This year the voters of Utah will be making a choice about who they want to represent them in the U.S. Senate and, as a registered “unaffiliated” voter, I am glad that my vote will actually matter in an election cycle.
My family and I relocated to Utah in 2013 from Louisiana. Louisiana, like Utah, has unique ways of doing things. One example of Louisiana’s uniqueness is its primary system for local, state and congressional elections. There is no party primary process in Louisiana. Every candidate runs against each other in the primary, and if a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, they win. If no candidate gets to that threshold, there is a run-off between the two top vote-getters.
Growing up in a system like that makes it easy to devalue political parties because it allows voters to make individual choices.
My first glimpse into the Utah political process was in 2016, when I attended both party conventions at the Salt Palace. The Gary Herbert campaign gave me a black cowboy hat. I was also in the room when Democratic candidate for governor Mike Weinholtz told the attendees about his wife getting arrested with a large amount of marijuana.
My takeaway from that day was that I did not identify with either major party, so I stayed unaffiliated.
I have since observed people change their registration so “their vote can count.” I believe that approach lacks true principles. We witnessed that this election cycle when the mainstay figures of the Utah Democratic Party orchestrated a move not to field a candidate at all. Instead, they backed an individual with a questionable background, questionable approach and questionable motives.
As a taxpaying voter of Utah, I want consistency. I do not expect local, state and federal elected officials to share all of my beliefs and positions, but I expect them to have a policy platform that is more than doing everything possible to get elected.
My unaffiliated vote has been consistent since I moved to Utah. Now that consistency is paying off because I will impact this year’s U.S. Senate race. I based my decision to vote for Sen. Mike Lee on a deep comparison between him and his opponent. When I say deep comparison, I need to clarify that the depth only applies to Lee, because he is the only one with a measurable and consistent track record.
When I tell people I am voting for Lee, they say they don’t like his political persona. I say he has a persona of steady, unchanging focus. A focus built upon a simple notion: It is not the federal government’s job to bail out poorly run states. If you want to live in states with unbearable tax rates, don’t get income tax breaks from the federal government. If you wish to stop out-of-control inflation, don’t pump unprecedented amounts of federal stimulus into the economy.
Lee’s position on these issues is known, while his opponent doesn’t even know his party affiliation.
I encourage every voter in Utah to vote for Sen. Mike Lee on November 8.
Stuart A. Clason
Stuart A. Clason, Salt Lake City, is a development consultant who has held executive positions for Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, Gov. Gary Herbert and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.
