Crockett pulling ahead of well-funded McAdams in SLCo Mayor race

Mark Crockett, left, and Ben McAdams, right, debate recently before the ULCT. Photo by the Salt Lake Tribune.

If you didn’t catch it, Mark Crockett is polling ahead of Ben McAdams in the Salt Lake County race for mayor.

That’s a big deal. McAdams, with a large money advantage, has outspent Crockett by almost two to one.

The Deseret News/KSL poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, puts Crockett at 40 percent and McAdams at 37 percent. With a margin of error of 5 percent, the race is too close to call.

However, the polling also found that McAdams has higher name identification that Crockett, if only by a bit. With greater name identification, McAdams should be leading, not trailing.

He has, after all, spent over $500,000 on consulting, billboards, television advertising, and, yes, a large bus. That’s nearly twice as much as Crockett, who had to also fight an expensive primary battle. McAdams, on the other hand, has been able to focus all of his funding on the general election.

For some reason, Salt Lake County residents just aren’t buying what McAdams is selling.

Despite billboards that tout his being “different,” McAdams was rated as the most liberal state senator by the Salt Lake Tribune in 2011 and the third most liberal state senator by Utah Data Points Adam Brown. The year before wasn’t any better. Quite the contrary.

In 2010 (McAdams’ first year in the legislature), he ranked as the second most liberal member of the senate. That’s #2 out of 29 total senators, and #2 out of the 8 Democrats in the Senate.

In 2011, he ranked as the #3 most liberal member of the senate, and #3 out of 7 Democrats.

Is that different? Nope. That’s just a typical Democratic record.