Provo Council may get new look

Turley said early in the campaign he would raise $40,000 to $50,000, figures that would double the record for money spent on a Provo Council campaign. Turley has since scaled down his estimates for his war chest, but he is still expected to raise several times more than Porter, and his money already has purchased a mountain of campaign signs.

Turley, the owner of a Provo roofing company, denies that he is a developer, saying that property in his back yard is the only property he has developed. He does own lots in northeast Provo, but the city has denied his requests to build a home there.

He also owns land in Springville adjacent to Provo's Mountain Vista Business Park, land purchased recently when a banker asked him if he would buy a troubled borrower's interest.

Another race could have an equally large impact on the council's dynamic. Mark Sumsion, who lost two years ago to Stewart, is running again, this time in District I against incumbent Cynthia Dayton.

Sumsion spent $16,000 on his earlier race, in which Stewart spent a record $22,500. That race was for a citywide seat. Dayton spent less than $2,500 when she won her District I seat four years ago. She expressed alarm at the money spent in those 2005 races, and she suggested the council should discuss the subject. It hasn't.

Dayton has been a strong personality on the council, serving a term as council chairwoman.

Sumsion has criticized her vote for iProvo, made just after she took office in 2004. Sumsion and Stewart are both millionaire businessmen who approach many issues in a similar fashion and might become a distinct leadership and voting bloc if on the council together.

The other races are vastly different. Midge Johnson is a favorite to defeat Melanie McCoard for a second consecutive time in District III, while in District IV, Barbara Sandstrom is mounting a stronger effort to win a third term on the council after erecting no signs for the primary and narrowly advancing to the general election. She faces a complex challenge from Sherrie Hall Everett and write-in candidate Howard Stone.

Stone is from Sandstrom's general neighborhood in the Grandview area of Provo, while Everett is from the Lakeview neighborhood. All three candidates say they can best represent the very different interests of those neighbors, which straddle I-15. Grandview is established, while Lakeview is the site of tremendous development and future growth.

How the candidates for Provo's City Council fared in the primary that took place Sept. 11