Reader comments
Salt Lake Mayoral hopefuls spicing up campaigns

The leadership of Salt Lake City is too important to be left to a candidate with little political experience (Jenny Wilson).

Ralph Becker is a better choice.

Wilson's Experience:
Jenny Wilson's political experience amounts to 2.5 years (not even one full term) on the Salt Lake County Council.
Former Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Bill Orton

Becker's Experience:
Currently Minority Leader of the Utah State House of Representatives
Over 10 years experience (six in leadership positions) in the Utah State House of Representatives
Over 25 years experience as co-founder of Bear West, a comprehensive environmental planning and policy development firm that has collaborated with local government, community groups, and stakeholders throughout Utah and the Rocky Mountain West.
Becker was State Planning Coordinator under Governor Matheson.
Served on the Salt Lake City Planning Commission
Served on the Memory Grove Oversight Committee
Served on the Salt Lake City Housing Appeals and Advisory Board.
In addition to his work as a professional planner, Ralph is an adjunct professor at the University of Utah�s College of Architecture and Planning. He teaches classes on land use, community planning, and environmental problem solving.

I agree with Stenar.

Though both Wilson and Becker would represent Salt Lake City well, Becker has, by far, more experience with the issues facing our city.

If Jenny Wilson didn't have her popular father's name, she probably wouldn't even have been elected to the county council on her own merits. If her name had been Jenny Brown, or Jenny Johnson or Jenny Rohovit (her husband's name) she probably wouldn't have been elected to the county council in the first place. I'm not sexist enough to suggest that every married woman has to take their husband's name, however, there is a rather palpable sense here that she kept her maiden name to trade on her father Ted Wilson's name and popularity. Also, on her website, Jenny has a prominent photo of her with her father, while the photo with her husband is buried way at the bottom of a page. It's obvious that she's continuing to use her father to gain elected office.

After seeing the blatant sexism against Wilson, I am switching my vote from Becker to Jenny. These questions about experience to an accomplished elected official are disappointing coming from the Becker camp. I expected more of him and his campaign. On a side note, I have 5 Ralph Becker signs sitting in my garage. The funny thing is I never requested one--they just keep appearing. If the campaign won't do something about this, certainly the City Recorder's office will.

As just an outside reader who stumbled upon this, where is the sexism in the above comments?

SLC Demo,

I have not heard any "blatant sexism" against Wilson; unless experience is a gender issue.

The facts are simple, Ralph does have more experience no matter how much you wish he didn't. Jenny does have a prominent picture of her father on the page while pushing the obligatory family photo to the bottom of a page. It is clear that she is running of her name.

Finally, campaigns make mistakes when passing out signs. Have you actually contacted the Becker campaign about those signs? When working on past campaigns I know that if we saw a house that was "supposed" to have a sign and it was not placed, we would either put up or drop off a sign. I am sure that the Becker campaign would take those signs away from you and apologize for the mistake.

I think this is great. Although I'm not happy with Dave Buhler, how dare him act like a clown, this is very serious and must be taken seriously.

Ralph and Jenny would make great mayors. I think experience is great but not the most important thing. I wish Rocky was running for a third term. Since he isn't my vote is for Jenny Wilson.

GO JENNY!!!

By the way if you don't live in SLC keep you mouth shut this is for SLC not Utah county.

Have a nice day!

To Robert:

Unbelievable. Please go back to the Pleistocene, or somewhere where you can keep your own wife barefoot, pregnant and cooking at a hot stove with no A.C.

Somehow in some of your worlds, I suspect it's perfectly fine for a Bush, or a Kennedy, or a Huntsman to follow in a father's political footsteps so long as he's male. Heavens, that's called a "legacy."

But for an intelligent, ambitious female to do the same? That's called trading on a name, and then a stinging comment for keeping her name after marriage to boot.

My comment is less about who becomes SLC mayor than it is a calling-out against the blatant sexism on this comment board. Wake up, cavemen.

Wow...This seems to be yet another case of avoiding the reality and facts and twisting them into the conclusion that the Becker camp is practicing some kind of sexism. Obviously "SLC Demo" and "JeanLouise" had already decided to vote for Jenny, which is, of course, their right. To justify their decision, they seem to have totally avoided the fact that Jenny has virtually no experiance and Becker has multiple layers of experiance and by simply pointing out her lack of experiance, he is labled a sexist...Pleeeezzz

Early on, I too supported Jenny and my decision was primarily based on my strong regard for her father. Then, after reviewing their platforms and experiance, I changed my opinion.

I'm inclined to agree with the comments offered by "Robert". Had she ran for City Counsel as Jenny Rohovit, the results whould have been quite different. Pointing this out does not make one a sexist.