Deseret News, March 7, 2010
Marc Haddock

Steve Baugh

In 2008, Baugh received 40 percent of the vote in a campaign against incumbent Republican Rep. Stephen Sandstrom.

Baugh, a Democrat, said he was prompted to make a second run after becoming frustrated with the current legislative session.

"I continue to believe that the issues that are really important to our citizens are education, the economy and legislative ethics and I grow increasingly frustrated to read about legislators for a huge portion of the session talking about changing holidays and suing the federal government over this and that while real issues go largely unaddressed," he said "I'm going to put my name forward to give people a choice of someone that will work for the real issues that our citizens are concerned about."

In announcing his candidacy, Baugh, and an Orem native, said he is in favor of the initiative petition for ethics reform for Utah legislators, and that he would work hard to support education.

An associate professor of educational leadership and directs a school-university partnership center in the school of education at BYU, Baugh started as a math teacher at Orem High School, was principal of Pleasant Grove Jr. High, American Fork Jr. High and American Fork High schools before being named superintendent of the Alpine School district.

Deon Turley says she will not accept any corporate donations to her campaign.

Salt Lake Tribune, March 5, 2010
Donald W. Meyers

PROVO--Deon Turley believes in the Utahns for Ethical Government's initiative enough that she will abide by it before it even goes to voters.

Turley, who is challenging Rep. Keith Grover, R-Provo, said she will not accept any corporate donations for her campaign. The Democrat unsuccessfully challenged Grover two years ago.

"I have decided if I am going to talk the talk, I had better be willing to walk the walk," Turley said.

Turley announced her candidacy at the Provo School District's Grandview Technology Center Thursday.

UEG's initiative, which Turley supports, would bar legislators and candidates from accepting donations from corporations, labor unions and nonprofit groups.

So far, Turley has not accepted Internet provider Xmission's offer to host her Web site for free, considering that a corporate donation. Instead, she's paying for her Web hosting and is seeking donations from her prospective constituents.

She doesn't anticipate her stand putting her at too much of a disadvantage in the race. She sought donations from constituents in the last election, while Grover, she said, accepted money mostly from businesses, political action committees or fellow legislators.

Deseret News, March 5, 2010
Sara Lenz

PROVO — Former American Fork mayor Ted Barratt announced on Friday he is running for the Democratic Party nomination for a Utah County commission seat.

Barratt has served two terms as American Fork mayor and prior to that served one term on the city council.

He said he is running so voters will have a choice on the ballot. But he also said he feels he can unite the cities and the county better and help them to work more as a whole.

He said his biggest platform position is that of protecting the family. Barratt, 62, has five children and four grandchildren and said it is the government's responsibility to protect families and invest in education.

Barratt's profession is realty, but he earlier ran a hardware and business supply store in American Fork. He has lived in Utah most of his life.

He said a number of his associates encouraged him to run. Although it may be tough to win in Republican-dominated Utah County as a Democrat, he said people should look at the man, not the party.

He will be running for Commission Seat B, a position currently held by Steve White, who announced earlier this week he is running for a third term. Leon Frazier of Provo said he also is vying for the spot.

Salt Lake Tribune, February 25, 2010

OREM -- Former Alpine School Superintendent Steven Baugh hopes second time is the charm.

Baugh announced Tuesday that he will make a second run as a Democrat against Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem. Baugh spoke before a group of 30 supporters and family members at Foothill Elementary School, a building designed by Sandstrom's architectural firm.

In the 2008 election, Baugh received nearly 40 percent of the vote, a showing Democratic Party chairman Richard Davis earlier said was a sign that the Republican hold on the county was weakening.

"I think I can get him this time," Baugh said of Sandstrom. But he said speaking out on the issues of education, the economy and legislative ethics was most important.

Sandstrom was not available for comment at press time, and did not return messages left at the Legislature.

Baugh, who now teaches educational leadership at Brigham Young University, said his parents, who were at his announcement, instilled in him fiscal and social conservatism.

"On the key hot-button issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, let me be clear: I have the same values as you do," Baugh said. "Every abortion is a tragedy, and I believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman."

Baugh said the Legislature has wasted time feuding with the federal government and debating whether to create another state holiday while ignoring overcrowded and underfunded schools, as well as cutting back on Utah Valley University's funding. He said UVU is vital not only to the economy but to helping people get the education and skills they need to work.

Deseret News, February 15, 2010
Emily James

Don Jarvis

Jarvis discussed the correlation between the economy and the environment, sharing that the brown haze that settles in during the winter often causes business people investigating Utah to change their minds. Jarvis also noted the negative effect on people's health that poor air quality can have.

"A very simple, immediate thing would be to make more compressed natural gas filling stations available up and down the Wasatch front," Jarvis said. "It's a very simple, doable, cost-effective plan."

Jarvis said these stations would benefit many different aspects of life in Utah, like providing jobs to build the stations. Additionally, compressed natural gas costs less than half of what gasoline costs.

• LDS Church affirms it is not aligned with any particular political ideology or movement; its moral values may be expressed in a number of parties and ideologies.
• Views with concern the politics of fear and rhetorical extremism that render civil discussion impossible.
  
• Hopes for kinder and more reasoned exchanges among fellow Americans.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The political world is astir. Economies are faltering. Public trust is waning. Individuals feel vulnerable. And social cohesion wears thin. Meanwhile, stories of rage and agitation fill our airwaves, streets and town halls. Where are the voices of balance and moderation in these extreme times? During a recent address given in an interfaith setting, Church President Thomas S. Monson declared: "When a spirit of goodwill prompts our thinking and when united effort goes to work on a common problem, the results can be most gratifying." Further, former Church President Gordon B. Hinckley once said that living "together in communities with respect and concern one for another" is "the hallmark of civilization." That hallmark is under increasing threat.

So many of the habits and conventions of modern culture — ubiquitous media, anonymous and unsourced online participation, politicization of the routine, fractured community and family life — undermine the virtues and manners that make peaceful coexistence in a pluralist society possible. The fabric of civil society tears when stretched thin by its extremities. Civility, then, becomes the measure of our collective and individual character as citizens of a democracy.

A healthy democracy maintains equilibrium through diverse means, including a patchwork of competing interests and an effective system of governmental checks. Nevertheless, this order ultimately relies on the integrity of the people. Speaking at general conference, a semiannual worldwide gathering of the Church, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asserted: "In the end, it is only an internal moral compass in each individual that can effectively deal with the root causes as well as the symptoms of societal decay." Likewise, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton emphasized that the virtues of fidelity, charity, generosity, humility and responsibility "form the foundation of a Christian life and are the outward manifestation of the inner man." Thus, moral virtues blend into civic virtues. The seriousness of our common challenges calls for an equally serious engagement with reasonable ideas and solutions. What we need is rigorous debate, not rancorous altercations.

Civility is not only a matter of discourse. It is primarily a mode of engagement. The technological interconnectedness of society has made isolation impossible. Of all the institutions in the modern world, religion has had perhaps the greatest difficulty adjusting to the reality of give and take with the public. Today, and throughout its history, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continuously encounters the legitimate interests of various stakeholders in its interaction with the public. Rather than exempting itself from the rules of law and civility, the Church has sought the path of cooperative engagement and avoided the perils of acrimonious confrontation.