Provo Race Getting Crowded

Neighborhood chairman considering run for Provo mayor

Don Allphin throws his hat in the ring.

This makes three declared candidates with Mayor Billings who says: "he is leaning toward running, but wants to get his family's full support before making any formal commitment."

The Mayor is clearly in the race. With Representative Steve Clark declaring a few weeks ago its quickly becoming a crowded field. Conventional wisdom would say that three challengers will dilute the angry voters and favor the incumbent. However, I see three challengers as a symptom of dissent among the ranks.

Parallels

There are a number of interesting parallels to Chris Cannon's situation one year ago. First, both Cannon and Billings had/have served for 12 years. If Billings is elected that's 16 years as Mayor. I repeat 16 years as Mayor! (this isn't the US Senate you know). Second, a couple of high profile issues appear to be weighing on the incumbent; Cannon-illegal immigration and Billings-iProvo. And third, each race had/has a field of very well qualified candidates. In the congressional race you had Chris Cannon, David Leavitt and Jason Chaffetz. In the Mayor's race there's Rep. Steve Clark, Businessman John Curtis, now neighborhood activist Don Allphin, and Mayor Billings.

With this many declared candidates for Mayor (the final deadline to file isn't until July) I think folks smell blood in the water and see Mayor Billings as vulnerable.

I've commited my support to John Curtis. I'll blog more about why in a future post, but I'll say that John's positioning himself well and has shown his abilty to be a good organizer. He's got an early start and has already siphoned off a number of local heavy hitters as endorsments - people who had supported Billings in the past. You can see that list here.

Representative Clark has been in the legislature since 2001 (see his House campaign site here)and before that served three terms on the city council. Steve's wife Cindy is currently on the City Council. Steve's got history that's for sure, but he's never had a serious race. It will be interesting to see if he can mobilize the ground troops on a city-wide level. As he said here, he still has a lot of ground to cover to catch up to Curtis organization-wise.

I'm excited to see so many qualified candidates. I think the competition will breed constructive debate and hopefully the various campaigns will get folks here in Provo involved and excited about our city and its future.

If I had to handicap the race at this point:

Billings: 1/3

Clark: 1/5

Curtis: 1/2

Allphin: 1/9

Good luck to all the candidates!