Provo requires all residents seeking city office to register their candidacy between June 1st and June 7th, and so (as we post this blog entry) it’s been clear for 10 days now what this year’s electoral options will be for us Provoans.

Provoans campaigning in 2017 for mayor (now that John Curtis is retiring after two terms) include an unusually-large group of ten.  The first four to enter this year’s mayoral race were, in order:

1. Michelle Kaufusi, who has told the Provo Daily Herald that she was asked to seek office by some of Provo’s political/economic elites.  She seems to be an experienced central planner who proposes to exert political control over our economy such that our economy grants west Provoans a grocery store.
2. Sherrie Hall Everett, who is another seemingly skilled central planner who was highly involved in developing Provo’s Vision 2030 central planning guidelines, and says that she wants to encourage more Provoans to involve themselves in Provo’s central-planning process.
3. Stephen Cope, who is a young artist with “liberal” political views who considers himself neither male nor female, but something in between.
4. Eric Speckhard, who wants more honest open inclusive cooperative government that will continue some (if not all) of Provo’s current central-planning policies like subsidizing businesses, incentivizing shoppers, and dictating land usage.

It’s arguable that both Sherrie and Michelle are this year’s two Establishment favorites, intended to survive Provo’s mid-August primary election (which will eliminate all but two candidates for each office) and then face each other in November.  Whether that’s true or not, none of these four initial candidates seem to be principled champions of rightful liberty under Constitutional law and, as such, none have earned our support.

We solicited additional candidates for 2017 through Facebook advertising that reached over 2,000 Provoans with libertarian and/or Constitutional interests in late May.  Perhaps partly in response to those efforts, six more Provoans registered to campaign for mayor at the figurative last minute in early June.  We will feature those final six in a subsequent blog entry.

References:

• Provo: Provo City Vision 2030
• Provo Daily Herald: “Provo Mayor John Curtis announces he will not seek re-election” (2016 Nov 01)
• Vote Provo: Meet the Candidates
• Provo Daily Herald: “Michelle Kaufusi announces candidacy for Provo mayor” (2016 Nov 03)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Sherrie Hall Everett announces candidacy for Provo mayor” (2017 Jan 19)
• Salt Lake Tribune: “Meet the gender nonbinary candidate for mayor who’s ‘not the traditional Provo image’” (2017 May 11)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Provo mayoral candidate Stephen Cope discusses platform on ‘What Say Ye?’ podcast” (2017 May 16)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Michelle Kaufusi explains her Provo mayoral candidacy on new ‘What Say Ye?’” (2017 May 22)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Eric Speckhard throws hat into Provo mayoral race” (2017 May 23)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Sherrie Hall Everett visits ‘What Say Ye?’ to discuss mayoral candidacy, BRT” (2017 May 30)
• Provo Daily Herald: “‘What Say Ye?’ podcast: Mayoral candidate Eric Speckhard on how to help Provo’s homeless” (2017 Jun 06)