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Show Announces Democratic Candidacy For Senate By TOM BUSSELBERG OGDEN Ogden's mayor of nearly seven years has declared de-clared himself a candidate for the United States Senate on the Democratic ticket and called cal-led for positive use of government. govern-ment. HE WILL oppose incumbent incum-bent Senator Jake Garn, a Republican, Re-publican, and will have to contend con-tend with winning the Democratic Demo-cratic nomination over at least one already-announced candidate, candi-date, Daniel L. Berman. In an Ogden press conference, confer-ence, announcing candidacy late last week, the soon-to-be-37 year-old mayor clearly set out to declare a difference in government philosophy with Mr. Garn, who he said has sought to change the government govern-ment system. "I am running for national office because I believe in this nation's institutions, institu-tions, but more importantly, because I believe in its citizens. "AS CITIZENS of the U.S. we have witnessed a decline of confidence in the government of this country the Presidency, Presiden-cy, Congress, courts, business management and labor. Performance Per-formance at the state and local level too, has sometimes been disappointing. But I believe that with responsible, confident confi-dent and positive action, we can restore confidence in our government." Noting the same political system conceived to run 13 "struggling colonies" was instrumental in-strumental in making America "the most powerful nation on earth" he continued, "The institutions in-stitutions of that political system sys-tem have been modified in the intervening 200 years. The methods for governing a struggling strug-gling nation of three million will not work for our 200 millions. mil-lions. We can no longer be governed gov-erned with the simplicity of a town meeting." HE CALLED for cooperation coopera-tion with federal government, instead of fighting it. "Working "Work-ing with federal government instead of fighting it nets Ogden city approximately $300 million annually in payrolls, federal grants, school lunch programs, transportation, trans-portation, social and cultural endowments. Federal bureaucracy is a fact of life." "I'm not advocating bigger government and more government, govern-ment, but better government. I have no doubt that things can be improved, that's why I'm running, but we must realize that the system can and does work for us now." "WE NEED to change the system for the better from within, not consistently attack it from without. Each of us is the government and citizen participation must begin at the local level. Decisions, whenever possible, should be made at that level of government govern-ment that is closest to the people peo-ple affected," he noted. "But in acting for our own interest we must realize that rarely are decisions as simple as right or wrong. We must always al-ways realize that our neighbors neigh-bors are affected by our demands. de-mands. We are all in a partnership partner-ship government, business, a. r - A. STEPHEN DIRKS citizens. The kind, of progress that Ogden has made in the past six years is the result of that sort of partnership. Without With-out all of us, the largest mall in the state would not be built here in Ogden." EMPHASIZING citizen involvement in-volvement he said, "If we do not participate the evil is on our heads. But for those of us who care, there is both a challenge chal-lenge and a privilege." Turning to what most term as the nation's number one problem he said, "I don't have to tell you that the challenge chal-lenge is inflation. And while we may not always realize it, our position as the leading nation na-tion of the west is a privilege. We represent the most powerful power-ful economic force in the modern mod-ern world, and that's going to be the real battlefield economics. econo-mics. It's not the weapons of destruction that win wars, it's the strength of the economy that produces them." STRESSING that government govern-ment can and does work, using personal examples Mr. Dirks said, "I am asking for the Democratic Party nomination in this race against the incumbent incum-bent because I believe in a positive approach to government, govern-ment, not a negative one. I believe be-lieve in changing our system through modification, not by attack." "We as a nation are not in the grip of some mysterious 'malaise'. There is nothing wrong with this country that its citizens, working together, cannot make right." FOLLOWING his speech, the only questions asked were by Don Olsen, political reporter repor-ter for KSL Television. He served as Senator Garn 's press secretary from early 1974-1977. 1974-1977. Among Mr. Olsen's questions ques-tions was in what ways Mr. Dirks would differ in government govern-ment approach to the incumbent incum-bent senator. To that Mayor Dirks replied, "I would be proposing them (laws) and not continually voting against. I would vote differently. I don't expect to reform Congress. As a result of Garn's election I don't see any changes in government." gov-ernment." HE SAID positive government govern-ment participation would be better than "fighting" as Senator Sena-tor Garn has done. "As we approach the problems of America we need to rise with the institutions we have in place. How can we have faith in America if we are continually continual-ly told that we have liars, etc. in government?" "We are the most powerful nation on earth. We do provide for our people and we are growing in spite of the world problems. We should be positive." MR. DIRKS is a Salt Lake City native, graduated from high school in Daly City, Calif., and majored in mathematics mathe-matics at Weber State College in Ogden. He served in the U.S. Army in Korea and professionally pro-fessionally works as a partner with Asset Exchange, an Ogden real estate and investment invest-ment firm. He was to have begun campaigning cam-paigning this week in southern Utah and has not finalized his Davis County stops, his press secretary said. |