Republican Primary Candidate Comparison 2010

The 2010 Primary Election are being held this June on the 22nd day of the month. This year Salt Lake County is voting in a statewide election for United States Senate and countywide for County Council. The County Council Candidate is called, "Republican at Large." None of the republican candidates are incumbents; therefore, looking at work associations reveals information about how they will vote.

United States Senate

Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater were both born in Utah.

Mike Lee has a multitude of public service experience through U.S. District Courts and Circuit Courts as an assistant lawyer. He improved his rank substantially with strategic career advancements since graduating in 1997. Moving to Washington D.C, he opened a private practice in Utah with connection to the Washington D.C. Law Firm in 2005. Lee is the conservative candidate, supporting the Second Amendment, fighting against the ACLU and supporting the federal bias in legal battles.

Tim Bridgewater is the Chairman and Founder of Interlink Capital Strategies. Having a strong background in business and accounting, he began in banking, acts as Chief Financial Officer for several businesses and often invests in small businesses. Interlink Capital Strategies is a green company. They work towards increasing technology to work with the environment. With strong leanings towards economic and environmental interests, he is a moderate candidate.

Both Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater are on record as against the bailout; therefore, this would imply they would not vote for another bailout. However, Bridgewater's associations with small businesses imply he will vote for increasing the Small Business Association's budget. Currently, we are over-supplying demand. Money needs to be going directly to regular people. This is the common reaction to recession. In addition, Bridgewater has a webpage dedicated to implying Lee is mudslinging; however, Lee's website focuses on the issues giving hardly any attention to his advisory. In this action, it appears Bridgewater is the one actually engaged in mudslinging.

Republican at Large

Richard Snelgrove and Winston Wilkinson are running for Republican at Large.

Snelgrove is an enigma. As the President and Founder of Snelgrove Travel Center and USATravelMart he also belongs to the National Small Business Advisory Council. While he appears to be moderate, he purposed tax-cuts for small businesses and acted as a District Director for Former Congressman Merrill Cook. Merrill Cook is popularly seen as an Independent or Liberal candidate; however, the main economic and relates to townships. Currently, the recession should be resolved with recessionary action; including, cutting taxes. Snelgrove wants to balance the budget, yet only indicates any actual or fully realized plan.

Winston Wilkinson is bold in his opinions about the government and is preemptive in offering statements broad statements about his upbringing. Born in Washington D.C, he offers information about belonging to several Christian sects and even Islam before converting to Mormonism. This insinuates he has a larger perspective of religion. A Navy Veteran and Former Head of United States Department of Health and Human Services under Utah Governor Mike Leavitt he has work experience in the public sector. Taking the conservative approach on issues, he wants more government and believes in majority rule. Plans include reducing funding to hotels and taxing small businesses to fund the police department.

Vastly different candidates, they appear to be capable to deal with current situations. Winston Wilkinson has developed national connections, while Richard Snelgrove is familiar with the business culture of Utah. County Council handles county issues; however, there is concern Senator will be retiring soon and Utah will lose seniority in Congress. Snelgrove only implies tactics, yet we can surmise he will probably reduce government funded programs for UTA and small business. Wilkinson has allowed people to see him clearly, yet bigger government and taxing small business owners is counterproductive to balancing the budget as explained in "Economic Mixing Board." Perhaps restricting police benefit packages would reduce costs, bringing the budget into focus. Managers want to make higher salaries than those working in the field, yet it is those in the field are in life-and-death situations. This is why they must offer high salaries at entry level. If police officers had separate hazard pay, the connection to lower pay after getting a desk job would be clarified.

When the goal is to spend less money to lower taxes, it seems politicians have to spend a billion dollars to make a plan. There are positive and negative points concerning candidates. We vote for people who would vote how we would; instead of, sending in a letter. Having experience in the private sector is great. They can relate to regular consumers who want to balance supply and demand. All candidates appear competent, some are discrete. Perhaps they are worried they will be misunderstood. The greater perspective of voting is to make a conscious decision when picking a candidate.

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Economic Mixing Board