Jon Greiner Senate Withdrawal Redux

It's becoming increasingly apparent that party labels don't mean very much to the legislative "leaders" up on Capitol Hill

We'll spotlight three new items from the northern Utah press, who are all over the Jon Greiner Senate race withdrawal story this morning:

1) The Standard-Examiner provides two more stories centered upon Jon Greiner's withdrawal from the Senate 18 race, in a consolidated three-part series which also incorporates the earlier SE story which we discussed yesterday morning:

• Greiner stops Senate run after Hatch Act ruling; Ogden may appeal

Among the tidbits of new information provided in this latest SE update is this:

OGDEN -- Jon Greiner will remain as police chief despite an administrative law judge's ruling that he must resign or the city will be forced to forfeit more than $215,000 in federal grants because of a Hatch Act violation.[...]
In addition to allowing Greiner to keep his job as police chief, the city may appeal the Hatch Act ruling, said John Patterson, the city's chief administrative officer.[...]
Even if the city doesn't appeal the ruling by an April 20 deadline, forfeiting the grant funds totaling two years of Greiner's salary is worth it, Patterson said.
"He's an excellent chief. Crime is at a 30-year low," he said. "We really think it's worth it to retain someone who has had excellent performance."

Whether the City Council will go along with the forfeiture of nearly a quarter-million dollars in federal grant money as the price of keeping Greiner on the city payroll is uncertain, as this Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser comment suggests:

City Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser questioned whether Ogden can afford legal costs associated with an appeal or the six-figure loss in federal funding.
"It puts the city in a real predicament about what we should do," she said.
"What's the cost going to be? Sometimes you have to let things go."

2) The Salt Lake Tribune is also carrying the story too, and reports that Stuart Reid has finally made contact with Weber County Republican officials (whom long time Democratic Party insider Reid didn't know from Adam less than a week ago), and that Weber County GOP Chairman Matt Bell plans to schedule a question and answer session with the Weber County Republican Executive Committee (the 18-member governing body for the County GOP), to allow Reid to pitch his "conservative" credentials, (such as they may or may NOT be):

• Greiner drops out of Senate race

3) The Deseret News is also on top of the story too, with this morning writeup which reports that real estate development-oriented elements within the State Legislative Republican majority, namely neoCON Senate President Michael Waddoups R-Taylorsville, and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper can hardly contain their glee at the idea of welcoming another fellow real estate developer crony (Reid) into the Capitol Hill Good Ole Boys' Club:

• Ogden state senator drops re-election bid

No surprises there, wethinks. It's becoming increasingly apparent that party labels and party core principles don't mean very much to the "faux" GOP legislative "leaders" up on Capitol Hill, and that the most important trait for any new prospective state legislator, as far as these right wing socialist people are concerned, is a strong affinity for the all-powerful Utah real-estate development lobby.

That's our take; and we're stickin' to it.

So what say our gentle readers about all this?