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Show EE E l 1 1 v Cyclops V By BRYAN GRAY Democrat in parade is real entertainment If you read last week's newspaper, you know that some Bountiful residents are angry that Kenley B runsdale, a doggone Democrat, rode in the Handcart Days Parade. Even worse, they say, he snuck in under false pretenses. Ted Powell, the chairman of the parade committee, explained his outrage in a letter published in last week's Clipper. "Our belief," he wrote, "is that for a parade entry to be allowed, the entry must have entertainment value." Well, if that's the case, then B runsdale should have been in the parade. As far as Cyclops is concerned, con-cerned, any Democrat running for office in southern Davis County is pure entertainment. We haven't had a Democrat elected here since the days of Roman numerals.. .The entire en-tire Democratic Party could hold its convention in a telephone booth... Ask any good Bountiful Democrat to name his favorite baseball team and he'll tell you it's the Brooklyn Dodgers. Furthermore, I find it highly "entertaining" that Brunsdale snuck under the tent and into the parade to ride in a Lincoln Continental. Con-tinental. Democrats are supposed to represent the working guy, and working guys don't normally drive Lincoln Continentalsunless they work at stealing them from Republicans who lease the cars to impress their neighbors. If Mr. Powell truly wanted entertainment enter-tainment in the parade, he would have asked Brunsdale to make a speech. What could be more entertaining enter-taining than to see Brunsdale down a hefty 30 percent in the election polls to actually step up to the microphone and say, "We have Jim Hansen exactly where we want him!"? Even being a Democrat in Bountiful Boun-tiful is an exercise in theatrics. During Dur-ing the last presidential election, a private Cyclops poll found that 83 percent of the electorate thought a "Dukakis" was a Greek pastry and the fact that he got 34 percent of the vote only shows the Mormon propensity for sweets. It's hard enough to find a Democrat to run for office down here. And when you do find one, he shoots himself in the foot. Here's Kenley Brunsdale, a certifiable no- name, pegging his political fortunes to his former boss Wayne Owens, a man who is as politically popular in Davis County as Michelle Parish-Pixler. Parish-Pixler. As for a campaign issue, much of Brunsdale 's focus has been on the dreaded pipeline, an issue which draws a lengthy yawn from most of his unaffected constituents in the rest of the First Congressional District The bottom line: Jim Hansen has another cakewalk for reelection... re-election... And if you wanted to see Brunsdale in person, your last chance might have been at the Handcart Days Parade. After he gets thumped in November, he may just disappear. And I don't want Democrats to disappear. A sturdy two-part system is vital for Utah, and the Democratic Party needs to step up and give voters a choice. Unfortunately, Unfor-tunately, most of the party's candidates can-didates decide to campaign for office of-fice on a shoestring. A candidate does not achieve visibility by running run-ning off several thousand cheap flyers listing his family size and church affiliation. Campaigns are expensive, and it's become difficult to win on the county level without spending at : least $5,000, and it's not un- common in Davis County for a state legislator to spend $7,000 for a seat . mat pays pennies per diem. The Democratic Party needs to find candidates willing to finance a good race and also find candidates ; who won't become discouraged. A . one-time filing may not work, but it does provide the name recognition and a base for 'future runs. (A good example: A woman Democrat in Layton got beat badly by Rep. Franklin Knowlton. Two years later, she ran again and came within a few hairs of unseating him.) But in the meantime, don't berate poor Kenley Brunsdale for wanting a little limelight in the city parade. He's facing an opponent who has five times more campaign contributions contribu-tions than he has and the parade offered Brunsdale a chance to ride in a luxury car. In another two months he'll probably be back in Washington, D.C., driving a . less-than-luxury auto from the government motor pool. |