This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here are a few tasty, or nutty, campaign tidbits that adorned the political arena in Utah on or just before Election Day.
* Numerous state employees complained Tuesday that they received automatic voice messages for the Lohra Miller for District Attorney campaign on their state telephones - government property. And the messages were from the one guy who should know about improper use of government property: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Shurtleff says all he did was record a message for Miller, and he doesn't know how it was distributed. State Elections Office director Michael Cragen says it is the employees' fault for listing their government phone numbers when they registered to vote.
* Meanwhile, Rich Rosa received several of Shurtleff's calls for Miller on his cell phone, which are charged to him. He is on a do-not-call list, but political parties are exempt from that law. Shurtleff, ironically, sent an e-mail recently to the Doll House, an escort service, demanding he be taken off its e-mail solicitation list, noting it was a criminal violation if the business continued to send him unsolicited e-mail.
* Owners and proprietors of private homes, businesses and churches that were the sites of polling places were shocked Tuesday morning to find "Carrie Dickson for County Clerk signs" had popped up overnight all over their property. It is a violation to place campaign signs on private property without the owner's permission. Dickson, ironically, was running to become the watchdog over county election laws.
* Rush hour commuters at about 5:30 p.m. Monday were stuck in a long line for blocks on 500 South as they were attempting to enter I-15. That's because at 300 West, campaigners for Sheriff Aaron Kennard were repeatedly pushing the pedestrian crosswalk button and parading across the crosswalk with Kennard signs. The pedestrian parade extended the traffic gridlock.
* Voters who moved recently and were still registered in their old districts, but needed to vote in their new ones, had to cast provisional ballots. They received a note telling them to contact the Salt Lake County clerk to learn whether their vote was counted.
* Carl Wimmer, a Republican House candidate in Herriman, listed several lunch meetings on his campaign expenditure report. Most were at Taco Bell for $2.88, $2.78, $2.88, $3.73, $5.25, $5.34, $5.56, $6, $6.64 and $7.18. He did diversify a bit, with a $5.25 campaign lunch at KFC, a $10.15 campaign get-together at Bajio Grill and then he really splurged with a $21.94 campaign lunch at Chili's Grill.
* Every campaign reports signs stolen. But for state Rep. Pat Jones, who ran for the state Senate in the Holladay area, there was a different kind of sign vandalism. Wanting to emphasize her bipartisanship, she did not indicate on her campaign signs that she is a Democrat. So somebody went to the trouble of placing stickers of a donkey on her signs. The donkey, dressed in stars and stripes, was placed in the middle of the "O" in Jones' name.