Even though a third-party candidate has never won a Salt Lake County Commission seat, Reform Party candidate Pearl Meibos is still hopeful.
"There's always a first time." She points to her family's success in persuading the Utah Supreme Court to rule against Salt Lake County's use of redevelopment tax breaks in the expansion of the Fort Union Family Center."Nobody but me thought we could win that case," she said. Right now, she acknowledges, not many people besides her think she can win this race against Republican incumbent Brent Overson and Democrat Paulina Flint.
Like Flint, Meibos has selected Overson's style as the focus of her campaign. "Salt Lake County government badly needs reform. In my opinion, the commissioners we have are the worst possible commissioners to have for this job. The public desperately needs to deal with this issue."
Meibos ran against Salt Lake County Commissioner Randy Horiuchi two years ago. Then, her issue was the pro-development stance of the commissioners that she believes gave a free reign to developers like Hermes, the developer of the Family Center expansion.
Now, she has seized on the recent attempt by Overson and Horiuchi to oust Utah Transit Authority General Manager John Pingree as an example of the corruption she believes riddles county government. Overson and Horiuchi exercise inappropriate control over county affairs, including agencies like UTA that they have no business meddling with, she said.
In some ways, Meibos has mingled both her 1994 and 1996 campaigns, attacking Horiuchi as much as she attacks Overson. Meibos will debate Overson and Flint Tuesday at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. But the speech she has planned focuses on Horiuchi's demand for Pingree's resignation, an appalling move, Meibos said.
Libertarian candidate Brent Olsen is a University of Utah student majoring in psychology. He left the Democratic Party two years ago and became a Libertarian just last year. He doesn't expect to win this race, he said. "Overson is tough to beat. He's quite popular in the county and he has worked really hard."
Olsen wants to spread the word about the Libertarian principles of less government, individual liberty and personal responsibility.
He wants to put an end to light rail and privatize UTA. He wants to eliminate all redevelopment agency projects and abolish the property tax.
He views growth as the root of all the county's problems. "I will stop county subsidized growth incentives and large development supported by eminent domain."
Like all the candidates, he supports the creation of townships.
Independent American candidate Lawrence Kauffman is a familiar name on Utah ballots. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and the Utah Senate in 1990 and 1994. He will keep running, he says, because "I'd like rightists to be elected to office instead of federal hacks."
And he's hopeful of winning one day. "I'd like to start winning in the next century if not this century," he said.
Kauffman lays most of the evils in today's society at the federal government's door. He wants the county to reject all federal grants or matching revenue programs. Accepting federal money means accepting federal control, he said.
He would support the elimination of both the property tax and income tax. The county, state and federal governments should exist frugally on the sales tax, he said. Kauffman also believes the country should return to silver and gold currency.
"We have to get federal government out of our lives," he urged.
Kauffman is supported entirely by the disability pay he receives from the Veteran Affairs Administration, he said. He sees no irony in that. The money is just compensation for his service in the military, including Vietnam, he said.