As his opponent did a week ago, Sandy Mayor Steve Newton held a news conference this week to announce a group of endorsements that had already been reported.

Seven former presidents of the Sandy Chamber of Commerce - Keith Saunders, Dan Lawler, Walter Shanks Jr., Jan Christensen, Doug Thompson, Carolyn Fronk and Calvin Thorpe - are backing Newton in his race against Larry Smith.At the start of Tuesday's news conference, which Newton said was his first ever, the incumbent explained that he'd called the reporters together after seeing the coverage Smith had received at a similar conference last week. Smith had announced endorsements by five of the candidates whom he and Newton had defeated in the primary, four of which the press had previously reported.

The former Chamber presidents praised Newton's work in fostering Sandy business growth. Saunders said Newton, through his ad hoc committees and department staff, "has made an unmatched effort to solve the problems of development in Sandy." Saunders, executive vice president of ZCMI, criticized Smith for "taking credit for things he had nothing to do with," including the South Towne Mall. He said that credit belongs to former Mayor Paul Thompson and ZCMI.

Smith told the Deseret News the South Towne Mall development "goes back into Paul Thompson's administration, but it was a good two years into my administration" as well, and he worked closely with the mall's developers and ZCMI officials. He said his support from Sandy business is reflected in the campaign contributions he's received and a straw poll he won following a joint candidate presentation to the Chamber last week.

Another former Chamber president, Lawler, praised Newton for pushing to completion the Ski Connect Road, "even at his own political peril in the face of loud protests from a vocal minority of the business community."

Thorpe stressed Newton's leadership in getting Sandy out of the Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District and into the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City, thus securing the city's future water needs.

Newton said he's learned in this campaign that he hasn't given the same "pro-active" attention to existing businesses, particularly small businesses, that he's given to new business and neighborhood concerns in the past four years, and he pledged to remedy that if re-elected.

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