One Utah

In one of those “no big surprise” moments, Republican Dave Buhler has launched what will no doubt be the first of many negative attacks on Ralph Becker in the Mayor’s race
Calling himself a doer, not a dreamer, Salt Lake City mayoral finalist Dave Buhler stood in the shadow of the Utah Capitol on Thursday to [...]

I’ve been walking precincts for Ralph Becker since June.  Every time I walk, people ask a variation on the question:
Why do you support Ralph Becker for Mayor?
Saturday, I said:
Look at the campaign he’s running.  Lots of volunteers walking the city, knocking on doors.  I was in the campaign headquarters a while back and he stopped [...]

I’ve been suffering a bout of the dream gombu this week and so I’m behind on posting on issues I’ve wanted to tackle.
I hit the streets again for Ralph Becker.  I should have been at home getting over the Dread gombu, but I want to get this guy elected. 
We walked in Rose Park and I [...]

What about a commission on housing with authority? 
Becker:  We may need a commission to do it, but this is a new proposal for me.  In the past, was on a board with authority to make decisions and a also to advise the council and that was 15 years ago.  SRO’s - single room occupancy - needs [...]

Gina Cornia, Utahns Against Hunger:  Farmer’s Markets are popular gathering places in cities, but many low income persons can make purchases because they can’t use their cards and the farmer’s markets don’t have POS machines for food stamps.
Buhler: It’s not an issue I know about but I would work with the Downtown Alliance to get the EBT [...]

There are some technical difficulties with the sound, so this could be interesting.
Mayoral Forum - Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler and being introduced.
Opening Statements 3 minutes.  I’ll do my best to summarize.
Buhler:
Usual boilerplate welcome for our commitment to fighting poverty.  Personal details:  Salt lake city native, his dad was a police officer, attended South High, [...]

Props, first, to Luke Garrott (candidate for City Council4 ) for attending today’s People’s Summit on Poverty.  His opponent Nancy Saxton didn’t make the event.
Becker and Buhler are speaking at the Mayoral Forum at the People’s Summit on Poverty.
I’ll be liveblogging the event trying to get an accurate impression of who says what.
There are some other Crossroads Urban [...]

Jenny Wilson is the gift that keeps on giving. 
In this morning’s D-News she’s quoted as saying her loss a result of sexism and will hurt the cause of women politicians in Utah:
Just nine women serve as mayor of 174 municipalities statewide. And the possibility of a 10th female mayor ended abruptly Tuesday when Jenny Wilson [...]

I promised more election day stories.
Aaron and I were walking a precinct north of the Capitol building. As we reached the last house on our list, we knocked on the door were greeted by a cheerful, intelligent woman (a former advocate with Amnesty International!) who asked if we could put in her yard signs; she [...]

A while back, I predicted the outcome of the Primary - I predicted Buhler in 1st, followed closely by Becker then Wilson.
I made two basic mistakes - I overestimated the support for both Buhler and Wilson and I underestimated the impact of the Becker campaign’s door to door work. I thought more [...]

yeah light blogging this evening because I’ve been at the Ralph Becker Victory Celebration.
Seriously, 38.5% of the vote. That’s 50% more than he had in the last polls.
Ralph gave a GREAT and very gracious victory speech in which he praised his opponents - excepting of course Buhler, his future opponent. He [...]