Salt Lake City Mayor calls for "the biggest demonstration to greet Bush

[Imagevision]

<snip>
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention.
"This administration has been disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention."

In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters.

"There should be a collaboration of health-care-provision advocates, seniors, the community, anti-Patriot Act advocates and other civil libertarians, anti-war folks, pro-Social Security advocates, environmental advocates, anti-nuclear-testing advocates, and anti-nuclear-waste-shipment-and-storage advocates," the mayor wrote in the e-mail. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2958368

Recommend and kick this one around.

[tuvor]

1. Wow, how'd he get elected?

My friend's mother is from SLC, and I thought it was a bush lovefest there.

[fhqwhgads]

5. slc's demographics...

i think slc is only about 45% mormon, maybe even a little less. lds support for anderson is low, unsurprisingly, and mormons voted overwhelmingly against him in the last election. on the flip side, he is very popular among the protestants, catholics, and other non-mormons in the city. he ran for congress a few years ago and lost, but a majority of slc voted for him.

i'm not from utah, but have spent a good amount of time there, and while i wouldn't call salt lake a blue oasis in a desert of red, it's certainly bluer than one might expect.

for the record, rocky anderson is the former president of the salt lake chapter of the aclu, is very pro-environment, pro-gay rights, and vocally anti-bush. mayors in slc don't run as a member of a particularly party, but it's clear from his issue positions that he's one of us. unfortunately, i don't think he's running for a third term.

[Imagevision]

2. Why only is The Sal Lake City News reporting on this?!!

[Alamom]

3. Google News

has a lot of newspapers and (looks like) tv/radio stations picking this up now.
I searched,

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson

[goclark]

4. I saw it on TV this morning

The mayor looked great on TV and spoke well.

If he can gain support in Utah for his position, the cow is out of the barn for Bush!

Keep this kicked so we will find out how effective this is -- I can't believe he would jump out and say something like this if he had no backing.

[psychopomp]

6. Great!

Fantastic! Really, I hope that this protest works out well and that there are no disrupters being dispatched to cause havoc..