Letter from the Editor: October 25, 2010

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Hello my darlings,

Nov. 2 brings us the opportunity to shake up local politics. Midterm elections can be boring, and seem really pointless. But your vote counts more in these elections than it does in a national election by far.  Also, the lines at polling stations will be much shorter than they were in 2008.

Here are a few of the more eye-catching talking points of this election, for those with a short attention span:

• Republican nominee for Senate, Mike Lee, has gone on the record saying that he wants to repeal the 17th amendment, meaning that senators would be chosen by the state legislature instead of elected by the voters.
• Democratic nominee for Senate, Sam Granato, was recently reprimanded for defying open-meeting laws while serving as the chair of the liquor board, meaning that he held illegal closed meetings.
• Libertarian nominee for House district 3, Jake Shannon, is a body-building hypnotist.
• During Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s first run for congress, he said that illegal immigrants who have committed crimes should live in tent cities surrounded by barbed wire fences. Since then, his policy has grown slightly less concentration-camp-y.
• Unaffiliated candidate for governor, Farley Anderson, does not allow campaign donations, and encourages handmade signs. DIY-ers, unite!
• Democratic nominee for governor, Peter Corroon, compared his competitor incumbent Gary Herbert’s attitude towards donations and incentives to that of the infamous Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Herbert has taken in over $700K.

And that’s just the beginning; as usual, we have a cackle of crazies asking for our votes. Your task is to decide which brand of crazy pleases you the most.

Mel Sundquist
Editor-in-chief of The V