Calling Chris Herrod's House seat undeserved, Claralyn Hill enters race

Salt Lake Tribune, February 27, 2008
Donald W. Meyers

PROVO - For Provo attorney Claralyn Hill, the final straw was seeing Republican Chris Herrod appointed to fill a vacant House seat even though he earned fewer votes in a GOP runoff.

However, instead of merely complaining about the secret process that allowed Herrod to take Jeff Alexander's seat last year without standing for election, Hill has decided to challenge Herrod this year.

"We need to get a little more balance," Hill said Tuesday after announcing her Democratic candidacy at the Provo City Library.

Hill, a lawyer who has previously worked as a guardian ad litem and a member of the United Way of Utah County's executive committee, said the GOP's dominance in Utah has made it less willing to listen not only to opposing voices but also to loyal constituents.

Utah Policy Daily, February 27, 2008
LaVarr Webb & Associates

Utah County Democrats are offering the strongest field of legislative candidates that I’ve seen in many years of observing Utah politics. The remarkable class of candidates reflects the strong leadership county Democratic Chair Richard Davis and Vice-Chair Larry Brown. Davis, a BYU political science professor, is showing that someone who hangs out in the ivory tower can also fight and scrap and do the nuts and bolts grassroots work so important in building a county party.

Many of the candidate recruits are prominent in their communities and have strong ties to BYU and the LDS Church. Most of them will run smart, well-organized campaigns.  While winning in overwhelmingly Republican Utah County will always be difficult for Democrats, it’s clear that GOP candidates are going to have to get out and work, for a change. Here’s a list of the current Democratic candidates, with more expected to announce over the next few weeks. The Republican incumbent in each district is also noted.

Claralyn Hill

PROVO — The eighth Democrat in Utah County, Provo attorney Claralyn M. Hill, announced her candidacy for a state House seat at noon Tuesday.

Hill, 59, is married to Ned C. Hill, dean of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.

"I am really proud to be from Utah County. I love our county. I love the people who live and work here," Hill said in her speech to about 75 people in a conference room at the Provo City Library at Academy Square.

Claralyn Hill is running for House District 62. Currently Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, who was appointed to replace Jeff Alexander, is filling the seat.

"We deserve to have the best representation that reflects the intelligence and goodness of the people here," Hill said.

"I am asking for your vote because I am more qualified and knowledgeable than the incumbent. I am more in touch with my community than the incumbent. I am more free of vested interest and closer to your values than the incumbent. I am less partisan and more moderate than the incumbent," she said.

"I promise you that if you elect me I will work hard and be effective," Hill said.

Daily Herald, February 25, 2008
George Handley

As a college student twenty years ago, I traveled behind what was once known as the Iron Curtain and saw firsthand how a single-party system creates a culture of public disengagement with politics. I learned that democracy without political plurality is not the rule of the people but the rule of hardened tradition and capricious power. Political competition keeps parties answerable to the people about what they are doing and why.

In Utah County, however, I believe we have seen a slow and steady erosion of democracy. We have seen many Republicans chosen for, not elected to, office and many who have never run against opposition. Without a single statement from LDS church leadership to back it up, we have heard for years the empty claim, if not the unspoken assumption, that "good" Mormons can only be Republicans. This, a myth that makes reason stare not only in a plural society like America but in an increasingly international church, not to mention in a party as apparently inhospitable to Mormons as Mitt Romney's party is. Perhaps Romney's fate stings, but his spurning by the evangelicals comes as no less an assault than that experienced by Mormon Democrats in Utah culture for some time. Recently, I read one Republican incumbent in Utah County express "surprise" that a Democrat, and fellow Mormon, would choose to run against him. Surely such surprise is a symptom of a broken system.

Freedom depends on diversity. It is not secured through staid tradition, chauvinism, censorship, or intimidation. Consensus that relies on habitual and categorical trust of some and distrust of others is a threat to the free flow of information and to freedom itself. Freedom is secured in a culture that acknowledges diversity of opinion and celebrates genuine exchange of ideas. In a culture of exceptional homogeneity of belief, the preservation of political openness is even more vital. I suppose this is the same reason why the LDS church depends on councils, counselors, and auxiliaries. It impoverishes a church, as it does a plural society, for anyone to feel shamed merely because of a difference of opinion, as if holding a minority viewpoint were necessarily a symptom of following the wrong spirit.

Ken Peay

BENJAMIN — Kenneth Peay, former Utah Highway Patrol commander in Utah County, has announced he will run for the Utah Senate on the Democratic ticket. Peay said he understands the needs of the county better than the current representative, Mark Madsen.

Peay grew up in south Utah County and currently resides in Benjamin.

He said his main concerns are growing crime, need for health insurance for every Utahn, as well as better schools and roads. Treatment and rehabilitation are needed for nonviolent drug abusers, he said. He recognized the need for growth in the county but also said the growth needs to be controlled with better infrastructure. An advocate of mass transit, Peay said he would move to create more alternative transit opportunities in Utah County. He also said he will work to improve public schools.

Peay also said that his years of service as a law enforcement officer will help him be a good senator.

David Huff, a longtime friend of Peay and an administrator at Spanish Fork Junior High School, said he knows Peay will do the job well if he is elected.

Daily Herald, February 22, 2008

Democrat Kenneth Peay announced Thursday that he's running for the Utah State Senate District 13, which is now held by Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain.

Peay worked in law enforcement for 31 years, retiring as the commander of the Utah Highway Patrol in Utah County. He was born in Payson, grew up in Benjamin and graduated from Spanish Fork High School. He has a bachelor's degree from Southern Utah University and a master's degree from Brigham Young University.

He and his wife, Cecile, have three children and four grandchildren.

Deseret Morning News, February 16, 2008
Tad Walsh

 PROVO — The Western States Presidential Primary proved once again that Utah County is a political red zone.

Really, really red.

Last week, Utah Valley voters flocked to the polls to cast ballots in the presidential primaries. Nearly 87 percent chose to vote as Republicans. The Democratic primary drew a meager 8,448 of the more than 62,000 Utah Valley residents who cast ballots.

In another year, that might have thrown a scare into the growing number of moderates who have announced they will run as Democrats this fall in a well-coordinated offensive aimed at the Republican stranglehold on Utah County's seats in the state Legislature.

Scared? No. Plenty humble, sure. How could a Democrat be anything but humble in a county where a Democrat hasn't won since 1994?

But scared? Not this year. Not in The Year After the Great Voucher Vote.

You remember vouchers. In a referendum last November, an avalanche of votes negated the 2007 Legislature's decision to provide school vouchers.

The voucher defeat was, believe it or not, more impressive than Utah's love affair with Mitt Romney, which was astounding. Romney captured 90 percent of the votes in Utah's Republican primary. Add in all the votes cast in the Democratic primary and Romney earned 62 percent of all ballots cast by Utahns last week.