After a few days of ballot reception and counting, Sanpete’s native son Spencer Cox came out with the victory in the governor’s race. He will be the Republican on the ticket for the general election. It’s possible that the Democrat opponent will beat Spencer in November. Pigs may spout wings and fly as well. It’s been 40 years since a Democrat won the governor’s office in Utah.

Generally speaking, I keep my politics quite neutral here in this space. But today is an exception. I don’t mind disclosing that I displayed a Cox-Henderson sign on my lawn. When the Cox campaign contacted me about putting a sign up, I said I’d be happy to do that, but I explained there was already a sign close by in the neighborhood.

I said that if there was a shortage of signs, they might want to put the sign somewhere else. It was asked if there were any competitor signs up in our area. I reported that there weren’t any that I had seen. Regardless, a sign was delivered. After the election, it will be placed on the “wall of fame” in my garage.

Some of you may not remember that Spencer Cox has been governor previously. That two-hour governorship back in 2018 may have gone to his head and spurred him to run this time around. Governor Herbert passed power over to Lt. Governor Cox while he had surgery to take care of a case of kidney stones.

During that period of time, Spencer, as acting governor, declared Fairview as the capital city of Utah (albeit “honorary). Among other things “Governor Cox” did during that “time at the top” was a call for Wyoming to hand over Utah’s “missing corner.” He tweeted, “Look Wyoming, I know we are friends, but you’ve been the rectangle long enough.”

At this writing, it looks good politically for another Sanpeter. Steven Lund of Manti is running for the Utah House of Representatives. He is apparently looking good to nail down the Republican spot in District 58, which affects most of Sanpete and the east side (and most populated side) of Juab County.

Steve is currently finishing up his term as a Sanpete County commissioner. My experience is that he’s a smart man with a good sense of humor. That’s a good combination. He didn’t offer to have me put a sign up on my lawn. But I would have been willing to do it.

I planned to keep the column short today, but since we’re on the subject of politics, I can’t resist including a few of my favorite political quotes:

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx

“A fool and his money are soon elected.” – Will Rogers

“Suppose you were a member of Congress. And suppose you were an idiot. But I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain

“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other 10 percent a bad reputation.” – Henry Kissinger

“Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.” – John Quinton

“George Washington is the only president who didn’t blame the previous administration for his troubles.” – Unknown

“The problem with political jokes is that they get elected.” – Henry Cate

Most of those quotes were on the disparaging side of politicians and politics. I don’t mean to imply that our Sanpete politicians are less than honest and sincere – quite the contrary. I believe we have the “salt of the earth” serving us in elected positions in Sanpete. We all should be proud. I am.