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Show The National Enterprise, August 10, 1977 Page twenty-thre- e Pragmatic Dogmatics City elections by Kent Shearer Back in 1967, the Salt Lake County GOP considered municipal elections worthy of attention. City offices, the party sachems reasoned, wielded real power and although in all but Utah's technically constituted valuable partisan hamlets prizes. That year, two incumbent Salt Lake City commissioners, George Catmull and Louis Holley, both Democrats, sought reelection. The Republicans were determined to elect instead at least one of their own. County chairman Willis Muse budgeted GOP funds for that objective. Muse also appointed a candidate recruitIt was charged with ment committee. responsibility of finding an electable aspirant. Fortunately, one was available. He was an aggressive, perceptive, persuasive, bald insurance agent who the committee persuaded to run, wrho Muse financed, and who won. His name was and is Jake Gam, he later became mayor, and now is Utah's senior senator. non-partis- an The purpose of the foregoing recital is not to argue that the county Republicans, out of the city election business after 1969, should reinterest themselves (although, incidentally, it is my judgment they should). It is, rather, to emphasize the fact that this years municipal elections may well be more important than the present mood of public apathy towards them would suggest. Primary ballots will be cast on Oct. 11, with the survivors to vie in a Nov. 8 run-ofNomination is by a candidate affidavit and a 100 signature petition, both of which must be filed three weeks before the primary. No filing fee is required. A city race is relatively inexpensive, Gams '67 effort, for instance, totaled a touch more than $10,000. In view of subsequent inflation, and in the absence of those party services provided Jake, Salt Lake success this time around will likely cost approximately $20,000. Any office seeker who cannot assemble a war chest of that size would do himself a favor to abstain. Few are that prudent. The want of a filing f. fee proves a trap for the unwary, and the field usually is crowded. More than fifteen for Salt Lake commission is not at all unusual. In turn, this means a long primaiy ballot. In that names are listed in aphabetical order, an Anderson has a built-i- n advantage over, say a Stewart. The size of the field dictates a cautious strategy. If one survives the primary, he wants general election support from the followers of the Accordingly, he is well advised to accentuate the positive and to spurn attacks on others. negative non-survivo- pre-prima- ry Even though their rules and dynamics vary from other electoral processes, the city elections still are politics in action. They are important and merit more attention than they If you live in an usually are afforded. incorporated community, those elections determine the nature and extend of such vital services for you as police and fire protection, garbage collection, street repairs, and water who knows? this years city supply. And contests may produce another Jake Garn. wo me upA&AKrm rs. ucbshtASid raio(DOR. PRg&UAUT.AS WU6 WAGE RKStfrs. & QB id ah ABbena). as ux&p&wj TH MeAWS vet; me-wes- m mS T VIWBX $0 60 OUT N&G6T A GOOP voe aup me ml im ABoenows oo msr. E IT-- BEJ u. 0 With our heads in the sand a O CL CC UJ O O For all his talk of openness, the Carter Administration is full of book burners. That is a harsh charge, but is it unfair? Consider just two cases. The first is fairly well known. A team of researchers at the Energy Research and Development Administration carried out a study of natural gas that assumed price deregulation. The team found that plentiful new supplies of this valuable fuel would become available at decontrolled prices. Since this finding did not agree with official Carter policy, the team was disbanded, and the report suppressed. Luckily, a few copies (it is known as the MOPPS study) escaped the flames. However, the Deputy Administrator responsible for the study is apparently going to leave the Administration very soon. The second case has had less attention, but is potentially more serious. Shortly after President Carters inauguration, when his views on nuclear energy policy became known, ERDA withdrew from circulation several booklets and pamphlets on nuclear power. The stated reason given in the official withdrawal order was that these publications do not reflect current policies. There was no suggestion that the conclusions drawn bv the publications, or the facts presented therein were inaccurate, misleading, or false. They had not been disproved become by additional scientific studies. They had, quite simply, politically unacceptable. Specifically, of course, the current Administration objects to any publication which tends to support breeder reactors and commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing. These booklets do, and so they must go. Never mind that the facts they contain arc irrefutable (or at least unrefuted by this Administration). Never mind that the overwhelming weight of technical and scientific opinion is strongly on the side of continued development of breeders. Never mind that the of concrete actions virtually every advanced foreign power shows that there will be breeders and reprocessing, whether Jimmy Carter likes it or not. We will not only bum our books, but hide our heads in the sands warmed by the flames. The politicization of science in the Soviet Union set back biology and botany in that country a hundred years. Such political interference was known in the West as Lysenkoism, after its most prominent practitioner. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union has never practiced Lysenkoism in the field of nuclear energy, and the West cannot count on similar delays in that In recalling scientific publications and suppressing field. unwelcome studies for political reasons, the Carter Administration is transplanting Lysenkoism to these shores. The laws against importing exotic plants apparently do not apply to ideological growths. It is a pity. |