Election Wrapup

John Curtis elected Provo Mayor!
Race tonight was a wild one as PR36 with a 41% best-of-all-voter-precinct-turnouts dumped in early voting 4:1 for Clark giving Clark a huge early 60%/40% over Curtis. This was Clark's stronghold and as Clark had represented these voters as State Rep. in District 63. But Curtis came back winning comfortably in the end with 53% of the vote and winning 35 out of 49 precincts. Our PR20 had a respectable 26% turnout with Curtis losing by a mere 6 votes. Yet for PR20 this is a Curtis victory as residing in our boundaries was former mayoral contestant Don Allpin (and posterity) who came in 3rd in the primaries and endorsed Clark on Oct 24th.

Maine votes down same-sex marriage!
Leading 53% to 47% with 87% reporting, voters in Maine gave a voter veto to a bill passed by their legislature that would have allowed same-sex marriage in the state. No matter how liberal the state, whenever the decision has been put to the voters instead of a few liberal judges, same sex marriage has been defeated and tonight was no exception.

Bob McDonnell elected VA gov in landslide; Republicans sweep trifecta of seats!
With all precincts reporting McDonnell won 59% to 41% bringing with him a Republican Lt. Gov. and A.G. in a state that went for Obama just 12 months ago. Just last week, Obama had "campaigned" for McDonnell's opponent Deeds by saying: "He may not be perfect -- my wife reminds me I'm not. (Applause.) She is, just like our spouses are perfect, but we're not. (Laughter.) You know, Creigh, sometimes his tie gets a little askew, and you know, his hair is a little -- (laughter)..." (Yahoo News) We don't think the patronizing of Deeds by Obama helped Deeds at all.

Chris Christie(R) elected NJ governor!

How a conservative Republican can win a dark blue state like NJ was extremely encouraging for conservatives in 2010. NJ wanted their highest-in-the-union property taxes cut and were fed up with Corzine and the flight of business from the state. Obama had his clout snubbed here as well with multiple plugs for Corzine while Christie racked in 49% of the vote and led Corzine by 5%.

Doug Hoffman loses to Bill Owens

In a gut-wrencher for conservatives, with 92% reporting Hoffman loses to Owens 45% to 49%. Conisdering the disarray of the campaign and Scozzafava who withdrew receiving 5% of the vote, there is much to be proud of in this loss. The district will vote again next year and if Owens dares to vote for a public option and the GOP puts up a Conservative, Owens might just be a pop on the 4th of July.

Dave Harmer loses to John Garamendi

With 50% reporting, Harmer is losing 55% to 40% to Lt. Governor and carpetbagger Garamendi who, like Hoffman, doesn't live in the district. Getting Harmer elected was our biggest challenge going into election day and obviously Californians despite their May referendums just haven't had enough of folks who promise a better life through raising taxes. If it were just District 10's taxes he were raising, we probably wouldn't even bother with the post.

What next...
Tonight was a huge bounceback from the losses suffered twelve months ago. It also shows where we need to shore up support and educate on the evils of Socialistic ideas in getting ready for 2010, which officially starts....well, now! For starters, we can begin by rallying at the Utah State Capitol on Saturday, Nov. 14th, for a combined 9/12 and Utah Tea Party rally. Let us use our victories to motivate us to replace Bennett, throw out Harry Reid, and get some good Conservative Republicans back in both houses of our Congress in 2010.

Re: Mudslinging by an Attack Dog

Preface note: Although this is formed as a response to a reader's comment, its both its length and introduction of new material justify a separate blog entry.

Anonymous: Thanks for stopping by; you are welcome to remain anonymous, but we feel it would have empowered your premises had you (1) revealed the status of your citizenship in Provo (2) if you are tied into the authorship (IE “RMC”) of the anti-Curtis blog you cite TWICE and (3) if you are a member of the Clark campaign or family. Understandably, we have our suspicions though you are welcome to refute these thoughts of ours (emphasize thoughts rather than accusations.)

As a five-year Provo resident, sole author of this blog, and a vocal supporter and endorser of but not part of the Curtis campaign, we shoot straight here which gives us a bit more authority in the debate than someone who hides behind an Anonymous posting. Although we already have “pulled the lever” for Curtis in early voting, we owe it to our readership to respond.

First, your accusation that we have not “really educate[d] [my]self beyond one-worded campaign slogans” goes right along with the mudslinging of the Clark campaign. Even RMC who you quote TWICE hoped the debate would not be about “slinging mud” (bottom of page; first post by RMC). Let us elaborate upon the “literally hours upon hours of listening to Curtis” we have done. Coming into this election we hadn’t a clue who either candidate was; we aren't related to anyone in Provo (does the wife count? LOL) and admittedly had never heard of Action Target. At some length even before the primaries, we met both candidates personally and asked them direct questions one-on-one eye-to-eye. We attended our neighborhood’s meet-the-candidates night at Amelia Earhart Elementary, attended a number of open houses and the first mayoral debates at the Provo city center, and been in communication via email until our concerns were satisfied. We reckon (pardon the Missouri-ism here) based on the effort of eligible voters to stay informed, we rank in the top 1%. Your accusation of us not being educated is simply baseless, biased, and demeaning to a private citizen doing their civic duty.

We will however, address your two underlying premises of debate. In reading the posting on the anti-Curtis blog you point to, we believe you are bringing up non-relevant, partisan material into the campaign. Gee whiz (sorry, our age is showing...), Glenn Beck grew up a drunk Democrat; David Horowitz was a commie—and while Curtis was neither but simply trying to bring some “common sense” back to the Democratic Party—do we really care? Is past partisan politics relevant in a non-partisan local election? The point is this isn’t a partisan race but Clark (who if you want to bring partisanship into this race in our opinion is more Democratic than Curtis sponsoring bills like HB290) is trying to make it one with these campaign fliers (see newest below). As Republicans we denounce AG Eric Holder’s forced reversal in Kinston, NC, of the non-partisan status of their local elections; but you tolerate--even advocate--Steve Clark repeatedly bringing up partisanship into this race? Hogwash.

Partisan Clark attacks continue against Curtis in non-partisan race (red underlines ours)

To your second point on the green sweater comment: perhaps Curtis “lost his cool”; don’t know, wasn’t there, but Curtis did apologize. So we concede the point. Yet you know it seems a bit double-standard: like Clark attacking Curtis for not owning dogs? Clark also seemed to be losing his cool when we asked him one-on-one what he was going to do about our city’s “sanctuary city” label. So wow, both candidates have human emotions; passion is better than apathy and both these men are decent in their hearts and neither at all like Democrat Harry Reid.

On funding, Curtis has consistently said that for special projects the voters should have a say, not forced upon us like Iprovo. If we want a new rec center or whatever, are we willing to support that with higher levies? Curtis’ plan for four officers on gangs instead of one is deficit neutral; directing police who are told to “go write tickets” to actually fighting crime. As a businessman, he is keen to eliminating inefficiencies in government so that we can balance our budget as well as making Provo more business friendly to grow our tax base. Clark on the other had wants to add a layer of government by having “mentors” assigned to developers; to us growing the scope of government is not a desirable ideal.

Mudslinging by an Attack Dog

In today's hardprint Daily Herald as well as online at both the Daily Herald and Salt Lake Tribune was the following superb letter-to-the-editor by Troy and Angie Carter entitled "Beware of D party":

Recently, we received a campaign mailer from Steve Clark. If we hadn't known better when we read it, we would have sworn the Provo mayoral race had become partisan. Clark claims he's showcasing Curtis' inconsistencies, but it appears he's really appealing to the Demophobia rampant in our county. (Demophobia: fear of all people and ideas belonging to the D party, a fear that Democrat equals liberal.)

His mailer tries to paint Curtis as a liberal. However, the label fits neither man. Both are Republicans who espouse conservative principles. As Republicans, we are disappointed with Clark's attempt to turn a non-partisan race into a partisan one.

As for consistency, that is exactly why we are voting for John Curtis. He has consistently demonstrated an attribute we find sorely missing in our society: an open-minded, non-partisan nature. He possesses a unique quality: he is neither afraid nor ashamed to change his mind when warranted. He understands that clinging to a weak idea will never make it strong, even if it is his own. Imagine that -- humility in a leader.

•Troy and Angie Carter, Provo">

The Carters really hit the issue on the head. Curtis has worked day and night to try and bring our city together around a pro-business (grow our sales tax base), fiscally responsible, and city safety agenda. He listens and cares deeply about our city and brings a tremendous amount of executive experience. Below is the copy of the mudslinging campaign mailer we received in the mail from Clark and surely representative of the one referred to by the Carters:

In case you are not familiar with the Democratic Party Platform of Utah County, the platform is surprisingly moderate including pro-life and marriage-between-one-man-and-one-woman stances and maybe not pro-gun but at least acknowledging gun ownership rights. In fairness the Democrats are liberal on government social issues, although tend to be quite ethical. The epitome of a Utah County Dem is recently-deceased Bill Orton who represented Utah County several years ago. We think Curtis is a Conservative who happens like many of us to see some faults in the Republican Party and are willing to consider alternative approaches when the party fails us (as it is doing right now in not condemning Tim Bridgewater's FEC violations).

For Clark to openly insinuate that Curtis does not espouse Conservative or Republican ideas--even amidst a non-partisan race--is frankly, a farce and demeans the accuser. We love Republicanism but we hate this putrid and vile mudslinging over non-issues. Do we really care if Curtis was a Democrat for a brief period during his life: NOOOOO! Do we care that Curtis has a plan for ridding ourselves of gang violence while Clark denies we have a problem? YESSSS!

We have had ample opportunities to meet with Curtis even one-on-one and found Curtis to be extremely respectful of his opponent as Curtis tried to sell us on the positive he had to offer us. After literally hours upon hours of listening to Curtis, we cannot remember a single negative thing Curtis has ever said about Clark: that my friends tells you the high caliber of this candidate for mayor and why we have been proud to financially contribute in a modest way to the Curtis campaign.