In a recent email to Summit County Republicans, Ari Ioannides, chair of the Summit County Republican Party, accused Democrats of dragging national partisan politics into our local races. The public record tells a different story. There’s nothing wrong with a candidate having a party’s backin g. Malena Stevens is proud to be the Democratic candidate for county clerk. The problem comes when a candidate has a party’s backing, tells voters she doesn’t and claims to be running as a nonpartisan. Suni Woolstenhulme was the Summit County Republican Party’s only candidate for clerk, chosen by its delegates at the party’s March 31 convention. Campaign finance reports posted Oct. 26 show who is paying for each campaign. About two-thirds of Woolstenhulme’s $30,296 came from two sources: $10,100 from the Summit County Republican Party and $10,000 from a single company, SkyCon Inc. Stevens’ $19,776 came almost entirely from about 90 individual donors, nearly all of them Summit County residents. The Summit County Democratic Party gave her $400. Ioannides says his party stands for fiscal responsibility and local control. The national debt passed $40 trillion in August, with Republicans leading the White House and both chambers of Congress. And Summit County knows firsthand about local control. In 2023 and again in 2025, the Republican supermajority in the Utah Legislature passed bills to override the county on the Dakota Pacific project at Kimball Junction. Knowing the state would push the project through either way, Stevens and every other council member but one voted in December 2024 for a better negotiated deal. He also says Summit County deserves leaders who listen to the people who live here. I agree. The Clerk’s Office has no national agenda. It runs our elections, keeps our public records and issues marriage and business licenses. Stevens has done that job since April, and her campaign is funded by the people who live here. Voters can sort out party labels for themselves. What they deserve is straight talk about who’s backing whom, and a record they can check. One reminder for every voter: mailed ballots must now arrive at the Clerk’s Office by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. A postmark is no longer enough. Please use an official drop box or vote in person. Susan Lee Strauss Park City The post Partisan rhetoric appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less