If you're so far behind in an election that you can't possibly win without lying or otherwise making yourself look like a fool, you should probably concede to your opponent. Instead, the Peter Corroon campaign tried to destroy his opponent. Recently, his campaign has claimed that Gary Herbert is a governor for sale. That is pure bunk.
I've just been listening to a reprise of a conversation between KSL's Doug Wright and Utah Department of Transportation director John Nord. After listening to Mr. Nord, as well as hearing things that Doug Wright has visited with Governor Gary Herbert about, the whole situation is looking like a very embarrassing wicket and a soon-to-be political funeral for Peter Corroon.
Doug Wright mentioned that Governor Herbert told him that if he would have had any influence in the I-15 bidding process, which he did not nor could not, he would have influenced the bid to be given to his close Utah County friend WW Clyde, who in reality came in 3rd place in the bidding process.
John Nord has invited Peter Corroon to come to his office to visit--any time of day or night. As of the time of the radio interview, he has not taken the opportunity to do so. Instead, Corroon gave Nord a phone call at his home late one recent night. During the conversation, Nord got the distinct impression that Corroon was being evasive and didn't seem to want to know the truth. To the best of Nord's knowlege, Corroon has never been to the UDOT web site to read the documents detailing the bidding process. Contrarily, Governor Herbert, since hearing about the allegations, has spent a great deal of time visiting with Mr. Nord about the facts in the case.
Acording to Nord, Corroon deflected responsibility for the misplaced allegations against Nord and the governor, that it was someone else who had put the campaign of allegations together. Nord invited Corroon to pull his own campaign ads that perpetuated the mistruths. Corroon was evasive and seemed uninterested in doing so.
Nord explained to Doug Wright that about 600 people are involved in bidding review process, making it essentially impossible for a governor to have influenced the process. He explained that the 13 million dollars paid to the runner up in the bidding process was for design of actual construction routes and methods that are currently being used on the I-15 construction project.
In speaking with Doug Wright later in Mr. Wright's radio show segment re-aired this evening, Mayor Corroon is heard to claim (again) to Mr Wright that "a 3rd party" put together the document that claims that Gary Herbert is a governor for sale, and that Corroon had nothing to do with it.
Mayor Corroon could resurrect his image and his self-respect if he publicly apologized to Governor Herbert. I hope he does. But one thing we should have all recognized by now--whether he orchestrated the allegations or just simply couldn't control overzealous campaign staffers, Peter Corroon does not deserve to be the governor of Utah.
Frank, I think there's a few holes in this explanation. UDOT and the Gov's office have been plastering the whole "we were avoiding a lawsuit" story all over this thing. Your characterization, however, makes it sound like UDOT was just paying off their bills. So which is it? Did UDOT have to pay off an angry company to avoid construction delays, or do they suck at paying contractors what they're owed? In either case, there's a problem in the executive that can't be explained away.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Gov. Herbert is stuck in the classic politician's dilemma. He can claim ignorance, and look incompetent. Or he can say he knew all about the money and the contracts, which creates the appearance of a "pay to play" system.
ReplyDeleteI'm searching for an example of when Corroon lied about something...
ReplyDeleteNot finding it...
Still not finding it...
The questions Corroon is asking are legitimate, and it's actually unfortunate we don't hold our elected officials in this state to a high enough standard to be asking such questions EVERY CYCLE.
Those that find if offensive or distasteful are being naive -- at best.
All the manufactured indignation over Corroon's questions serves only to distract from the fact that Herbert is either lying about what does on, what he knew... or he's a completely incompetent Guv.
That is what you should be upset about, not that a political challenger asked some tough questions that made Gary look like a moron.