| OCR Text |
Show FALL 2013 UHQ pp 304-385_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 9/16/13 1:25 PM Page 321 OGDEN UNION STATION COLLECTION WILLIAM GLASMANN nomination for his third term as mayor of The South Fork of the Ogden Ogden. He wanted someone else to take the River, photographed in 1913, in job, but the Republicans of Weber County the midst of Glasmann’s efforts insisted. The Republicans argued that after to construct a dam. controlling the city for the past four years, the Democrats had run Ogden into a financial ditch and had undone everything that Glasmann fought for in his first two terms as mayor.60 They also argued that nobody understood municipal finances as well as Glasmann. The campaign proved his toughest yet. Glasmann ran against the incumbent Democrat—Alex Brewer, a popular mayor to be sure—and fully expected to lose. But in the end, the Republicans swept all but one seat on the city council, and Glasmann won the mayoralty with an extremely close margin of 134 votes out of 6,126, or a plurality of 51 percent to 49 percent.61 Humbled by his narrow triumph, Glasmann said, “I view it as the greatest victory of my political career, won against odds.”62 Ultimately, the election turned on an auditing report that agreed with Glasmann’s assessment of the first six months of municipal ownership of the waterworks: he correctly argued that the waterworks had lost money, while Brewer insisted that it had made a profit.63 In April 1911, Glasmann announced that at the end of his present mayoral term he planned to retire, due to the new council form of government that passed the Utah legislature in the 1911 session.64 He was interested, however, in a proposed dam on the South Fork of the Ogden River, below the 60 “Brewer’s City Record Exposed,” Ogden Standard, November 2, 1909. “The Official Vote of Ogden,” Ogden Standard, November 9, 1909. 62 “A Few Words from the Mayor-Elect,” Ogden Standard, November 3, 1909. 63 “Brewer’s City Record.” 64 “Mayor Glasmann Will Retire,” Ogden Standard, March 31, 1911. 61 321 |
