From Deseret News archives:

Election season begins

Candidates statewide file to run for city posts

Published: Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2005 10:25 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
From first-time candidates to veterans of civic service, hundreds of people finalized their bids for public office Monday.

Many candidates have been planning their campaigns for months, as has Summer Pugh, who is running for Draper mayor against incumbent Darrell Smith.

Pugh, an outspoken community activist, had chaired a community council in Draper before the city abolished the councils earlier this year. Perhaps not surprisingly, community councils are at the top of Pugh's list of services she wants to see restored to Draper.

"They should be interested in what citizens have to say and want in their community," Pugh said of city officials. The councils are "one of the best places to get information out to the citizens and input back to the city."

Pugh faces a mayor at the end of his first term who thinks his family's 150-year history in the area gives him a unique and valuable perspective.

"My own heritage is important to me here," Smith said. "I feel like I have an obligation to them as well as the people who live here now and the people who are to come."

Story continues below
Just up the road in Sandy, incumbent mayor Tom Dolan faces a similar challenge from Gary Forbush. Forbush, one of two candidates who has filed to run against Dolan, is a member of Save Our Communities, the activist organization that is fighting to keep a Wal-Mart and Lowe's Home Improvement store out of a former gravel pit at 9400 South and 1000 East.

Forbush's run will likely highlight a voter referendum on a zoning change that would allow the Wal-Mart and Lowe's to be developed by the Boyer Co. But Dolan has said in the past that he supports the development that brings tax dollars to Sandy for what he says is a high quality of life.

Development is a big issue also in Murray, where a pro-business incumbent mayor, Dan Snarr, faces three opponents — Chad Bennion, Michael Romero and Dave Wilde. At least one of those three, Wilde, has voiced his disapproval with Snarr's unabashed chasing of commercial development, but Snarr said that development helps provide the high level of services to which Murray residents are accustomed.

In West Jordan, incumbent Mayor Bryan Holladay faces four challengers, including two former city council members who served under then-Mayor Donna Evans. Holladay ousted Evans in 2001, but her shadow may haunt this race.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

Props to Juan Diego Defense stopping Wasatch. Wasatch is good offensively,...

H1N1 slightly down in Utah

that doctors have less cases to report because they're saying "don't come?" ...

PETA unhappy with Utah laws

We need more edible animals in this world. PETA needs to realize that there...

@Knock Knock who's there? the cult which cult? The cowardly one...

I AGREE WIN WIN FOR THE UTES BUT IF IT COMES TO LOOSING WITCH I HOPE IT DOSE...

Well, lets pick this up again tomorrow. And then we'll do it again the next...

U. wants home-court edge

THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE TWIN TOWERS. UTAH'S DEFENSIVE MONSTER! AND CARLON'S...

4A: Springville holds off Dixie

Dixie and all the other 4A schools down south get to play against a bunch of...

Letters: Commentary ignorant

disprove the claim above prove they are taken out of context, oh thats right...

Suggestion: put WHATEVER SYSTEMS ARE NECESSARY in place to deport illegals,...

Advertisements
Advertisement