One Utah

I do my best to follow national news, and I pay some attention to Utah news– especially with regard to public lands and conservation. But when it comes to the city where I actually live, Draper, Utah, I’m what some political gurus call a “low information voter.” It’s more polite than saying some people are just clueless.

I don’t go to city council meetings, I know none of the local movers and shakers. Now I’m faced with a primary ballot that has 13 city council candidates on it, and I have to vote for three. I missed “meet the candidates night,” probably no great loss.

I really care about just two local issues: TRAX and UTOPIA. I want them both, and Draper doesn’t have them yet. I probably ought to care about stopping rampant development, but that seems like such a lost cause. I mean, we taxpayers paid a bundle to keep Corner Canyon in open space and the developers just went and surrounded it with a wall of houses.

These guys have produced a prodigious quantity of yard signs, but only two of them have websites. The candidate with the best website also hates the idea of bringing TRAX to Draper– he deserves credit for being up front on where he stands on the issues, but he lost my vote.

Incumbent Paul Edwards recently cast the deciding vote to raise Draper property taxes by 70 percent, primarily to subsidize the Suncrest developers. He must not even want to be re-elected.

I still have to reject eight more candidates by process of elimination. Google to the rescue! Googling the name of one guy brings up a article quoting him as strongly in favor of Bush’s Iraq “surge.” No vote for you! Several more turn out to be real estate agents– as if Draper needed to give more power to developers, I think not.

One guy turns up in the minutes of a city council meeting claiming that Draper has become a “gathering place” for “swingers” and their loud parties. How does he know they are swingers unless he was invited? Can I vote for a candidate who might be later be implicated in a sex scandal? Better not take a chance.

Now I’m down to three names. One of them seems to be the owner of Guadalahonky’s, my favorite Draper restaurant. I’m totally ignorant of his views on the issues, for all I know he doesn’t even know anything about politics. But I like his fajitas. Anyway you can’t vote against everybody, my mail-in ballot doesn’t have a box for that.

This entry was posted Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am and is filed under Democracy, This Blog, Utah Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.