A Deepening Critique

Most of you know that an article appeared this morning in UtahPolicy.com titled "A Republican Rift in Salt Lake County."

The article is by Bob Bernick and it describes a chasm opening up between the Republican majority on the Salt Lake County Council and Mark Crockett, the Republican nominee for County Mayor. The article is great reading and it speaks for itself, so I'll not try to duplicate it here.

However, its thesis is that Republican council members are taking umbrage at Crockett's claim that the county has gone $2 billion in debt. Recently they had a "come to Jesus meeting" with their mayoral candidate and asked him to explain claims they felt were wild and irresponsible.

It appears Crockett is trying to save himself with a bit of subtrafuge. Reportedly, he claimed that he never said "county government" was $2 billion in debt, but Salt Lake County as a whole is in that kind of debt, if you include other things, like bonds issued by the UTA.

(One could only imagine how large that debt would be if you also included home mortgages - a form of borrowing over which the Council has as much authority as it does over the UTA.)

Anyway, these spurious claims have estranged him from his potential Republican colleagues on the County Council.

No matter how these competing claims are reconciled or explained away, the real story here is an ever deepening critique of Crockett's ability to lead.

So far not a single billboard has gone up, and not a single debate has been sponsored. Yet a consensus of Republican mayors has already deserted him, and Republican County Council members are clearly dissatisfied. The two constituencies that would be most critical to his success.

Whatever Crockett's vision might be, it can't happen without allies. And while he does seem capable of manufacturing facts, he's much less gifted at creating a following... a real problem, because the democratic process is a team sport.