Moonlighting: RSL Spokesperson Josh Ewing Keeps Several Balls in the Air (researched by RSL FM) It shouldn't be surprising RSL is dragging its feet on providing specifics to the Salt Lake County Commission. In addition to serving as RSL's "spokesperson" for the stadium campaign, Josh Ewing is busy posting political blog fodder in his effort to be elected to the Utah Legislature (House District 25). The incumbent in District 25, which comprises parts of both Salt Lake & Summitt Counties, is Ross Romero (D), who is not seeking re-election. Romero is instead running for the State Senate seat being vacated by Karen Hale. Ewing has a long association with local left wing organizations. His presence provides badly-needed political balance and entrée as Checketts & RSL attempt navigate the predominately democratic City & County landscape. Ewing currently is affiliated with SLC public relations firm Love Communications. Before joining Love, he served as spokesman for the Don't Amend Alliance, which spearheaded opposition to Utah's Defense of Marriage Amendment. Ewing's most notable claim to fame is his over 3 years service as spokesman for controversial Mayor Rocky Anderson. Anderson is notoriously difficult to work for. Ewing was actually Anderson's 4th spokesman out of 7 (and counting). During Ewing's time in the Mayor's office, he dealt with Anderson's many infamous confrontations with the both the local media and the LDS Church. Rounding out his left-leaning credentials are "campaign work" for current SL County Mayor (and Howard Dean nephew) Peter Corroon, as well as current SL County Commissioner (and rumored SLC Mayoral aspirant) Jenny Wilson. These connections & loyalties to incumbent office holders are no doubt valuable to RSL. However, questions about Ewing's ethics and potential conflicts of interest could raise red flags as the stadium financing process seeks County Commission approval. Ewing's detractors describe him as a "slick talker", and perhaps overly burdened with past political baggage. Ewing is a member of the following decidedly liberal organizations: Sierra Club, ACLU, Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and Equality Utah (a "grassroots, statewide political advocacy organization working on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.") 30 year old Ewing is a Pennsylvania native and holds BA & MA degrees in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania.
Nice research. Well done. Do I have to say this? ...... guess so: You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to RSL Fortaleza Menina again.
Correction: as pointed out by Ethan at SLCSpin, Rocky is currently on his 9th spokesperson. SLCSpin: Soccer & Politics
Josh Ewing now has a web site up & running: voteewing.com Highlights: prominent photo of Josh holding unknown girl (Josh & Kirsten have 2 dogs) Josh is now a vegetarian Josh will not accept donations larger than $500
Is Josh Ewing being eased out by RSL? The standard Ewing quotes were conspiciously missing in the latest flury of RSL stadium articles. Instead, Tom Love, Ewing's boss at Love Communications, handled the honors in today's Tribune. Tom Love, a spokesman for RSL, was also dismissive of Crockett's proposal. "Does it [also] earmark any money for nuclear-waste storage in the West Desert?" he joked, referring to Crockett's desire to get more bang for the county's buck. "Anything that varies from the path we've been pursuing, we'd be against it." Prior to co-founding Love Communications in 1999, Love was General Sales Manager of KTVX 4 Utah/ABC. He also had stints with KUTV & TCI. Was Ewing simply unavailable yesterday? He certainly had time to update his campaign blog on (coincidently) the evils of nuclear waste storage in Utah. Or is Ewing being relieved because of several questionable remarks of late, including this statement from Tuesday's Tribune (regarding the SL County Council's assumtion of debt & risk by funding the stadium project) ... "It definitely goes against their (SL County Council's) conservative policies," concedes RSL spokesman Josh Ewing. Needless to say, "conservative" is a politically-charged and poor word choice, especially when it comes from the mouth of a part-time Democratic candidate. In any event, if Ewing successfully receives his party's nomination, his role as "RSL spokesperson" will likely come to an end. Tom Love
Update: Josh Ewing, who appears to have been totally replaced by his boss Tom Love as RSL's spokesperson, recently lashed out at other unnamed candidates for making "political hay" over his involvment in the ongoing RSL stadium fiasco. While carefully avoiding any mention of the SL County Council (some of whom are openly calling RSL's actions "disgusting" and questioning RSL's judgment & veracity), Ewing does trumpet RSL's earlier legislative successes. Could Christine Johnson (D) be the District 25 candidate that Ewing is referring to?
It was requested that all other District 25 candidates be listed in this space. Accordingly, and in alphabetical order... Joel Briscole (D), educator briscoeforhouse25@earthlink.net Josh Ewing (D), public relations josh@VoteEwing.com Chris Ferguson (D), nonprofit charity employee Chris@ElectChrisFerguson.com Jack L. Gray (D), military reservist jackgl5@hotmail.com Kenneth Grover (R), school district administrator kenneth@rokfinancial.com Christine Johnson (D), realtor chris@electjohnson.com Martine Smith (R), citizen contact infoIn the 2004 election, District 25 voted 65.2% Democrat, 32.4% Republican, & 2.5% other. Outgoing Dist. 25 incumbent Ross Romero (D) debates candidate Martine Smith (R) in this 2004 photo.
For those keeping score... At last Saturday's Democratic Party convention, the large field of candidates for the District 25 nomination was narrowed to two: Christine Johnson & Josh Ewing. The Party's final nominee will be chosen in the June 27th primary election. District 25 is the only legislative district that will require a primary election. Under Democratic Party rules, the leading candidate can automaticly win the nomination (and avoid the primary) if he/she garners 60% of the vote at the Convention. According to the Deseret News, Johnson came within a single vote of reaching the "magic 60%". The rules provided no recount mechanism. Ewing, the second leading vote getter, was thus spared early elimination and now joins Johnson on the primary ballot. While Democratic Party leaders would much prefer avoiding a primary, they note the heavily-Democratic makeup of District 25. This tends to draw many qualified candidates which often prevents anyone from garnering 60%. "That area of the city, and it goes into Summitt County, is a hotbed for Democrats," says State Party Chair Wayne Holland. As such, the winner of the June primary will be heavily favored in the November general election. Both remaining candidates seek to capitalize on their strong gay rights & social diversity credentials:"I'll be the person who listens to you," Ewing said in his speech to delegates, promising that if elected, he'd "work so hard you'll think I'm crazy" and that he would respect his diverse constituency. Meanwhile, Johnson told delegates that as an openly-gay, divorced mother, she is campaigning on "community values and compassionate leadership." "I'm fighting for justice and equity for all our children," said Johnson. She said she is a unique candidate because of her past economic struggles, including a time when she couldn't afford to take her daughter to the doctor.". KSL-TV video recap of both conventions here. Note the RSL jersey-wearing delegate seated in brief footage of the convention floor .
Another update for those of you keeping score... Another wildly bizarre month "campaigning" culminated in this week's farcical debate between RSL spokesman Josh Ewing and Christine Johnson. Audio of the hour-long debate is provided by KCPW here. Three highlights (or lowlights) follow... #1: Ewing approves of Corroon's RSL stadium rejection Ewing now freely admits that he "totally agrees" with Mayor Corroon's decision to reject RSL's funding plan--this despite the fact that Ewing was and remains a paid RSL lobbyist & former(?) spokesman... Slimy? Duplicitous? Only days before Corroon's dramatic decision, Ewing notoriously & condescendingly offered this gem... Although Ewing has been kept behind the scenes since the Corroon decision, his lobbying/advertising firm (Love Communications) is still being retained by RSL. Given this obvious and high-profile conflict, the "self-conflicted" Ewing should have recused himself from answering questions about RSL. At the very least, Tom Love, Love Communications & RSL need to clarify Ewing's current role, if any, in the ongoing lobbying effort. #2: Ewing & Johnson attempting to "out-gay" the other Ewing & Johnson campaigned heavily at "Pride Day" in SLC Not surprisingly, a constant theme throughout this debate & campaign is the so-called gay agenda. At one point in the debate, the SLC district was jokingly compared to the Castro (San Francisco's famous gay stronghold). Johnson, an open lesbian, was forced by a self-described gay questioner to address her alleged statement that she "considers herself only 3% lesbian". Johnson's response was unequivocal: Ewing, a gay-friendly heterosexual, was not above referring numerous times to his gay "family member" (unnamed). Moreover, both Ewing & Johnson boasted about their many gay campaign contributors. Chief among them is "Utah's gay kingpin" Bruce Bastian. Bastian is the billionaire WordPerfect co-founder who (after an LDS mission, BYU, and Mormon temple marriage) adopted the gay lifestyle. He is now stridently and actively anti-Mormon: According to campaign contribution records (Ewing's here & Johnson's here), Bastian gave $4,000 to Johnson. Perhaps having lost the "Bastian sweepstakes" is what prompted Ewing to adopt & promote his voluntary $500 donation limit.#3: Ewing offered/rejected illegal bribe to "drop out"Ewing & Johnson both attempted to distance themselves from the ongoing Party bribe charges. Fearing that a vicious, gay-pandering primary battle (like this has become) would not be good for the Party, Rob Weyher (Chairman of the Summit County Democratic Party) allegedly offered a bribe to Ewing to "drop out" of the primary race. According to the Deseret News: Johnson admits that Weyland was a non-monetary supporter of her campaign, but denied any knowledge of the alleged bribe plot. Ewing scoffed at Johnson's assertion that she "didn't have a dog in this fight." KSL-TV video segment (3 minutes duration) Next update...primary election on June 27th! Further reading & background here.
I'm not getting the criticism of the two candidates going for gay voters. Is it bad because they are disengenuous in their campaign or is it bad because they are reaching out to gay voters?
No judgments made or intended... just my attempt to accurately describe the issues & dynamics of this race.
A few more tidbits on the eve of the primary... Decrying what it calls "shameless muckraking", OneUtah.com has compiled a 4 minute video montage of last week's debate. Despite the difficult audio quality & the "subjective" editing, it does provide the flavor of this race. From Sunday's papers... Deseret News/Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb: Hot primaries, TRAX, taxes top summer's agenda Deseret News/Lisa Riley Roche: Primaries well-heated Finally, KCPW notes that Rob Weyher (charged with attempting to bribe Ewing out of the race) has had other recent brushes with illegality: KCPW: Summit County Demo Chair Faces More Legal Trouble Click here to find your polling place.
Ethan (RSL's most famous supporter) of the influential SLCSpin.com has endorsed Christine Johnson over RSL lobbyist/spokesman Josh Ewing in today's Democratic Party primary...SLCSpin: Christine Johnson SLCSpin: Another Thing About Josh Ewing
Winner: Johnson 57%...................................................Loser: Ewing 42% DEM STATE HOUSE 25 57% CHRISTINE JOHNSON (833 votes) 42% JOSH EWING (620 votes)(26 of 27 pricincts reporting (97.3%))