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 20 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 nine.  The initial four to enter this year’s mayoral race were featured in a previous blog entry, of whom one (Stephen Cope) has since withdrawn.  The latter six are as follows:

1. Edwin Odell Miner, who served as a Provo city commissioner during the 1970s before Provo adopted its current mayor-council system during 1982.  He hasn’t yet shown much interest in significantly changing Provo’s current status quo (which, as Ronald Reagan once quipped, is Latin for “the mess we’re in”),
2. Larry Walters, who is a passionate public servant/manager who wants to balance Provo’s budget while renewing its infrastructure, and who seems poised to highly-competently maintain Provo’s present status quo—except that we need a principled champion of rightful liberty instead.
3. Kevin Wing, who believes in wielding political power beyond simply defending rights to actively foster both prosperity and happiness, and who wants to expand Provo’s current array of city-run businesses to include both an events center and a veterans’ center—which are all fine goals but NOT for political systems.
4. Elliot Craig, whose views are not widely known yet.
5. John Fenley, who is an intelligent futurist whose views go beyond libertarianism into anarchism, which is why he is interested in completely disincorporating Provo. We at Free Provo view anarchy as an unwise overreaction to tyranny, and instead prefer rightful liberty under Constitutional law, and perhaps also a revised city charter for Provo.
6. Howard Stone, a humble-but-tenacious serial candidate who isn’t especially interested in ruling over others, but expresses relatively libertarian / Constitutional views instead.  We presently believe that, despite any arguable inadequacies that he may possess, he’s the best choice overall for Provo—and, as such, we endorse him in this election.

Whether you agree with our assessment of these 9 candidates or not, we nevertheless urge you to identify the best champion of rightful liberty under Constitutional law who runs among them, and then to uphold that candidate as best as possible for as long as he/she remains in this race, including by activating like-minded neighbors.

If we liberty-lovin’ Provoans can build our ranks to become at least as numerous and/or effective as our statist adversaries, then we can help a rights-defending champion to achieve electoral victory, both in Provo’s primary election this August 15th and in Provo’s general election this November 7th.  Which is one reason why Facebook ads began inviting Provoans to this website yesterday, and will continue to do so for the next 7 weeks.  So, what are you waiting for?  Let’s get to work…

References:

• 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: “Diverse group of candidates vie for Provo mayor” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Meet the candidates for Provo’s mayoral race” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Mayoral candidate Odell Miner builds campaign on leading, listening and responding” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Larry Walters says his leadership will secure Provo’s tomorrow” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Kevin ‘The Wingman’ Wing says Provo will prosper if it elects him” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Futuristic thinker John Fenley wants a more free Provo” (2017 Jun 25)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Mayoral candidate John Fenley discusses plans to disincorporate Provo City on ‘What Say Ye?’” (2017 Jun 15)
• Provo Daily Herald: “Howard Stone, fiscal conservative, says he is Provo’s next leader” (2017 Jun 25)