KUER Citizen Panel Looks at Personality, Not Just Issues, When Choosing County Mayor

BOB: "I thought that Nancy Workman would be my choice. She's a Republican, and she's probably more inclined to think like I do on fiscal matters."

Vandegrift says he changed his mind midway through the hour, about the time he heard Workman mentioned she paid her taxes, which Vandegrift saw as an inappropriate dig at tax disputes in Crompton's family. Vandegrift says that was an example of the different attitudes he saw in the candidates.

BOB: "I thought that Karen was softer, would not alienate people as much. The issues on most things were not a major thing, it was the personality where I thought she could get along with people better."

Most of the panelists agreed with Bob, even though many would describe themselves as conservatives. Some panelists faulted Workman for being too smooth, too much like a politician. But Linda Thornell, a stay at home mom in her 50s, thought Workman would be cool under pressure. A former businesswoman, Thornell liked Workman's description of her first 30 says in office.

LINDA: "Nancy said, I want to go out and find out what the voters need, and then I'm going to work to their need, and Karen said, I want to start with understanding the budget and our resources and then I want to go match them with what we can accomplish. My preference is to say that we have a lot of capacity and resources in business and in government, and we sometimes squander them, so my personal preference is to start with, here are the needs, we'll meet those needs, within reason. At that point I thought, Oh, I'm really relating to Nancy."

For Marta Roseto, a Latina in her 40s from Salt Lake City, the most important answers came when candidates responded to her question about crime.

MARTA: "Nancy didn't give any specific idea-- she said she was going to support everything that the sheriff's office does. Karen answered that she would like to support crime prevention programs like maybe an after-school program so it was something that really impressed me more."

Some members of the panel said it was hard to detect a difference between the candidates. Laura Bouchard, a mom who works part time and lives in Murray, wasn't satisfied with either candidate. She says although she thinks Workman could do better based on personality, she would rather support one or the other based on the issues. The problem she saw was that the two wouldn't answer any question directly, including one she posed about whether parents could be held criminally liable if their children break the law.

LAURA BOUCHARD: "Her comment was well I don't really know what the law says, I'd have to look into that. And my first comment was, you're pushing me off. She didn't answer me. I wanted to know what she thought about parents' involvement, not what the law thinks about it. So anyway I think that because the position is so new and they're not really sure what it is, there's a little bit of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing."

Most of the time, the candidates had similar goals on the issues-- smart growth, less crime, and a strong role for the mayor. But their philosophies differed. Workman sees the role as primarily an admisitrator who will support and assist trusted department chiefs. Crompton says the job should be more activist, leading out with an agenda for solving problems. And the panelists, none of whom had ever met the women before that night's debate, said personality and attitude play a major role in defining what they do in the voting booth.

I'm Steve Spencer, KUER News.

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