John,
We have received lots of questions about our recent round of candidate endorsements. In particular, why O2 Utah chose Jim Dunnigan over Lynette Wendel in a House race. In short, Dunnigan shared our goals from Prosperity 2030 and was enthusiastic to work with us on specific policy in his upcoming term to clean our air. We didn’t get that from Wendel.
We don’t think that Utah’s air pollution is acceptable. We don’t think that the Legislature has done enough to address this situation. That’s why we started O2 Utah. Our state needed a serious goal for cleaning our air and vision about how to get there. That is why we drafted Prosperity 2030 last year–our framework for reducing pollution emissions by 50% by 2030.
We use Prosperity 2030 as the centerpiece of our endorsement decisions. We care more about a candidate’s reaction to Prosperity 2030 than party affiliation. We are an air quality group, not an arm of either party. We have found that reluctance to upset the status quo is THE nonpartisan impediment to better air. But! We have also found support for real action from both Republicans and Democrats.
We respect and admire both Wendel and Dunnigan, as well as so many of the other candidates we have and have not endorsed. Voters have to choose, legislators have to take hard votes, and we think O2 Utah shouldn’t be able to dodge big decisions either. So when our staff interviewed and evaluated both candidates and unanimously saw more opportunity and enthusiasm to advance Prosperity 2030 with Dunnigan, we knew we had to endorse him. We hope the voters in his district will, as well, and that voters will support all of our endorsed candidates.
Have a great holiday weekend,
David Garbett, Executive Director
