Also, ethnic minorities have historically been ignored and therefore don't have many political connections or knowhow, he said.

Longtime community activist Archie Archuleta says one issue is that Hispanic candidates, and other minorities, often target state legislative races, not city races. Case in point is former state senator Pete Suazo, current state representative Ross Romero and longtime representative Duane Bourdeaux.

"We looked in District 1 and nobody seemed to be willing to run and it's hard to figure out why. It's a difficult thing to analyze," Archuleta said. "We're disappointed because District 1 and District 2 are high minority areas, especially for Hispanics."

To combat the problem, Archuleta says the Salt Lake County Democratic Hispanic Caucus is looking to get more minority candidates interested in municipal races rather than only state contests.

"From the Hispanic caucuses point of view, we need to diversify running, that is, running in more local-type races rather than just the Legislature," he said.

On the Republican side of the aisle, Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairman James Evans criticizes county Democrats for not recruiting minority candidates.

Anderson, one of the most well-known Democrats in Utah, and county Democratic chairwoman Megan Risbon, both said before Monday's filing deadline that they were recruiting candidates to run for City Council.

"The Democrats are the ones that keep championing diversity, so why haven't they gone out and recruited minority candidates?" asked Evans, the first black man to chair the county Republicans. "It's another example of paying lip service."

Goode, a Democrat, maintains minorities need to support each other even across party lines. That's what happened in 2003 when Hola, a Republican, donated $300 in cash and more in support to Goode's campaign.

"We don't have the resources behind us to get into the race," she said. "I had no money and no resources with money and that really made it difficult for me to be more out there. . . . Molonai gave me 300 bucks. He almost had me wanting to switch parties."

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com