Crockett, McAdams prepare to debate tonight and this weekend [Examiner.com]

September 26, 2012 by Daniel Burton

The following is a piece I wrote for the Examiner.com

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(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Candidates for Salt Lake County mayor, Mark Crockett, left, and Ben McAdams debate at the Utah League of Cities and Towns annual conference Friday September 14.

In what is shaping up to be one of Utah’s most watched elections this year, candidates for Salt Lake County mayor will meet in three debates this week and several more in the coming weeks.

Starting tonight on KCPW, Republican businessman Mark Crockett and Democratic Senator and political consultant Ben McAdams will debate why each should be chosen as mayor of Utah’s most populous county. This is not the first debate between the two, but it is the first broadcast during the prime time hours from 6 to 8 PM.

According to the Deseret News, Crockett and McAdams will meet again on Saturday at 11 A.M. at at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral and Sunday morning on KSL in a taped debate for Richard Piatt’s “Sunday Edition.”

This is the first time the candidates have met head to head since each rolled out competing plans for reforming Salt Lake County’s budget. Since early March, Crockett has touted a month by month plan on his website to reform the County’s large budget. The plan plans to lower taxes, bring high paying jobs into the valley, and put people first to make the community safer.

Mark Crockett held a press conference today to illustrate how his plan to streamline the county budget would work. You can read Crockett’s plan on his website. http://www.markcrockett.com/facts

In response to a challenge from Crockett to a “substantive campaign discussion” on budgetary reform, two days later McAdams unveiled his five-point plan to “streamline” Salt Lake County, including ideas, as he noted on the radio, having county officials use smartphone apps to find cheaper gas prices.

Echoing Crockett’s efficiency message, McAdam’s told theSalt Lake Tribune that his plan will focus on prioritizing “efficiency as a value” and “bringing people together.” During his short tenure as a state senator, McAdams has claimed a record of working with Democrats and Republicans.Crockett says that McAdams’ plans are well meaning, but require execution by experienced leaders. “They’re all fine things,” quotes the Salt Lake Tribune. “Like they’ve been lifted right out of a business journal. But 70 to 80 percent of the time these efforts fail [because] they are really complicated. If you’re going to reform a nearly $1 billion budget with hundreds of programs, you should have the skill set to do that. And that’s what I have.”