Joe Pyrah of the Daily Herald invited me in last Wednesday for an interview. I had wanted him to do an article on me last November when I announced I was running for Utah County Commissioner, but he told me I wasn't "news worthy" until I announced which seat I was running for (A or B).
So I called him up a week ago and told him I was going to announce who I was running for on Saturday, January 9, 2010 on Red Meat Radio. He kindly invited me in for an interview during the week, and took over 90 minutes with me to cover a wide variety of topics. He also promised to keep my announcement of who I was running against confidential until after I appeared on the radio show on Saturday morning.
Any rational candidate will always have multiple moments of terror during their campaign that no one will even care that you are running for office. Well, the Daily Herald kindly posted the article with my announcement for County Commissioner on the front page of the paper today. I'm excited because it helps me reach and connect to a much bigger audience than my immediate friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Anyway, the article is below. What do you think?
http://bit.ly/8YJGtP
Former Cedar Hills councilman running for county commission
Joe Pyrah - Daily Herald | Posted: Sunday, January 10, 2010 12:05 am
Don't be confused by the baby face. Joel Wright has been around.
Wright announced this week that he'll be challenging fellow Republican and incumbent Gary Anderson for his county commission seat.
His core push is for an expanded commission -- from three full-time commissioners to five part-time and one county mayor.
"I think Utah County has grown enough and matured enough ... that we need to have that discussion," he said.
While Anderson and fellow commissioner Steve White -- who is also up for re-election -- argue that expanding the commission would cost more money, Wright says it would cost about the same as long as they were paid the same as state lawmakers and didn't each have their own assistant.
Additional commissioners would help spread out the leadership role needed as the population continues to boom and issues such as transportation, trails and law enforcement are brought up, he contends.
The latter includes Ponzi schemes and prescription drug abuse specifically. Wright says the county needs to assume a stronger and more public leadership role in taking on such issues.
"I believe in limited government, but I believe in government that stands up and fights effectively for the county," he said.
Wright, though just 37, is a former Cedar Hills councilman as well as a former member of the state board of regents. His position as a regent generated some controversy early last year when he was linked to a UVU presidential candidate's decision to drop out of the race. Wright said he spoke with Ned Hill during the process about Hill's relationship with county legislators -- his wife was running as a Democrat -- and suggested he talk to a few of them to iron out differences. A smooth relationship with the Legislature is critical to getting funding at the university level, Wright said.
After Hill spoke with a few GOP lawmakers, he dropped out of the running for UVU president because he claimed it was too political. Wright, who said Hill was a "superb candidate," resigned his position shortly after because of the pressure being put on him over the incident, as well as his claim that as a regent "you are not supposed to think for yourself or vote as an independent person."
"I was too controversial," he said.
He currently works as a real estate attorney at the law firm Kirton & McConkie.
While Wright says he's running for the position more so than running against Anderson, he claims the incumbent isn't as responsive as he could be to the public.
"Is he managing or his he leading? Is he serving or is it a job?" he said. Service or a job, the position pays about $104,000 annually.
Because it's an intra-party challenge, Wright and Anderson will first meet at the party's convention in April. Should neither gather 60 percent of the party's delegates, they will face off in a primary in June. The winner would then move on to the November general election.
Joel Wright's issues:
• Better development of the Provo airport. While it belongs to the city, the airport has a growing regional significance that demands more attention from the county as a whole.
• Pay raise rollbacks. The county instituted significant pay raises in 2008 after a study revealed they were lagging behind other counties. Wright says that if the rest of the county is going to go through a recession, county government can cut back, as well. The existing commission has trimmed the budget over the past two years.
• A self-described Facebook and Twitter addict, Wright said the county could do more to reach out to the county's extremely young population through social media. The county has dipped its toes into the Twitterverse recently with a few government-managed accounts.
