Who's In?

Our representative democracy works best when voters have options to choose from when electing their representatives. In order to have choices at the ballot box, people have to be willing to run. The filing period for Provo municipal races opens in 10 days and only stays open for 7 days. Please consider who you would like to represent you and encourage them to run. Consider running yourself.

There are three City Council seats on November's ballot, along with the Mayor's seat. I've heard of several people interested in the Mayor's seat, being vacated by Mayor Curtis, and a few for the City Wide District seat, currently held by David Sewell, who is standing for reelection. So far I haven't heard any interest in District 2. It is currently held by Kim Santiago and she has indicated that she isn't running again. I also haven't seen any announcements, other than my own, for District 5.

Two years ago, three of us filed to run for the District 5 seat. Within a couple of weeks, the two other candidates had withdrawn. Fortunately, a member of our community stepped up as a write-in candidate, so I wasn't unopposed for too long.

We need multiple good candidates to provide a real choice to our neighbors. As I said a couple years ago, "Having an opponent also gives the campaign a sense of urgency and brings it more sharply into focus...I believe that healthy discussion and debate leads to better ideas and broader and deeper understanding...and, in the end, a better representative will be elected, whoever that may be."