A Couple of Standard-Examiner Election-related Guest Commentaries

A little something to help work through your election post partum blues, perhaps?

In the wake of yesterday's election, we'll shine the spotlight on a couple of Standard-Examiner guest commentaries which deal with nuts-and-bolts issues surrounding national and local elections:

First, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish furnishes a thoughtful essay urging U.S. newspapers to abandon the practice of offering candidate endorsements, arguing that "[b]y pursuing a partisan, presumptuous path on the editorial page, newspapers encourage questions about their objectivity elsewhere and put themselves on a level with other mediums that have cheapened the civic debate":

• Papers should leave endorsing to others

Our home town newspaper published a six-article election endorsement series during the two weeks preceding yesterday's general election; yet when the final results in these select races rolled in, the Standard only went 3 for 6.

Mr. Smerconish urges U.S. newspapers to put themselves on a pedestal and avoid emulating the practices of those crass media sources he characterises as "a partisan cacophony," e.g., "Cable TV, talk radio, the blogosphere, Facebook, and Twitter," etc.

So what about it, gentle readers? Did the Standard's endorsement series add useful analysis to the 2010 election debate? Or did this editorial series at least to some extent "erode its readership's perception" of the Standard's overall "objectivity" and bring itself down to the level of the partisan alternate media rabble? In the future should the Standard-Examiner continue the practice of endorsing political candidates? Or in the alternative, should the Standard abandon the practice and hold itself above the fray?

Also notable this morning is former GOP insider and West Haven resident Lynn M. Hansen's guest editorial piece, making the observation that (as "we have [all] come to recognize") "in large measure, it is money that buys votes, not the candidates' positions on issues."

Check it out, WCF readers. Yeah, its familiar WCF-topical territory. But all-in-all we believe its a pretty good read nevetheless ... a little something, perhaps, to help work through your election post partum blues?

• Campaigns: It's all about money

That's it for now, folks.

Your thoughtful comments are invited, as always.

2010 General Election Day Thread - UPDATED

Follow our hot links to Federal, State and County real-time results
Update: Check out this morning's official interim Weber County vote tallies

The Polls are open, Weber County Forum readers, and will remain open today until 8:00 p.m.

The Standard-Examiner reports that 7,804 ballots have already been cast through the Weber County early voting process; but needless to say, for those voters who waited for today's traditional polling place process, today is your last chance to vote.

And be sure to check out this morning's Standard-Examiner editorial, with its own last-chance-to-vote reminder:

• OUR VIEW: Remember to vote

For those readers who are unsure of their polling places, here's a link to the Weber County Government website, which provides several different online resources to help you find your 11/2/10 precinct polling place:

• Where Do I Vote?

Update 11/2/10 2:40 p.m.: If you'd like to follow real-time election results as they roll in this evening, click the link below, which will take you to the Utah Lieutenant Governors website. Navigate the main menu in the left sidebar to view real-time tallies in every race from US Senate to local school board:

• Utah Election Results - 2010 General Election Preliminary Results

And for the convenience of our Weber County Forum readers, we've broken out direct links to the results in these select Weber County races which have received particular attention within our WCF comments sections, over the course of the 2010 General Election runup:

• US Senate - Bradley/Granato/Lee
• Governor/Lt Governor - Anderson/Corroon/Herbert/McCullough, et al.
• State Senate 18 - Reid/Sawyer
• Weber County Offices - All Races

Grab your popcorn and pull up your barcaloungers after 8:00 p.m., folks, as the Lt. Guv's website "scoreboard" begins to light up!

The floor is open. Let's talk about the election, O Gentle Ones.

Update 11/3/10 8:00 a.m.: To save our readers the hassle of plowing through the Lieutenant Governor's Election results menus this morning, here are the interim Weber County vote tallies, via the Standard-Examiner:

• Official Weber County Interim Tallies

Examining the results of election contests all across the U.S.A., this morning's Weber County results fall in line with what appears to be a complete national GOP rout:

• GOP soars in House, state races; Democrats expected to keep Senate

If there's a single lesson to be learned this election cycle, we suppose it's this: The lumpencitizens are sick and tired of BIG SPENDING elected officials (or candidates perceived to be potential BIG SPENDERS.)

With an Ogden Municipal Election coming up in a little less than a year, we hope our BIG SPENDING Boss Godfrey is taking careful note.

Please feel free to chime in with your post-election comments, folks.

Standard-Examiner: Our View: Gary Herbert For Governor

The latest installment in The Standard-Examiner's 2010 General Election series

The Standard-Examiner editorial board publishes the latest installment in its 2010 General Election endorsement series, with its endorsement of Gary Herbert for Utah Governor:

• OUR VIEW: Gary Herbert for governor

Here are the Standard's video interviews of the Republican and Democratic Party Gubernatorial candidates:

• Peter Corroon (D)
• Gary Herbert (R)

Missing from the Standard's video collection are Libertarian Party candidate W. Andrew McCullough and unaffiliated candidate Farley M. Anderson.

Have at it, O Gentle Ones. The world-wide blogosphere awaits your ever-savvy comments regarding the Utah Governor's race.

Standard-Examiner: Our View: Wicks For Commission Seat "B"

This is ONE BIG BLOCKBUSTER EDITORIAL...Who will be the first to chime in?

The Standard-Examiner editorial board publishes the fifth editorial in its 2010 General Election endorsement series this morning, giving the editorial thumbs up in the Weber County Commission Seat "B" race to that model of Ogden City Council fiscal prudence, i.e., Ogden City Council political dynamo Amy Wicks.:

• OUR VIEW: Amy Wicks for Weber commission (SE Live Edition)
• OUR VIEW: Amy Wicks for Weber commission (Digital Edition)

View and compare the Standard's video interviews of both major party Weber County Commission Seat "B" candidates here :

• Kerry Gibson
• Amy Wicks

The Standard also provides brief profiles of each of these candidates in this separate story:

• Weber County Commission Seat B

Time to turn this story over to our gentle readers. Whussup with your views on the Weber County Commission Seat "B" race, people?

Update 10/29/10 8:30 a.m.: Ogden Valley Forum is all over this story too:

• Standard-Examiner Endorse Weber County Commission Candidate Amy Wicks

2010 Election News Roundup

Several interesting political items emanate from the Northern Utah media this morning

With slightly less than five days remaining before the Utah General Election November 2, 2010 official polling date, we'll reel off several interesting political items emanating from the Northern Utah media this morning:

1) With Utah early voting concluding tomorrow, The Deseret News presents an interesting examination of the early voting process, citing data from a University of Wisconsin/Pew Center study which suggest that early voting, a process ostensibly intended to increase voter turnout, may in fact actually have the opposite effect:

• Early voting may actually depress turnout, researchers say

2) The Standard-Examiner carries a strong editorial this morning, slamming GOP Utah State Moron Representative Paul Ray's quixotic effort to repeal the 14th Amendment:

• OUR VIEW: Ray's birthright time-wasting

3) For those readers who are carefully following developments in the Weber County Commission "A" and "B" races, be sure to check out Ogden Valley Forum's most recent posting, wherein Blogmeister Valley reveals the results of a six-question candidate survey submitted to all five Weber County Commission candidates:

• County Commission Candidates Respond To Our Questionnaire

That's it for now, WCF readers.

Who will be the first to chime in?

Eye-popping Article in Today's Salt Lake Tribune

Being the curious type, we Googled this afternoon

Eye-popping article in Today's Salt Lake Tribune, reporting that both "major party" Utah Gubernatorial candidates have been spending this election season like the proverbial "drunken sailors." Here's the full story from this morning's Robert Gehrke/Lee Davidson heads-up piece

• Spending in Utah guv race second-most in history

From this morning's SLTrib piece:

With a week until the election, Gary Herbert and Peter Corroon have spent more than $4.4 million battling for the Utah Governor’s Office.
The total spent by the two candidates is the second highest in Utah history, with the exception of the 2004 gubernatorial race in which Jon Huntsman Jr. and Scott Matheson Jr. spent a combined $6.5 million, although Huntsman also had costly Republican convention and primary contests that year.
Herbert has spent $2.5 million on his race, outpacing Corroon, who spent $1.9 million. The totals include spending from their campaign and political action committee accounts.

That kind of money has to come from somewhere, right? Being the curious type, we Googled, to find out how the various campaign finance disclosure laws might compel 2010 election candidates to reveal their campaign donors. And Lo and Behold... here's what we found, for those candidates who are required to file their financial disclosures per federal, state and Weber County laws and ordinances:

• 2010 Campaign Finance Disclosures - Major Weber County Candidates

Special thanks to Doug Larsen, Elections Director of the County Clerk/Auditor's Office, and to the hard-working crew from the Weber County Government IT Department, who made the pertinentWeber County disclosure statements fully available to our WCF readers on less than a couple hours' notice.

Financial disclosure statements are crucially important, people. They let prospective voters know which interests and entities are vying for the candidates' attention... if you know what we mean... and we think you do.

Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: Rob Bishop for U.S. Congress

What are your own thoughts regarding the Utah 1st Congressional District race?

The Standard-Examiner editorial board continues its 2010 General Election series this morning, with its endorsement of Rob Bishop for Utah's 1st Congressional District seat:

• OUR VIEW: Rob Bishop for U.S. Congress

Here are the Standard's video interviews of the Republican and Democratic Party Gubernatorial candidates:

• Rob Bishop (R)
• Morgan Bowen (D)

Missing from the Standard's video interview series are Kirk D. Pearson (C) and Jared Paul Stratton (L).

The Standard also provides brief profiles of all four congressional candidates in this separate story:

• Utah First Congressional District: U.S. House race looking familiar

The floor's open for your comments, WCF readers.

What are your own thoughts regarding the Utah 1st Congressional District race?

Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: Sam Granato For U.S. Senate

Who will be the first to chime in?

The Standard-Examiner editorial board publishes its third editorial in its 2010 General Election endorsement series in its online edition this morning, giving the nod to Sam Granato for Bob Bennett's soon to be vacated US Senate seat:

• OUR VIEW: Sam Granato for U.S. Senate

Check out the Standard's video interview of Democratic Party candidate Granato. (Republican candidate Mike Lee reportedly couldn't find the time to be interviewed by the Standard-Examiner editorial board):

• Sam Granato

Also missing from the Standard's video series is Constitution Party candidate Scott N. Bradley, whom the SE editorial board declined to interview.

Who will be the first to chime in with their views on the US Senate race?

Update 10/24/10 8:40 a.m.: The above endorsement appears in the SE hard-copy edition this morning.

Standard-Examiner: Hatch Act Filed On Weber Candidate

Perhaps Weber County voters should forget the whole democracy thing, and just let the federal Office of Special Counsel personally select all our Weber County public officials from now on

Well here we go again. Once again, just like in the Jon Greiner case, meddling federal bureaucrats interfere with the orderly process of electing a local law enforcement CEO. Here's the lede from this morning's Standard-Examiner front page story:

OGDEN -- The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is looking into a complaint contending that Terry L. Thompson, a Republican Party candidate for Weber County sheriff, is in violation of the Hatch Act because he has supervised federal grants as part of his duties as chief deputy.
The complaint was filed in June by a law enforcement officer who resides outside of Weber County, said Gary Haws, who is Thompson's Democratic Party challenger. Haws declined to identify the individual or provide information about where the person works.

Read the full Scott Schwebke story here:

• Hatch Act filed on Weber candidate

One high-ranking Weber County Sheriff's Office spokesman hits the nail on the head:

Weber County Undersheriff Kevin McLeod said ... if the Hatch Act is narrowly defined to include use of federal funding for any benefit, it could be possible that no one in law enforcement could run for partisan office.

Here's another good idea: Perhaps Weber County voters should forget the whole democracy thing, and just let Obama's federal Office of Special Counsel personally select all our Weber County public officials from now on, yes?

Leg 8 House Candidate Alan Wheelright Speaks Out!

Alan's tired of education being the central theme of every election, on both sides, but still seeing Utah end up dead last in the Country on per pupil education spending

By Nicely Done

Check it out!

Alan Wheelwright posts on the Ogden Valley Forum!!!!

• Allen Wheelright speaks out!

Open Question to the Utah Education Establishment: “What does an incumbent politician have to do to lose your support?”

Finally a little action in the so far moribund Legislative District 8 House race, we guess.

Comments, anyone?

Standard-Examiner WEBER Plus 2010 Election Candidate Digest

A heads-up on our new SE candidate profiles page

The Standard-Examiner carries a top-notch 2010 General Election rundown in the Weber Plus section of its print edition this morning, featuring profiles of all candidates running in Top of Utah races, from the First Congressional District right down to the various school board offices. For the convenience of our Weber County readers, we've collected all profiles of candidates who will appear on Weber County ballots, and linked them from the following web page:

• Standard-Examiner 2010 General Election Candidate Profiles

We believe the Standard has done a bang-up job of reporting on the 2010 General Election (for the most part); and we congratulate and thank the staff of the Standard-Examiner for their diligent effort in this regard.

We've also placed our above candidate profiles link in our right sidebar election module, for the convenience of WCF readers who may may find themselves doing some November 2, 2010 election eve homework.

The Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: Sawyer For Senate District 18

The world-wide blogosphere awaits your ever-savvy comments

The Standard-Examiner editorial board continues its 2010 General Election series this morning, with its endorsement of Democratic Party candidate Betty Sawyer for Senate District 18:

• OUR VIEW: Sawyer for Senate District 18

Check out the Standard's video video interviews of both Senate 18 candidates:

• Stuart Reid
• Betty Sawyer

The Standard also provides brief profiles of each of these candidates in a separate story:

• State Senate, District 18: Candidates put focus on tough issues

Have at it, O Gentle Ones. The world-wide blogosphere awaits your ever-savvy comments regarding the Utah Senate District 18 race.

Standard-Examiner: Our View: Zogmaister for Weber Seat A - Updated

Feel free to chime in with your own views regarding the Weber County Commission Seat "A" race

On October 15, The Standard-Examiner announced its intention to "begin running its endorsements in selected races," and to "also post on [its] website video interviews conducted by the newspaper's editorial board with the Democratic and Republican candidates for selected races." The Standard begins it pre-election endorsement series this morning, with its endorsement of incumbent Republican Weber County Commission Seat "A" candidate Jan Zogmaister:

• OUR VIEW: Zogmaister for Weber Seat A

Happily, The Standard has supplied interviews of the two major party candidates, as a supplement to this morning's County Commission endorsement. These two videos are available for viewing here:

• T.R. Morgan
• Jan Zogmaister

Sadly, the Standard neglected to interview unaffiliated candidate Drew Johnson.

The floor's open O Gentle Ones. Feel free to chime in with your own views regarding the Weber County Commission Seat "A" race.

Update 10/21/10 7:23 a.m.: The Standard has also added brief profiles of all three Commission Seat "A" candidates in a separate story:

• Weber County Commission Seat A

Utahns For Ethical Government Survey Responses

Find out how the candidates in YOUR Senate and House districts responded

Interesting data this morning from the Utahns For Ethical Government website.

UEG has posted the responses of the 191 Utah State Senate and House candidates to its just completed September, 2010 Ethics Initiative Survey. Of the 191 candidates, 69 responded, for a 36% return. Of interest is the fact that only twenty-nine percent of the respondents were incumbents while seventy-one percent were challengers.

Responses to the survey questions are tabulated in numerical order by Utah Senate Districts, followed by Utah House Districts. Find out how the candidates in YOUR Senate and House districts responded. The responses were collected between September 7th and 28th. To see the complete results, click on this link:

• Legislative Ethics Survey Results

We urge Weber County Forum readers who consider legislative ethics reform to be a top 2010 General Election campaign issue to carefully review these data as you prepare to cast your November 2, 2010 votes.

For the convenience of WCF readers, we've also added this link to our right sidebar 2010 General Election Module.

Who will be the first to comment about this most illuminating survey data?

Salt Lake Tribune: "The Fruits Of Single Party Government In Utah"

The SLTrib again makes yet another strong case for ethics reform in Utah this morning

By Ray

NEW/OLD Topic: Excellent article by Karl Snow/David Irvine on SLTrib Opinion Page today:

• The fruits of single-party government in Utah

Coupled with this letter in the SLTrib Public Forum the SLTrib again makes yet another strong case for ethics reform in Utah this morning:

• Deaf legislators

An Old Utah Political Tradition, The Filing of Spurious Pre-election Lawsuits

Ahhhh... Utah General Election politics... always so civil and genteel

With a mere 25 days remaining before the November 2 Utah General Election, Utah political operatives engaged this week in an old Utah political tradition, the filing of spurious pre-election lawsuits:

• Democrats take campaign finance fight to Utah Supreme Court

Interesting background data from the Tribune sidebar, demonstrating that the failure to file financial financial disclosures isn't an exclusively Republican county party problem:

71 » Percentage of major county political parties that didn’t file financial disclosures due Aug. 31.
29 » Percentage of parties that did file.
22 » County Democratic parties (out of 29) that missed the filing deadline.
19 » County Republican parties (out of 29) that didn’t disclose their finances.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune research

And in the midst of a spirited Utah gubernatorial campaign wherein Democratic Party challenger Peter Corroon has pretty much kept Republican Governer Gary Herbert on his heels regarding "questionable campaign donations," one opportinistic veteran Salt Lake County GOP party hack indulges in a little self-indulging political payback:

• Former GOP leader sues Corroon alleging he violated county campaign laws

In Ius Voco Spurius, as the old saying goes amongst experienced litigators...

Ahhhh... Utah General Election politics... always so civil and genteel.

Update 10/12/10 8:00 a.m.: Paul Rolley has more on James Evans's pattern of filing frivolous lawsuits:

• Paul Rolly: More campaign frivolity from James Evans

Watch KUED's 2010 Utah Governor Candidate Debate

If you can't catch Monday's 8:00 p.m. KUED broadcast, check out the prerecorded video online

For those readers following the 2010 Utah Governor's race, the Standard-Examiner reports this morning that "The Republican governor and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon met Thursday during a taping of a debate to be televised by KUED-TV in Salt Lake City on Monday":

• Utah Gov. Herbert, Corroon clash in first debate

The Salt Lake Tribune has the story, too:

• Herbert, Corroon clash in first gubernatorial debate

If you can't catch Monday's 8:00 p.m. KUED broadcast, check out the prerecorded video online:

• KUED Governor's Race Debate

For our readers' convenience, we've also added this link to our right sidebar 2010 election module.

Emerald City Morning News Roundup

Never a dull moment in and around Emerald City

We find four items in the northern Utah print media which ought to be of interest to our gentle readers this morning:

1) The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Rep. Neil Hansen "is calling for a legislative audit into the $13 million payout by the Utah Department of Transportation to prevent a lawsuit by the second-place finisher for the Interstate 15 rebuild project in Utah County. " In response, GOP legislative leadership predictably vows to sweep the matter under the rug:

• Lawmaker seeks audit on UDOT payout

2) The Standard-Examiner announces the good news that "the federal government awarded a contract worth more than $20 million to The Boyer Co. for development and construction of 109,000 square feet of space for IRS operations within the historic Denver & Rio Grande building downtown." This project, which will reportedly "bring hundreds of jobs downtown" is just the shot in the arm that we need in downtown Ogden. No word on how much taxpayer money the Godfrey administration will be forking over to make this deal a reality:

• Contract worth over $20 million to help develop historic building for IRS office space

3) The Standard-Examiner editorial board is all gaga over State Senator Stuart Adams's plan to shift a portion of the Utah gas tax to oil producers. What the Standard seems to miss however is the reality that a producer tax increase will inevitably be shifted right back to consumers (Economics 101). Somehow we get the funny feeling that the SE Editorial Board hasn't really thought this through:

• OUR VIEW: Adams' tax plan sound

4) Last but not least, and to our great delight, Scott Schwebke reports that the long awaited Leshemville demolition is now fully underway. Better late than never, as the old saying goes:

• River Project home demolition hits high gear

That's it for now.

The comments box is all yours. Have fun today, as always!

Two 2010 Election Events Set For This Evening

Tonight: A Peter Corroon Open House on the WSU campus; and a KUED-televised US Senate candidate debate

For those political wonks who are eagerly following the 2010 General Election runup, we'd like to announce a couple of events which you might want to put on today's calender:

1) In case you missed it in one of our lower comments sections, Gentle Reader Eleanor informs us that Democratic Party Gubernatorial Candidate Peter Corroon will be on the Weber State campus this evening, where WSU’s College Democrats are hosting a meet the candidate open house:

CORROON v HERBERT:
IT ain't over 'til the Fat Lady sings.
So come on out, tomorrow night, to the:
PETER CORROON TOWN HALL public meeting

DATE: MON 9.20.2010
TIME: 6PM- 7:30PM
PLACE: WSU/ STUDENT UNION BUILDING/ WILDCAT THEATER

Since the WILDCAT THEATER only has 220 seats, come early. Bring a friend. Prepare your questions in advance.
Again, this is a PUBLIC meeting. You do not have to live in Weber County to attend.

And the Salt Lake Tribune's political blog, Political Cornflakes, announces this evening's television event:

Senate race: The latest Dan Jones Poll for the D News and KSL shows Republican Mike Lee with a massive lead over Democrat Sam Granato. So far Granato's claim that Lee is too extreme is not sticking.
The D News/KSL poll also asked who voters would have picked if Sen. Bob Bennett ran as an independent and Lee came out ahead of Bennett 37 to 32.
If you want to check out the KUED [Granato/Lee] debate, it airs tonight at 8 p.m. MST. Or you can just check it out online.

(As to the latter debate event, please note that we've added the prerecorded video tape to our right sidebar election module.)

That's it for now, as we move to within 43 days of the 11/2/10 Election.

Chime in on either of the above topics, or consider this an open topic thread.

Update 9/21/10 10:00 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner carries a post event writeup this morning on the Corroon meet the candidate event:

• Corroon fields questions / Gubernatorial candidate addresses issues involving federal government

More On Governor Herbert's Ostensible "Pay to Play" Problem

Oh my. The ever-classy Utah GOP Chair Dave Hansen even says "somebody wants to rip off [Peter] Corroon’s head "

Governor Herbert's ostensible "pay to play" problem continues to be the top political story in the Utah print media this morning, with a pair of articles focusing on the obscene amounts of campaign cash flowing into Herbert's campaign coffers.

First, The Standard-Examiner pulls no punches with this scathing editorial, highlighting the oderiferous appearance of impropriety in the simmering UDOT/FSZ scandal, and calling once again for reasonable campaign finance limits:

• OUR VIEW: Herbert's UDOT mess

Next, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Herbert campaign evidently remains entirely undaunted by all the bad pre-election publicity, and just last night held another conspicuous high-profile fundraiser which raked in another giant wad of special interest campaign cash:

• Donors pour $700K into Herbert’s campaign

The situation continues to heat up. Herbert's supporters are reportedly brimming with righteous indignation at being publicly accused of bad behavior. Oh my. The ever-classy Utah GOP Chair Dave Hansen even says "somebody [wants] to rip Corroon’s head off."

Meanwhile, Robert Gehrke reports that "[a] few blocks away, about two dozen [lumpencitizen] protesters rallied outside the governor’s mansion earlier in the afternoon, carrying signs and chanting that the Governor’s Office should not be for sale." No reports however whether Utah GOP leadership ordered any mass arrests.

We'll continue to follow this story as it develops of course, just in case the situation really heats up.