GARY SHUMWAY for Summit County Council

There has been a recount or a final count or a 'we found more ballots' count by Summit County for the 2008 election. These new results are the Official Results and were issued 11/18/2008. These results are slightly different than the initial, unofficial results which was produced the evening of the elections. I really like the Official Results better!

Our monthly Constitution Party of Utah Executive meeting was held Saturday, 11/15/2008. From that meeting some additional information came to light regarding this past election cycle.

Nationwide, the Constitution Party candidate for President, Chuck Baldwin, came in fifth place. The vote totals went: Obama (66,744,472 - 52.7%), McCain (58,272,729 - 46.0%), Nader (697,128 - 0.6%), Barr (510,477 - 0.4%), Baldwin (181,769 - 0.1%), and McKinney (152,243 - 0.1%).

Executive Summary:
Of all the Utah Constitution Party candidates in three-way races in the 2008 election, I polled the highest percentage of votes at 9.8 percent!! Not shabby at all, considering! Again, thank all of you who voted for me! I really appreciate it. Let's do it again, and more, in 2010!

Finally, the campaign is over!

I have sent a congratulatory email to Chris Robinson regarding his win in the Summit County Council, Seat 'D' race. Chris (D) received 51.34 percent of the vote and Alison Pitt (R) received 38.82 percent. I, campaigning as a Constitution Party candidate, received 9.79 percent. It was a good race and no one got personal. I did question how many times Chris (and even Alison) would have to recluse himself because of his self acknowledged many and varied interests and land holdings in the County. But the people have spoken.

In delving further into the Summit County Council candidates' financial reports as reported in the Park Record, I used the term 'gang of four' to describe four of the five Democrat candidates, i.e., Elliott, McMullin, Hanrahan, and Robinson as having somewhat equivalent campaign contributions. That is, the exclusion of Weinstein from those contributions, particularly from the Summit County Democrat Party.

Apparently, based on comments to my comment of the article, there is need for clarification.

Earlier (10/28/2008), Rebecca Palmer, a Deseret News reporter, asked the Summit County Council candidates to respond within twelve-hours to a number of questions she posed. I was able to comply and my responses to her questions can be found in the 'Deseret News Summit County Council Q&A' page. The questions were fairly good but when I read her article of 11/01/2008 I begin to wonder.

First, she has 12 candidates campaigning for the five Council seats. This is news to me, I thought there were 11 candidates.

I had noted that a number of the other candidates were writing letters to the editor of the Park Record introducing themselves to the public and generally singing their praises. Not to be left out of the clamor, I sent my letter to the editor in as well. To the Park Record's credit, they actually printed it! Thank you!

Here is what they printed as to my 'Letter to the Editor':

If you are tired of politics as usual

Editor:

I appreciate the Park Record printing my answers to their nine questions but I have two remaining questions. Where is the candidate's picture? It seems the other candidates have a pic included. Maybe my image broke the camera, if so, you'll have to talk to my attorney about reparations.