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The “Non-Partisan” Fiction
By Gordon S. Jones
The municipal elections are upon us, and by coincidence, the Chairman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party called for an investigation of Salt Lake City Mayor Ross Anderson’s bar tab. This confluence leads me to some reflections on the “non-partisan” nature of municipal politics.
Some years ago, my father-in-law was running for re-election to the Salt Lake City Commission (as it was then). Attending a Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, he was chagrined when the Democratic governor of the state called him to the podium and called upon the crowd to support him “as one of our good Democrats.”
The chagrin did not stem from the fact that my father-in-law considered himself a Republican; it arose mostly because the endorsement by the most recognizable and popular Democrat in Utah was reported in the papers, and all of his Republican friends and neighbors were going to read it in the Salt Lake Tribune.
In other words, my father-in-law, like many a mayoral or city council candidate before and since, wanted to have it both ways. He could seek political support from the (largely Democrat) public employees association and from the (largely Republican) Country Club establishment at the same time. No messy party identification on the ballot (he opposed party registration when Utah briefly instituted it in the 1970s for the same reason).
This game is still being played, though it is a little trickier with the re-institution of party registration in 2000.
Consider the case of Dave Bailey, running for mayor of Provo, against the incumbent, Lewis Billings. Provo is the most Republican city in the most Republican county in the most Republican state in the U.S. of A. Lewis Billings is a known Republican, of long standing, seriously talked of as a potential gubernatorial candidate on the Republican ticket. Could he be defeated by a Democrat?
We’ll never know, because Dave Bailey has thoughtfully switched his party registration to Republican, and his campaign website is replete with references to such well-known Republicans as John Huntsman and Gary Herbert (though there is no reason whatever to think that either of them knows him).
Of course Nancy Jane Woodside is heavily involved in Bailey’s campaign, even to the extent of prepping him for debates with Billings, and that seems to indicate a certain level of Democratic association. Woodside is the State Democratic Vice-Chair, and was the Democratic candidate against Republican Chris Cannon in 2002. She seems to be filling the role of candidate coach occupied in 2001 by Democrat Sherrie Holweg.
Then too, as a former Provo City fire chief, Bailey profits from the organization the (largely Democratic) firemen’s union can provide. Bailey’s popularity with unions was evident four years ago, the last time these two faced off, when union organizers and activists appeared in Provo from out of town on election day to boost the Bailey candidacy.
And (shades of my father-in-law), Bailey appeared at the State Democratic Convention earlier this year, where he was promised support from the Party.
None of this is illegal, or even illegitimate. It might be thought of as a matter of survival in a state like Utah, at least outside Salt Lake City, where Democratic credentials are even more important than they were in my father-in-law’s day. Candidates look for ways to identify themselves as “party-approved” without violating the non-partisan letter of the municipal election law. One candidate for Draper City Council notes on his campaign literature that he is a “Republican Party County Delegate.” No prize for guessing his affiliation.
Maybe we would be better off scrapping the (increasingly meaningless) fiction of non-partisan municipal races and going to a straightforward political lineup. If Dave Bailey had to slug it out with Lewis Billings in a Republican Primary, he might conclude that he would be better off running as a Democrat, or at least forego some of the institutional Democratic support he now enjoys.
Posted by Editor on October 19, 2005 07:00 PM
