bigger the tax load gets.
It is truly amazing how these arrogant and phony pricks can just roll these lies off their tongues so easily and yet no one ever seems to challenge their basic premises.
I also would never trust a political hack that refers to himself in the third person like this weenie apparently does!
Oz
Politicians referring to themselves in the third person is an old and disingenuous trick. Their hope is that by doing so it will make the reader think that some one else wrote it and that there is a larger number of supporters than there really might be in fact. They get to toot their own horn and make it sound like some one else is doing it.
Wildcat:
It's not his family? When I saw the pic, I wondered why he and his family were walking away. Usually flyer shots have them seated "Sears Family Portrait Sale!" style. Now I know. Not his family. Seems just a tad deceptive. I know the flyer doesn't say flat out it is, but it sure gives that impression. Deliberately so, I think. Are you sure it's not his family?
That said, I really don't care if he's a family man or not. Or if he has a photogenic family or not. Or even if he's a good father or husband or not. [This goes, by the way, for all the candidates.] They're not asking me to vote for them for father or mother of the year, for husband or wife of the year. They're asking me to vote for them for City Council member. What kind of family member they are is (a) none of my damn business and (b) not relevant to the public job they want to hold.
I'm not sure if I'm a good father or husband myself, Curm. And if I were, I wouldn't go round telling everybody!
[grin]
JN
Check the actual family photo on the other side of the flyer. Two little girls, not a son and daughter as shown on the front.
And yes, votes shouldn't be cast based on what type of family man (or woman) you are. Just seems strange to put another family on the front of your flyer. Is it supposed to represent MY family? Sorry, still don't get it. But I do like their hang dog heads, helps convey, "Yes, we support David Phipps and we're thrilled about it."
JN:
Ouch. Point taken. Please don't tell Mrs. Curmudgeon, or it'll be bread and water and sleeping on the couch for a week.
Apparently the voters of Ogden agree with you Curm. After all, our own mayor is on record as having smacked his wife around and he got elected three times.
Here is what I have been taking door to door.
Front:
http://www.justin.fm/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Brochure-Front.pdf
Inside:
http://www.justin.fm/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Brochure-Back.pdf
Justin
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