Well Lo and behold and hallelujah! the Scott Schwebke Digital Edition story we linked within Sunday's WCF writeup, has now been published in the SE Live! website, possibly pursuant to our plaintive request:
• Council candidate offers apologyWe see SE regular Flatlander has already offered a critical comment under the newly-posted SE article. Perhaps we should all likewise get over to the SE site ourselves to add our own pithy comments, eh?
Of course the SE hasn't yet chimed in on the even more revealing story we posted yesterday. We're still waiting, we confess, for the SE's reporting of the backlash from Mark Johnson, Management Services Director for Ogden City, as a result of the bungling Mr. Phipps's clumsy inadvertence in putting Mr. Johnson's name on Phipp's campaign flier endorsement list.
We're also still waiting for the Standard-Examiner's version of THAT inevitable pro Boss Godfrey spin.
Nevertheless, we ask: Isn't it time to let this befuddled loser David Phipps have it right where it hurts? Is there anyone in MattGodfreyWorld who doesm't know by now that Mr. Phipps is a complete screwup? The poor guy's raised council candidate incompetence to the highest level within recent memory, wethinks.
Oh yes, sez your humble blogmeister.
Let's hear it from our gentle readers!
17 comments:
Lemme see now. We have this David Phipps character, the darling of the real estate developers, a wet-behind-the ears "kid" who moved to Utah about three years ago, and has actually lived in Ogden for only about a year.
And he's running against an Ogden "home boy," Bart Blair, ex-Ogden High School Student Body President, and part owner owner of an Ogden business which has been a landmark in Ogden for over three generations. And Bart's running a grass-roots campaign.
And Phipps is a well financed sock-puppet for real estate developer puppetmaster interests.
And Phipps tells us he knows our community; whereas Blair actually does through lifelong experience.
So who are you gonna vote for? The carpetbagging real estate lobby's pretender, or the home-town guy who's family has been invested in out community for at least fifty years?
Looks like a "no-brainer" to us.
(But sometimes Ogden voters can behave like true "no-brainers.")
You're looking at biography issues, which matter, I agree. But I'd still like to hear Mr. Blair on what issues he expect to address as a Councilman, what he thinks Ogden needs to be better when his term ends than when it begins that the Council can help bring about. "He's owned a store here for years" doesn't answer those questions. I bet I'm not the only voter who'd like to hear Mr. Blair's ideas on such matters. Not wise to stake an entire campaign on someone's biography alone.
"But I'd still like to hear Mr. Blair on what issues he expect to address as a Councilman, blah, blah, blah..."
I'd suggest that you check into Mr. Blair's blog regularly. From what I'm told, Mr. Blair intends to use that platform as a primary web forum to address specific issues.
And if you have specific questions, why nor drop him an email... or post a query on his blog?
Don't sit back on your butt to waiting for it to happen. If you have questions or issues you'd like to see asked or discussed... don't wait for somebody else to do it.
Sheesh!
Dear Curm, after checking the website of both candidates you'll have to admit that atleast Mr. Blairs has something on it.
Alfred P.'s website has nothing but an enlarged campain sign and an arial view of North Ogden.
This is not too suprizing though, it was only after reading my post on this blog two weeks before the primary that he figured out which seat he was running for.
I still maintain that if you can't trace a real, living person who belongs to a particular acronym (such as FNURE or WAPWOM) then that is an anonymous (literally, no-name) donation under existing Ogden City ordinance.
Either Mr. Phipps needs to cough up the name of his supporters, or give back the money.
Jim, it would be nice but even as we speak, Gary Williams has his magic mortar and pestle, grinding feverishly a blend of highly non judicious and murderous herbs to cure whatever statutory ailments befall any of lying little matty's cadre of morally and ethically challenged candidates.
Rudi:
I'm going to websites. Not all voters can or will. The point I thought I was making, evidently badly, was that I think it would be a mistake for him to campaign or for people to campaign for him exclusively on the basis of his biography. Long time Ogden resident and business owner is fine, particularly given his opponent. But that shouldn't be the campaign appeal he makes. That's all. Still think that's so.
Websites matter, but I'm not sure they can be in a council race like this the main platform for making an appeal to voters. Could be wrong about that, but I don't think so.
At the time of the last election two years ago, there was a sign on the Blair's Service Station corner at 30th.Street and Monroe Blvd. saying, "SAVE MOUNT OGDEN GOLF COURSE." That is good enough for me to know Blair is my candidate.
Rebel:
It is certainly true that if The Godfrey lapdogs [of which Mr. Phipps is one] takes control of the Ogden City Council, then Hizzonah will attempt to sell Mt. Ogden Park to his developer friends. I don't think there is much doubt about that. After all, all year outdoor ice-climbing popsicles on urban street corners aren't cheap to build or operate. He's got to get money for his boondogle du jour from someplace. [Recall, donations for the tower last year amounted to... well, to zero.] And then there's the velodrome the world of high adventure is demanding --- demanding, I say! --- be built in downtown Ogden too. Another seven figures for that. Where's it all going to come from if he can't sell Ogden's largest park to his pals?
When Hizzonah reveals the results of his push-poll tomorrow night, I think his intent will become plain to all. Maybe even to the SE. [Hope springs eternal....]
I just looked up Mr. Phipps's address in the county tax database. It appears that his house is owned by real estate speculator Bill Spain of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Is Bill Spain's Provident Partners the firm that had "For Rent" signs plastered all over Ogden? So Phipps loves Ogden so much that he isn't even a homeowner.
In February 2005, Bill Spain purchased the entire Provident Partners family of Companies and became President & CEO.
Thaine Fisher is wing man in Ogden.
Do not allow these carpetbaggers to buy this election. VOTE BLAIR
Bill Spain was some guy who barely graduated college, having to select General Studies because he could not figure out what he wanted to do. He drifted into being a pasty little lower-level retail manager, then seeing a brighter future in offering people mortgages they could not afford, got his brokers licence and rode the wave/dirty-dealed himself right on through the mortgage meltdown, positioning himself as a winner while most of his Scottsdale home-clients lost. Now Spain and his ilk are looking for a fresh corpse to rape. Ogden is not a corpse. Its my sweet lady; she is not meat for your ambition.
So, Dan, recent arrival Mr. Phipps, who claims he's been here for a whole year and so knows Ogden and how it works and its problems intimately, is renting his house from an absentee landlord who, it turns out, owns a company that is turning owner-occupied residential properties in Ogden into rental properties instead. And Phipps has been endorsed by Mr. Fisher, who is the absentee landlord's local rep? Imagine that....
[NB: Well, at least Mr. Phipps claims to have Mr. Fisher's endorsement. At the rate at which Mr. Phipps is conceding that his alleged endorsers are in fact innocent of the bad judgment he claimed they had [i.e. that they'd endorsed him], perhaps we need to be cautions about accepting even Mr. Fisher as a Phipps fan.]
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.
In defense of Mr. Phipps [on one point]:
OL wrote: So Phipps loves Ogden so much that he isn't even a homeowner.
Mr. Phipps claims to have arrived in Ogden only a year ago. Actually, many people rent for a year or so when they first arrive, while they scout the town out, look for neighborhoods they would want to live in, and for a home they'd like to buy in that neighborhood. You can learn a lot of things its useful to know by living in a town a or so before buying a home. I really can't fault him for that.
However, seems to me, new arrivals ought to spend a little time in Ogden, learn the territory so to speak, before seeking elected office. With all the best intentions in the work, new arrivals don't kow much about how the city works, who's reliable and who is not, who has shown good judgment and who has not, and what the history of the problems are. All that matters and it takes time to pick it up. Absent that knowledge that comes only with experience, you can make some mistakes.
I did. Newly arrived in Ogden just as Hizzonah was running for his first re-election, I voted for him, on the recommendation of neighbors who had been here for a long time. Four years later, I knew better.
So I can't fault Mr. Phipps for not buying a home immediately upon arriving in Ogden, which he did so very shortly ago. Probably a wise move to rent for a while. But I can fault him for his... well, arrogance?... in presuming he knows enough about the city and its workings and problems and the cast of characters in Ogden government from only months on the ground as a renter to offer himself as a candidate for the City Council.
His judgment in doing that seems almost as poor as the judgment of the Norther Utah Realtors in endorsing him and pouring money into his campaign. I wonder how they feel about his burning through four figures of their donations to send out "Ooops! I goofed!" cards? In fact, I wonder how many of the realtors touting Phipps would stay in business if they ran their businesses as slipshoddily as he's run his campaign.
Here's an idea: find a realtor backing Phipps and ask him or her that question. Let us know what they say.
with all of the false endorsements claimed by Mr. Phipps he is ignoring am important one. Will he solict or even admit that he is a favored candidate of Mayor Matthew Godfrey? Will Hains ask for or acknowledge that he is also favored by Mayor Matthew Godfrey?
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