Reader comments
Becker, Buhler to face off

Rock on! Buhler's the real deal. He backs his stuff up and he's a friendly neighborhood family man who will be great as mayor. And he doesn't want gay marriage...Go Buhler

Anyway Becker can say no thanks to Rocky's endorsement? It sure did Christensen a hell of a lot of good.

I'm glad to see Becker finish first. He's the most ethical politician that I've ever met.

Buhler will be a breath of fresh air after the antic's of Rockey as our mayor. Thank goodness for fair play
Will support Buhler in November too.

I have a quesion. Why is Becker a Non Mormon and Buhler a Mormon? Why does it always come out that way. Couldn't we leave the specific religion out of politics?

Billy - Aren't YOU the ONLY one who has mentioned each candidate's religion?

Thank goodness Becker pulled it out!

Congratulations Ralph.

Congratulations to Dave Buhler and Ralph Becker. Both are worthy candidates for mayor of SLC. They are down-to-earth able leaders, hard working, good listeners, and most importantly focused on what they feel is best for SLC. They won't be jousting with any windmills!

I like Dave and will vote for him in the final election because I believe he is best qualified.

Leave religion out of it? In Utah? Not gonna happen. Interesting that the one issue brought up by the Buhler supporter was the anti gay marriage stance. Hmmmmm , maybe they'll stop being gay? Or is a committed gay couple just so reprehensible. Should we keep them in the city parks and the Airport bathroom stalls? Let the race begin!

lamonte - nope, check the article again. The candidates' religions are indeed mentioned.

Lamonte: Fifth paragraph of the article. Thanks DN for breaking down Jefferson's wall between church and state!

It is sad for the rest of the State to watch Ms. Wilson have her motives and background questioned in such an unprofessional and in such a discriminative matter by soon to be former Mayor Anderson. Under Title Seven of the 1990 Employment Act, Ms. Wilson has a claim with the EEOC, as he is the Chief governmental head in Salt Lake City!

I wanted to confirm Bub's comment. I have worked with Ralph for more than 10 years in a lot of situations, including some very high pressure ones. He has always been open, honest, thoughtful, articulate and effective. And no, I am not a campaign worker. I am not even a member of his Party and sometimes I was on the opposite side of the issue. I guess the point is (in short phrase terms) Ralph is the "real deal" and "what you see is what you get." While I am not an SLC resident and have no vote; as a resident of Utah, I know that the Mayor of our capitol city has a significant effect on our whole state. I hope you who do have a vote choose thoughtfully and well. And get out to VOTE.

PS. About the mention of religion, the official "handbook" of the very first Utah Territorial Legislature listed not only each electe official's name, city and party but also a code "m" or "g" for mormon or gentile. (and, surprisingly even in the 1850's there were a significant number of non-mormon elected officials in SLC.) I guess Utah will never get past mentioning a candidate's religion, but I doubt it will ever dictate who we elect.

Even though I voted for Buhler, both of these guys were my top canidates. I ended up voting for Buhler in the end since his stance is a little closer to my own; when I talked to Becker, a lot of what he said he was going to do as mayor was already being done and rolling forth (much from "Downtown Rising" plans and Trax lines types of things) so I felt there wasn't necessarily anything new happening there.

By the way, Buhler is not anti-gay! He supported a bill to get every household fair rights with regards to employment benefits (which includes gay couples). This coming from a so-called Conservative; he seems pretty open minded and fair to me (which is not to say that Conservatives can not be these things, just seems to be the generalization).

I am excited to see the outcome. Personally, I would welcome either into the Mayor's seat, even though I prefer Buhler because of his proven track-record and strong ties to education. I think both are positive people running positive campaigns and will continue to bring that trait into office with them.

I just hope (sigh) that Buhler being somewhat conservative is not creating auto responses from the liberal side (or republican for that matter!). This always seems to be a huge deal to voters here- probably heightened because of our President. We need to remember to look at the issues and successes of the person rather than grouping them into a category with someone just because of their party affiliation and our feelings towards it (or because of the unpopular person in the White House). Dave Buhler is not that person and not all conservatives share the President's ideals. Please vote fairly!

Best of luck to both!! =)

Congratulations to Salt Lake City's new mayor, Ralph Becker. Sure, I know the actual election has not happened yet, but that is going to be just a formality. You have to think most of the people who voted for Wilson and Christensen are going to vote for Becker, so the only question is how much will Becker win by. My guess is that he will get about 65-70% of the vote.

congrats to both --- GO DAVE

Alright! The two best got in! But now... Go Dave!!

It seems the city has a great opportunity to bring in someone with a proven political track record and at the same time inject the city government with the kind of fresh energy that someone from outside the current system can bring.

In my mind, this decision is not difficult at all. I think Becker should (and judging by the primary numbers will) win in a landslide.

Wow, so much for Rocky's "kiss of death" for Christensen. Christensen's camp has to be saying, "Thanks alot Rocky." That the top money raiser, Christensen, finishes so poorly has to go down as a resounding rejection of Rocky! It's like the voters said, "Hey Rocky, don't let the door hit you on the way out."