But ask officials at the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office and they'll tell you that Christensen remains a member of the Grand Old Party, at least according to their registration records as of Friday, and he has been since December 2001.
Christensen, Democratic Mayor Rocky Anderson's choice to succeed him, insists he isn't having second thoughts about his much-publicized defection from the Republican ranks to unaffiliated status. He says he sent a letter a week ago declaring his shift; the Clerk's Office just hasn't received it yet.
So, in short, the change is in the mail.
Sign strife on the west side
Summertime sizzle in Utah spells outdoor concerts, wildfires and . . . stolen campaign signs, of course.
The latest chapter wends across Salt Lake City's west side, where Michael Clara is challenging incumbent Councilman Van Turner in District 2. Clara argues Turner has surreptitiously nabbed some Clara signs - on Clara's street no less. And worse, he alleges, his opponent has placed Turner signs on fences without permission.
Clara calls the affair "bizarre," but reasons that Turner may be motivated by what he says is a 10-to-2 ratio of Clara signs in the district. A jaunt along 900 West suggests he may be right.
Turner denies the chicanery - "I never touched his signs," he retorts - and says he labored to get permission from each resident. Clara says he has evidence to the contrary - on film.
Both candidates agree that getting permission from neighbors is a must before stringing up signs. But the problem on at least one chain-link fence may be moot.
Turner reports that when he cruised by last week, both men's signs had been swiped.
Constitutionally challenged?
Breaking up is hard to do.
Just ask South Salt Lake City Council members as they ponder the complexities of a potential split from the Granite School District. The aim is to form a smaller district with Holladay and portions of Salt Lake County.
The council is scheduled to vote July 25 on whether to place the issue on November's ballot, but some suspect that that fall vote will become the focus of one or more lawsuits.
Some legal minds suggest that it would violate the 14th Amendment because west-siders, who would be affected by the breakup - in the form of hefty tax hikes - would be effectively disenfranchised since they could not vote on the issue.
According to recently enacted state law, forming a new school district is similar to incorporation, in which only the entities seeking to defect have a say at the ballot box.
"When Cottonwood Heights was formed, we didn't have a vote," reasoned South Salt Lake Councilman Bill Anderson during last week's council session. "If that constitutional logic prevails [in court], the next day you can expect a call from Queen Elizabeth, asking for her country back."
On another note, Anderson said, Granite School Board members now want to huddle with South Salt Lake Council members to begin a dialogue.
That meeting could take place July 25, immediately before the public hearing and council vote on the ballot measure.
So is it too late for talk?
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* Have a tip? Contact DEREK P. JENSEN at djensen@sltrib.com, 801-257-8785; CATHY MCKITRICK at cmckitrick@sltrib.com, 801-257-8778; ROSEMARY WINTERS at rwinters@sltrib.com, 257-8737; KRISTEN MOULTON at kmoulton@sltrib.com, 831-0467; JEREMIAH STETTLER at jstettler@sltrib.com, 801-257-8755.
