This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I wrote recently about the Utah Republican Party spending money and time trying to defeat a candidate in nonpartisan Draper City Council races, and she ended up being the top vote-getter.
Well, a similar result happened in Moab, where the Grand County Republican Party took out ads endorsing their own slate of candidates in nonpartisan council races and all three lost, pending next week's final canvass.
Rani Derasary, Kalen Jones and Tawny Knuteson-Boyd — who all self-identify as "progressives" — were the preliminary winners, according to unofficial Election Day tallies. They topped the Republican-endorsed candidates, which should cause some angst across mostly conservative southern Utah.
Moab long has been a thorn in the side of the enormously dominant GOP juggernaut throughout rural Utah. A number of environmentalists in that area buck Republican calls for state takeovers of federal lands and opening more wilderness to motorized traffic and energy development.
State Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, has had harsh words for that troublesome part of the southeastern Utah, calling out Grand County officials for pushing policies that would limit development in their territory.
Noel sponsored legislation a few years ago clarifying that counties lack the authority to regulate mining operations on federal or state lands within jurisdictions.
He was specifically targeting those pesky rebels in Grand County.
A Grand County resident emailed Noel to complain about the measure, arguing the county should have the right to set its own land policies within its boundaries.
"Try reading the Utah State Constitution," he wrote back, noting that counties derive their power from the Legislature. "It is unconsiousable (sic) that the unelected Grand County Council has taken action to stop oil shale development on Institutional Lands."
Perhaps if the GOP-backed candidates had prevailed this time, Noel would have considered it a legitimate election.
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Expanding secession • Since Moab is one of those pockets outside of Salt Lake County where rural Republicans don't dominate, one reader responded to my recent column calling for Utah's most-populous county to secede from Utah, opining that other areas could be rescued by that move.
He suggested the movement include Grand County, Park City and the Zion National Park-neighboring town of Springdale.
All those areas could be made a contiguous "state" by annexing the highways that connect them.
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One size fits all • Washington County residents accessing the county treasurer's website to pay their property taxes were offered a link where they could add their name in opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's draft Resource Management Plan for the National Conservation Area that protects the desert tortoise.
The link says if you oppose the BLM plan, you are to fill out the form provided, and your name will be added to that cause.
If you support the management plan, the site gives you no such option.
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Skewed poll? • Reader Craig Watson received several calls from a number whose caller ID said Bed Bath & Beyond. It finally aroused his curiosity, so he phoned back and discovered it was a robocall for a "pro-life" survey.
If you answer "pro-choice," the robocall, which is sponsored by the "Pro-Life Committee," hangs up on you.