Deseret News political candidate questionnaire draws ire, jeers (Have You Ever Played 31 Questions?)
Salt Lake Tribune 20Oct99 D2
By Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells: Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The Deseret News sent a questionnaire to both Salt Lake City mayoral candidates last week, and ended up drawing the ire of the candidates and some voters, and jeers from others. Both candidates complained vociferously, one of them refusing to answer at all because he considered it too demeaning.

The questionnaire, sent to candidates Rocky Anderson (a liberal democrat, who was born Mormon but doesn't practice) and Stuart Reid (a conservative republican, who has tried to make his LDS Church membership an issue in the campaign), was surprising for the amount it concentrated on character issues and past peccadillos. The 31-question inquiry was considered too intrusive by both candidates. Surprisingly, it was Reid that simply refused to answer any of the questions.

The questions themselves ranged from very personal (Have you ever committed adultery and/or conceived a child out of wedlock?) to the intrusive (Please detail any marriages and/or divorces, date of marriage, date of divorce, any children produced in the marriage, name(s) of former spouses.) and to those irrelevant to the office (Did you start any academic program and not finish it?).

Naturally, the questionnaire made a good target for humor, and Tribune columnists Rolly and Wells, joined yesterday by Tribune humor columnist Robert Kirby, took their own shots at coming up with 'additional' questions for the questionnaire.