Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Good election night for education--two moderates beat out ultra-conservatives and Doogie Howser C.P.A. loses

Way to go Weber and Davis counties! We couldn't quite get the moderate Republican candidates over the hump at the county convention here to even hold primary elections, but two challengers from the northern Wasatch Front beat out two of the same ol' pack of far-right, voucher/omnibus/stadium, power-abusing crowd in the legislature.

Ryan Wilcox surprisingly put the hurt on Glen Donnelson with 61% of the vote.
http://electionresults.utah.gov/xmlData/29000.html

And Becky Edwards pulled out a close one with Paul Neuenschwander.
http://electionresults.utah.gov/xmlData/30006.html

And most satisfyingly, though still scratching my head on how this even happened, Richard Ellis defeated Mark Walker for the Republican nomination for State Treasurer with 59% of the vote.
http://electionresults.utah.gov/xmlData/30000.html

I still can't figure out exactly why all of the leadership was gunning for the treasurer position. I hope word leaks on what proposals they were considering that would require the acquiescence of a 32-yr-old salesman managing 12 billion dollars of state investment funds without even being able to accurately understand (about half way through his long interview) basic investment concepts.

The whole bribe thing was a sideshow, though it does show how desperate Walker was for the help of the qualified man he was criticizing. Seriously...what were they thinking? I'm sure Speaker Curtis, President Valentine, and Attorney General Shurtleff would not allow Walker to manage their personal portfolios, so why allow him to manage the state's multi-billion dollar portfolio?

2 comments:

Natalie Gordon said...

It was a good night.

And, Doogie Howser, C.P.A. is HILARIOUS! Maybe Dougie Howser, Sales Manager is more accurate.

UtahTeacher said...

CPA was giving him too much credit, but I wanted to use initials. And who knows? Maybe this baffling run for high financial office has awoken a desire for higher education. If he went and got an MBA, practiced successful, large-scale corporate or municipal finance for five or six years, promised not to bribe anyone, and took a public oath to instantly delete any messages from Greg Curtis or Howard Stephenson, I might vote for him.