Sunday Morning Emerald City Election News Roundup

"Pathetic" is the chosen keyword of the day

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

H.L. Mencken
Mencken on Democracy
1880 - 1956

There are a couple of 2009 local election pieces in this morning's Standard-Examiner which are well worthy of note:

First, the Std-Ex serves up a strong lead article, calling Tuesday's municipal primary election turnout "pathetic":

• OUR VIEW: Voting turnout pathetic

Of course the Std-Ex gets it mostly right. With a mere 9% of eligible Ogden voters bothering to show up at the polls, we just couldn't resist invoking H.L. Mencken's above quote.

And while we're on the subject of what's pathetic... how 'bout this? Here's an amusing paragraph, plucked straight from this morning's Std-Ex editorial:

If, as we hope, substantially more Top of Utah voters trek to the polls on Nov. 3. Voters will cast ballots for candidates who will decide some pretty important issues. In Ogden, council candidates for three seats -- two held by incumbents -- will face decisions that involve fighting gang crime, the economic future of The Junction and The Ogden River Project, other development projects, protecting Junction City's foothills and fitting in with a city council that has a contentious relationship with the city administration.

That's right, folks. The Standard-Examiner apparently believes there are only three Ogden City council seats up for grabs in November.

Here's a helpful hint for the Standard-Examiner: Check out our WCF 2009 Council Candidate Roster in our right sidebar, where you'll learn there are actually four. It's kinda awkward to scold northern Utah voters for being apathetic, dontcha think, when they're forced to rely on the Standard-Examiner's crack reporting of local election news? If the lumpenvoters seem confused, has the Std-Ex's previous election reporting been a factor in this?

And now that the adjective pathetic seems to have become the WCF keyword of the day, how about this morning's Scott Schwebke story, which reports on the most recent council candidate David Phipps blunder? Seems the bumbling Phipps "accidentally" sent out a postcard just prior to Tuesday's primary, without properly verifying at least one of his candidate endorsements:

• Council candidate offers apology

In the wake of Phipps's earlier slip-up, in which he plastered those scores of giant lawn signs all around Ogden, erroneously touting his candidacy for the wrong council seat (his signs said Seat "A"... he's running for Seat "B"), this latest campaign boo-boo might lead some skeptical voters to logically deduce that Mr. Phipps might be a mite deficient in the "attention to detail department."

Of course maybe that's just us.

That's it for now.

Take it away, O Gentle Ones...

Update 9/21/09 5:00 p.m.: Well Lo and behold and hallelujah! the Digital Edition story we linked directly above, has now been published in the SE Live! website:

Council candidate offers apology

We see SE regular flatlander has already offered a critical comment. Let's also get over to the SE site to add our own comments, eh?