Additionally, and according to the Ogden City Elections webpage you can also "take advantage of three new city-wide vote centers that service all registered voters regardless of their assigned polling location":
- Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College located at 200 Washington Blvd.
- Union Station located at 2501 Wall Ave
- Dee Events Center located at 4450 Harrison Blvd
There are three candidates vying for the Ogden City Council At-large "A" seat, the sole Ogden Council office which will be on the primary ballot. To learn more about these candidates, click the links below to view each candidate's Weber County Forum profile page, where we've assembled all the available and relevant news, campaign web links and other information, obtained either from the candidates themselves, or through our own extensive "googling":
You'll be able to cast your vote for one of the above.
Click the link below for Utah's latest voter ID requirements:
Need we say it again?
Do your duty, folks!
21 comments:
So we have a choice between:
1. A total nutcase
2. An ex firefighter man of the people who lives below Harrison
3. The White collar (no pun intended) favorite of the east bench elites
I think I know who will win.
Back to Undecided:
I was leaning White in this primary. Then I learned Ms. White had accepted a $500 donation to her campaign fund from Mayor Mike. It occasionally is the job of a council member to say to a Mayor [in the immortal words of Groucho Marx] pitching some ill-thought out idea, "that's the silliest thing I evah hoid!" Can't help but wondering how willing a council member who got significant financial backing from a sitting mayor would be to do that. So I began to waiver a bit. Taking that money was not a good sign, I thought.
Then last week I got a flyer from Ms. White. On the front it listed what are I presume five key points she wants me to consider as reasons to vote for her. She is for "Improved Safety." [OK, let me see a show of hands: who here is for less safety? No one? I thought not.] She wants "planned transportation." [All in favor of sinking serious money into unplanned transportation, please raise your hands. Uh huh. Thought so.] And "responsible growth." [Those favoring irresponsible growth, again, show of hands please? ] And she promises "Solution Based Decisions." [Can we presume her opponents favor Decision Based Solutions?] That's just bureau-speak. It says virtually nothing. Nor, reall, do the other points.
There didn't seem, in short, to be much "there" there in the flyer. Platitudes, bureauspeak, etc. Not much substance. Now, I understand that in low turnout primaries, name recognition is usually the name of the game, and the flyer gets her name before voters again, just before polling day. OK. Fair enough. But I was hoping for something substantive along with that, not just confectioner's sugar platatudes. Didn't find it.
Result: I have fallen back into the "Undecided" camp and will have to do a little more poking around before tomorrow. Rats.
I think the primary merely cuts the three to two who will face off in the runoff. I don't think anyone can win the job outright in the primary.
Surprise of surprises. Take a good long look at Mr. Thompson. Don't be fooled by the "movers and shakers" who expect the ultimate battle to be won with big fatcat donations and lawn-signs.
A tad uncomfortable about Mr. Thompson's backing by realtors-lobby state legislator. Has some other good endorsements though. But then, so has Ms. White.
Good point, Bob. Let's revisit that "realtors-lobby" issue again:
The Utah Association of Realtors: The Biggest and Baddest PAC in the Land
Tellingly, if you examine Mr. Thompson's campaign disclosure statement, you'll discover that Thompson hasn't received even a dime from the greed-head Utah Real Estate lobby, except from the nitwit Jeremy Peterson's 300 bucks, of course
Really Bob. You are attacking Ms. White for taking a campaign contribution from Mike Caldwell? The same Mike Caldwell who accepted campaign funds from Gadi Leesham in his mayoral race. Contributions from disgraced developer Leesham given after the race was over. You are attacking Ms. White for taking funds from Mile Caldwell, who you supported in his bid to becom.eOgden Mayor. Does that means contributions from Leesham to Caldwell are acceptable but contributions from Caldwell to Ms. White are bad?
I was critical of Mayor Mike's accepting Lesham's money when the news broke, and said so and argued that he ought to give it back, as Ms. White should return the check from Caldwell.
On election day, like all of us, I've got to choose one of the candidates, warts and all, who I think is the best choice among those on the ballot. Or I have to skip the race entirely. That does not mean I approve of all the candidate I may vote for may have said or done.
I am certain she will return the donation as soon as Caldwell returns the donation to Leesham. At least give her the same amount of time on returning donations as Caldwell is taking.
voted ate the creationist (!) Lutheran church on Harrison this morning at 7:30. I was the 3rd voter of the day. Looks like not much of a turnout so if you have a preference, make sure you turn out. Low turnout municipal elections can be swung by a handful of votes.
Same for me, Bob. I was the fifth voter when I showed up at my own precinct at the LDS Church on 27th. I've actually worked as an election judge for those precincts a half dozen times; and no doubt about it, if 20 voters haven't shown up by 7:00 a.m., the voting will be light, for sure.
If PAC money is so bad, does that mean in addition to Marcia giving back money to Mike; would you also like her to give back the donation from Amy Wicks? Would you ask Thompson to give back the funds from Jeremy and Abate. Without those 2 contributions Thompson would have little money at all to work with.
In Marcia's case that total in questionable donations, according to you is about 650.00 of 10,000.00. Marcia has received funds from some of Godfrey's supports, true, but also from supporters of Susie VanHooser and Mike Caldwell.
This over analyzing of donations by people who care what happens in Ogden is very sad. In both Steve and Marcia's defense, we should all be glad that virtually every dollar they raised came from Ogden people or organizations, not outside influence.
I was trying to the post where there was discussion about what Marcia thinks about the role of the council. I had no luck this morning to post this in the right thread. I spoke with Marcia this morning so that I was not speaking out of turn.
Yes, she believes strongly that the Council should be setting the overall agenda for the direction of the city and not just being the budget hawks. The Council is the Legislative branch of government at the municipal level and the Administration's job is to implement the plans adopted by the Council.
Well, James. I DO hope she'll be a breath of fresh air on the Ogden Council, if elected
Nevertheless, here's what I'm seeing on her numerous Mailers/flyers, however:
• Promote public/private partnerships
Sounds like the same old game in Ogden, dunnit, wherein we elect city council reps who vote to rape the taxpayers by donating big money to "friends" of the currently sitting Mayor?
Gotta tell you the truth, James: At this stage of the game, I currently have almost zero confidence in Marcia, a very smart lady, granted, who nevertheless doesn't seem inclined to do anything that will upset the applecart of her campaign donor, the current "Mayor Mike" administration, which is even now being run by actually still running run under the thumb of former "Godfreyite CAO, Mark Johnson.
There are places for Public Private partnership and where they make sense. The redevelopment agency has been sorely overused and to a very expensive account for both the taxpayers and for our children. That does not mean you simply throw the tool away because some people have abused it. She is friends with Mike true, but that does not mean she is his to command. Quite the contrary, they have disagreed on a number a things.
This Administration was elected by a very different group than Matt Godfrey and you continue to incorrectly link the two. And you again ignore that Marcia has Amy Wicks full support who is the thorn in the side of any Administration while she has been on the Council. You are seeing this in only one direction and that is a disservice to you both.
As for doing things together here is an example. The first sight we see coming into downtown from the freeway is generally poor land near the tracks in major disrepair. Most of that land is contaminated. No private developer will clean it up given the unknown cost to bring it up to EPA standards. That is a great place for a public/private partnership. The land just north and around the new Front runner station is slated to become a Transit Oriented Mixed Use Development. Ogden, City, UTA, The State and Federal Government are working with Union Pacific to make that land ready to be redeveloped. That is a good use of that tool. Building a new Velodrome was just a plain stupid idea. Marcia understands the difference. And she is getting good guidence from a wide range of people, myself included.
She also wants to see the School District, health department and City work together more to have better use of facilitates already available in the city without wasting or duplicating services. This saves money and get better use of existing resources, like the combined parks and schools that are being built; or the Madison Elementary area with a local health center in it. Working to ensure that our soccer and baseball/softball leagues could expand by using school property in the summer would save the city a great deal of funds and help offset some maintenance cost for the school district. A win win for us all.
All of this and more will be coming out in the next few weeks. Incidentally, I see you and others here always against something or someone, especially anyone in Administration. What are for? What would make this group happy?
What am I for, James? The concept that Ogden developers should stand on there own two feet!
What am I against? The constant pattern in Ogden City of subsidisiing "friends" of the Ogden City administration, who incessantly seek Ogden City "handouts."
Will this pattern change in Ogden, if Ms. White is elected"
Gotta say I have my doubts.
I cannot guarantee it will change. She has but one vote, but I believe it may. This is not about developers getting a hand up and the City itself picking winners and losers. This is about create a climate where everyone may win if we all play by the same rules. That is her goal. If we have better infrastructure, than more will be interested in Ogden. If we have a long term regional transit plan, not just an Ogden Only approach, than there is more interest in Ogden. If we lay out a plan for empty spaces and ask developers to submit proposals that meet those needs, neighborhoods are more stabilized. All of this means more better property taxes for the school district and better opportunities for Ogden residents to work and play and raise their families here. That is what you should expect of Marcia and of every council member. Again this is not about picking winners and losers, but about creating a situation where we all win and play by the same rules.
"This is not about developers getting a hand up and the City itself picking
winners and losers."
Well maybe this isn't a big deal for you, James; but trust me it's a HUGE deal for those of us in Ogden who've fought tooth and nail over the years against the self-serving corporate interests who've often, although not always, bought city council seats with (for them) cheap campaign "bribe" money.
Suffice it to say that Ms. White's current "silence" on the issues we've been fighting over hasn't won many "fans" amongst the tight-fisted fiscal conservatives in this town.
The longer she keeps "mum," the more backlash she'll experience as we move forward to the General Election, methinks.
I have been in Ogden politics for 20 years now. You have yet to list any issues. Picking winners and losers when it comes to development is the largest purse string to pull in this, and for 12 years that is all that happened. Prior to that we had spineless Glen Mecham who did not know which way was up. He was replaced by the little mayor that could who just kept spending us into oblivion. Throughout all of this it was poor decision about development and bad advice to give more to even less people. I think cleaning that up and have a firm direction is a major improvement.
I have already stated Marcia wants the Council to act as the legislative body and assert itself, but other than, no questions for her have been raised by this group. We will answer them all.
Although I'd respectfully disagree over your assessment of Glen Mecham's performance during his mayoral tenure, I believe we can both agree that Mayor Godfrey's frantic misuse of the various government "tools" which you mention have left Ogden lumpencitizens a mite on edge on the topic of "economic development.
In that connection, you might be interested to know that I'm even now putting together a series of questions which I'll be assembling into a managable questionairre, which we'll direct to all Council candidates in the weeks to come.
I'd also like to thank you for engaging here on these issues. To date you're the only campaign insider to do so.
So glad to hear there will be a formal list of questions. We are eager to answer anyone questions on the record for all to see.
You are right there is fatigue about the overuse of these "tools." It is critically important that we have a strong Council and a Cooperative Administration if we wish to help improve the City for all it's residents and visitors. But we must not limit our ability to improve the city by refusing to use any one tool at our disposal. Judicious use with good oversight and public comment is part of what makes our community great.
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