Weber County Republican Convention

This years Weber County Republican Convention started out it in it's usually way. A few simple booths from the candidates that want your vote. Candidates and their families are racing for sign location. The ones who show up late end up scrambling. This year it was The Attorney General - Mark Shurtleff's advance team appeared to be about an hour late in setting up and were scrambling with their disorganized van of signs and ladders. A few served ice cream, cookies, pop corn, and displayed their free shirts. It reminded me of my brief time spent in politics as an advance team director and how crazy those times could be.

I saw our councilmen Wayne M. Smith at the convention, he was having a healthy conversation about fishing. You see this was a time for many people to catch up. Many old time Republicans took the time to swap stories or talk about Obama vs. Clinton and the Iraq war.

The chairmen kept things moving fairly quickly, he instigated a one clap rule for all applause, which tended to fade away from time to time. But we were moving very quickly. I was disappointed that our potential republican candidate, Brent Wallis, from Leg District 10 did nothing to campaign. Since the reason we keep losing on the republican side is that republicans are voting for the democrat (which I may do, D. Edger "Ed" Allen I hear is a good man). I will need to gather more information on each candidate before I make a decision on anything.

The exciting race of the day (for me to watch) was that of Ryan Wilcox. He is running against incumbent Glenn Donnelson in House District 7. Ryan campaigned excellently. His booth was very visible, he had water, popcorn and cotton candy for everyone. Every booth had food from his booth on their table, displaying his logo. He had girls walking through the bleachers passing out more food, some from other campaigns. A group of women stood in the door way getting everyone to put on a Ryan Wilcox sticker. At one point all I could see were Ryan Wilcox stickers and District 7 didn't have 100 delegates, but that is how many stickers it seemed like! The campus of Orion Junior High School was covered with Ryan Wilcox signs. I almost forgot who Glenn Donnelson was. As Uncle Lewie said in Lost in Yonkers, "This kid has moxy." Well it was no surprise for me to learn he beat Glenn by one vote, forcing the race to a primary. This will be one to watch.

Though it indirectly affects South Ogden, it is Weber County and we need to watch and support our Weber county representatives. In the end it was well worth the visit.