Why?

This is why I felt that I should run for County Attorney.

And this.

And this.

Corruption.

I'm going to say this here, and then I'm going to avoid speaking about it any more:  I don't think that the current County Attorney is personally corrupt or bad.  He is merely the symptom of a decrepit political situation.

When I worked in the Intelligence Community, the professional motto was: To Speak Truth To Power.   In other words, to tell the politician who wanted to rule the world how the world would react to that (which was usually 'badly'.)

The role of Attorney is to zealously represent the interests of your client.  A huge part of that is to work as a buffer of sorts.  Some clients don't understand the law.  Some clients don't want to understand the law.  If they walk into a court of law in that frame of mind, they will suffer at the hands of the law.  Attorneys intermediate between the law and those clients:  Explaining the law to the client, making the client understand the stakes and the process, and giving them realistic explanations of what they can expect when the law is applied to their cases.  In many cases that involves telling the client that the law will not be on their side in the situation, and that they should change their expectations and behavior.  This is the essence of the legal profession.

When an attorney isn't evaluated by his competence and judgment, but rather by his loyalty and acceptability to his client, his legal objectivity fails.  His motives are different.  His analysis is biased.  His advice is prejudiced.  And most of the time, he will not even realize it.

So, here in Utah County.  After being given the office by the Republican Party, and expecting to get it again, the County Attorney pays attention to the whims and demands of the people who put him where he is.   When forced to make a decision to apply the law to a member of that cabal, he decides that nothing wrong happened.  To those who matter to him, nothing bad did happen.  They are not the ones who will be burdened by the debt incurred by the Republican Mayor of Highland.  No, the citizens are now stuck with it, while the crony-capitalists who control Utah County politics laugh all the way to the bank.

First!

Everyone I talk to, prevailing political theory, and my gut tell me that sophisticated, complex analysis and exposition of issues is not the way to appeal to the broader electorate.  So, since I've never been the one to accept advice at face value, of course I will fail to follow the orthodoxy.

In a nod to systems engineering, however, I will do it here, in a forum that one has to seek out.  I'll reserve the pithy, concise slogans for my campaign speeches and communications.

I am a candidate for County Attorney in Utah County, Utah.  One of the things I want to do on this blog is explain why I would want to be County Attorney in Utah County, using big words and wonky analogies.

Drop by often.