Like Utah.
Ford's justified belief that political power here is unacceptably out of balance motivated the energetic young lawyer to register as a Democrat and to challenge the personification of arrogant single-party rule - Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson.
The voters of the 11th District would be doing themselves, and the entire state of Utah, a favor if they would elect Ford and end Stephenson's 14-year run of supporting a government that is far too comfortable operating behind closed doors and doing the bidding of big-spending special interests.
Both Ford, 34, and Stephenson, 56, are Utah natives who claim roots in Ronald Reagan-style, free-market Republicanism. But, while Stephenson clings to the flickering image of Reagan from 1964, it is Ford who sees the reality of life in the 21st century.
In Ford's view, further tempered by his experience as a Wall Street lawyer, big business too often bends government to its will, avoiding its own responsibilities on issues from the environment to bankruptcies.
That power grows in dark places, such as the Utah Legislature's Republican closed-caucus process. Ford would champion the very campaign reform and conflict of interest laws that Stephenson stands against.
Stephenson opposes such reforms because he is paid to. As president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, he wears the hats of both a legislator and a lobbyist, representing wealthy interests in their eternal struggle to avoid paying taxes and shortchange education and social services.
The move by the Legislature to hijack Salt Lake County's proposed property tax levy for TRAX expansion, shift it to a sales tax that is easier on big business, peel off a quarter of the revenue for more highways and require the county to kowtow to the Legislature to finish the program has Stephenson's fingerprints all over it. The move may endanger passage of the measure and belies the supposed conservative belief that power should be devolved to the most local level of government.
A Ford victory in District 11 would take a brick out of a wall that has stood for a long time, and bring a little much-needed sunlight to the Legislature.
* UTAH SENATE DISTRICT 11 includes the cities of Riverton and Bluffdale and much of Draper in Salt Lake County, plus the northeastern part of Utah County, including the communities of Alpine, Highland and Lehi.
