GARY SHUMWAY for Summit County Council

Executive Summary:
Of all the Utah Constitution Party candidates in three-way races in the 2008 election, I polled the highest percentage of votes at 9.8 percent!! Not shabby at all, considering! Again, thank all of you who voted for me! I really appreciate it. Let's do it again, and more, in 2010!

It has been nearly a week and a half since the election and I have had time to do a little analysis of the election results. As mentioned in an earlier post, I garnered some 9.79 percent of the votes for Seat 'D' on the Summit County Council. Since the election I've met acquaintances who have said they voted all Democrat except for me. I have had a couple come by our condo in Jeremy Ranch and as I was working outdoors, they stopped and told me they voted for me after hearing me on the radio. They just wanted to stop by and see who they voted for. I was very thankful for their vote but since they voted early I asked them if they figured they had enough information to cast an informed ballot. The husband was taken aback and of course, thinking about it later, what the heck was I thinking? They voted for me, so of course they had enough information! Talk about being naive. Sometimes I wonder about me.

There were some good experiences on the campaign trail and some good friends helped me this time around. Donna and Jeff Coe and Lynn Badler were very helpful, of which I am extremely appreciative. Of course my wife, daughter, and son-in-law also helped immensely. I am just sorry that I did not have time to go door-to-door like I did in 2006, but most of my 'free' time was taken up with helping my ailing parents in California.

I found the radio interviews on KPCW to be great experiences. I cannot say that I was always on top of my game but the experience was good. I do remember Randy Barton being a bit condescending to my candidacy. He basically asked why was I running when I had no chance of winning. Then he asked me if I was just a big mouth (or words to that effect). If I was on top of my game I would have retorted to his big mouth comment by simply saying, "But Randy, I'm not the one with a daily radio program." Randy also asked me to say in his recorder my name and that I listened to KPCW on 91.9 FM. I flubbed it and said 91.1 FM. Of course he corrected me in the recording and I should have said I had an old radio that couldn't get to 91.9, or something similar.

One thing I did learn is that I need to have more fun and not take the campaign so seriously. I mean it is serious business, as people want their interests and tax money spent wisely but maybe I could be more relaxed. Something like Steve Weinstein and Dave Ure accomplished in their banter. Of course after the election I figured that Ure was befriending Weinstein in order, at least in part, to pare down Steve's advantage as a Democrat. The thinking being that if they are such good friends then there must not be that much difference between them, thus giving Ure a boost (if you can't beat them, join them?) As a result Steve got 48 percent of the vote compared to the other Democrat candidates running only against a Republican getting 57.9, 55.4, and 61.8 percent of the vote. Of course some of that may be that Steve spent something like a paltry $500 on his campaign while the West Side Democrats spent, on average, some $9,000 of other people's money on their campaigns.

Over all, the campaign for Summit County Council went well with no one getting personal. I did have several email run-in's with two of the Democrat candidates but really nothing more than their seeing if they could push the Constitution Party candidate around a bit. I have made it a point in my campaigns, when I go around checking on my signs, to upright the signs of the other candidates if they were down. A couple of signs up or down aren't going to make or break a campaign and I think it is common courtesy (regardless whether they reply in kind) to the other candidates. There is plenty of other stuff we can disagree upon and argue about.

As you know, I campaigned against Alison Pitt (R) and Chris Robinson (D). I found both to be knowledgeable and personable. Frankly, I had more in common (politically) with Alison than Chris and Alison seemed a bit more friendly than Chris. Maybe it was just more about two males siding off and sparring a little. My primary problem with either Chris or Alison is their involvement in the County and their having to recluse themselves. On Tuesday, I ended up voting for myself. ;^)

In looking at the numbers it is clear that I did best, vote wise, in those precincts which voted Republican. In extension, I did poorest in the precincts which voted Democrat. Apparently Republican voters find more in common with the Constitution Party than do the Democrats. I find that interesting! Percentage wise, I did best in the Upton, Coalville South, Hoytsville, Coalville North, and Kamas East precincts, in that order. In twenty of the 42 precincts, I received more than 10 percent of the vote. My poorest showings were in the Ranch Place, Prospector, Old Town South, Ranch Road South, and Deer Valley North precincts, respectively. It seems that voters in those precincts which were able to hear or see me speak, were more supportive of my message. I did manage to get 10.2 percent of the vote in my 'home' precinct of Jeremy West. Obviously, I think I need to get my message out there more clearly next time.

Summit County had a voter turn out of 60.24 percent for 2008. Not bad at all. I am sure this helped the Democrats due to the enthusiasm for Barack Obama. Of those who voted, some 29.8 percent voted straight party. Of those who voted straight party some 45.2 percent voted Republican, 53.4 percent Democrat, 1.0 percent Libertarian, and 0.4 percent Constitution Party. As to my primary message of voting for the person vs. just the party, I think I was able to affect some change this election cycle (least I'd like to think I did). In 2006 some 34 percent voted straight party! That's progress.

The good news for the Constitution Party in Utah is that, due to vote totals, we are automatically on the 2010 ballot! This is a great accomplishment and saves us a lot of time and money. As to the other Constitution Party candidates in the 2008 election:
The Chuck Baldwin/Darrell Castle ticket for President/VP received 1.3 percent of the vote, a higher percentage than in any other state.
Jim Noorlander garnered a respectful 6 percent of the vote in his run for U.S. Congress in District 3.
Richard Proctor's 3.7 percent for Utah State Auditor helped put us on the ballot for 2008.
Of the seven candidates running for the Utah Senate, Benton Petersen received the highest percentage of the vote at 9.3 percent.
Of the 27 Constitution Party candidates for the Utah House, six of them received votes in the double digits (percentage), i.e., Thomas Mangum (24.1), Bevan Bastian (22.6), Cory Seegmiller (19.9), Thomas Edwards (17.9), Feleni Siufanue (15.6), and Michael Barron (12.7). All the above were two-way races.
There were also five candidates vying for a seat on their County Commission/Council. They were (with percent of vote): Wade Pearson (26.4), Steve Maxfield (25.2), Michel Gitz (15.9), Gary Shumway (9.8), and Lee Phipps (4.7). Based on those numbers it does not appear that I did that well but consider that our top three Commission/Council candidates were opposed only by a Republican (a two-way race) vs. Lee's and my three-way races. This is not to denigrate the accomplishments of Wade, Steve, or Michel, just to put them in perspective.

Thus from the above results it can be seen that of all the Constitution Party candidates (in three-way races) I polled the highest percentage of votes at 9.8 percent with Benton Petersen achieving 9.3 percent. Not shabby at all, considering! Again, thank all of you who voted for me! I really appreciate it.

Until 2010!

Gary Shumway