David's American Fork Election Guide, 2025 General Election Version
Races for American Fork Mayor and City Council and Aspen Peaks School Board Seats 6 and 7
This could be a much longer post than it is, and candidates and voters probably deserve that. But Election Day is a week away. You need to mail your ballot within a day or two, unless you plan to use a dropbox. And if I had time for more this year, this post would have been a few days earlier. Sorry about that.
Links to a lot of candidate information—audio, video, and written info—are in my previous post:
In keeping with our long-standing tradition of separating information from analysis and opinion, for the sake of voters who just want the information, this separate post has a bit of analysis and my opinions.
In case you’re curious, for years afelection.info metrics showed that the information posts were slightly more popular than the analysis and commentary.
American Fork
Here’s my starting point for this year’s American Fork election: I’m pleased with the current mayor and city council, all six of them. I find each of them sensible, competent, hard-working, well-informed, and more than willing to sit down and speak candidly with me about just about anything, anytime.
That said, I’m glad the incumbents aren’t unopposed. Even excellent candidates running unopposed is unhealthy. And we owe everyone who’s running our gratitude for running at all. If good people don’t run, win or lose, the system doesn’t work.
On to the races.
American Fork Mayor (four-year term)
Brad Frost’s challenger is a not new to city politics; he served on the city council decades ago, and he has run for office since then a few times. He is by all accounts a good man and has a solid resume, but I don’t find him a compelling candidate. If you listen to audio of the debate, you’ll learn that his number one issue is preventing terrorist attacks. I’m for that—we all are—but he offers few specifics as to how we might do that, what we’re already doing to achieve that, or how it’s not enough.
I wholeheartedly agree with him on the importance of public safety generally, but he doesn’t have much detail to offer about what the City is doing now or should do better. That’s true of most topics that came up in the debate. And an American Fork election wouldn’t be complete without a candidate who mistakenly believes the root of our road maintenance backlog is installing pressurized irrigation.
My vote: incumbent Mayor Brad Frost
My prediction: Frost in a landslide
American Fork City Council (two seats, four-year terms)
As pleased as I am with the incumbent candidates and the rest of the council, I would happily praise and consider good, strong challengers. Neither Seth Stewart nor Deb Anderson is an impressive challenger, but at least Anderson showed up to the debate.
All I know of Seth Stewart is the statement he sent to be read at the candidates event. He couldn’t attend, because he was out of the country. You can listen and judge for yourself. For me the statement gave a strong odor of ideological poisoning, was theoretically shaky, mistakenly assumed national problems replicate at the local level (where conditions are far different), abounded in high-sounding buzzwords, and was unconnected to the practical challenges of governing a city. We’ve seen ideological candidates before; they rarely fare well at the polls. When they are elected, they don’t do well in office. For all I know he’s a wonderful man, but he’s not a good candidate for the American Fork City Council.
Based on her debate performance and my brief conversation with her, Deb Anderson is a good person, reasonably intelligent, energetic, well-meaning, eager to serve—and not prepared to be a city councilor. She would probably eventually learn enough to be good at it, but she’s not ready now.
I never expect a challenger to have an incumbent’s nuts-and-bolts grasp of city government. But the best challengers, who in my experience make fine city councilors when elected, have already learned a lot of what they need to know about the City before the campaign begins—and even more by October. They’ve studied, talked to City staff and officials, and asked many questions, so that when they encounter substantive questions, as in a debate, they can offer substantive, even detailed answers on at least the most important topics. By contrast, over and over again at the October 1 event, Anderson had nothing substantive to say, just that if she’s elected she’ll be able to learn. To her credit, she admitted this, rather than embarrassing the audience with obvious fluff. And where she did have some knowledge, as on a question related to the Rec Center, she did well.
If she does her homework for a couple of years, she could make herself a credible candidate in a future election. Others have done so.
I already explained my view of the incumbents. They are hardworking, sensible, competent, intelligent, and reasonably articulate. I’d love to provide appreciative detail about each individually, in case you need persuading, but this post is already late.
My votes: incumbents Staci Carroll and Ryan Hunter
My prediction: Carroll and Hunter will win, and it won’t be close.
Voters Can Study Too
I suggest watching video or listening to audio of the candidate events, even if you already voted or at least have decided on your votes. Here’s why: whomever you support, if you listen to the three incumbents respond to questions, you’ll be more informed about what’s going on in American Fork and why and how. That’s a good thing for any voter, taxpayer, or resident.
Aspen Peaks School Board
Two Aspen Peaks School Board seats will represent parts of American Fork. The one on my ballot is Seat 7.
I hope there will be an excellent outsider or two on the board, when the dust settles, but it won’t be from Seat 6 or Seat 7. They’re all public education insiders. I’m not saying all insiders are bad or all outsiders are good. Insiders can be very good. Outsiders can be very bad. I want all the insiders and outsiders on the board to be excellent—but I hope for some of both.
Seat 6 (initial three-year term, then four-year terms)
I’m sorry to disappoint, but Seat 6 isn’t on my ballot, so I haven’t paid enough attention to the candidates. I suspect Tyler Bahr will win, but my basis for judgment is too narrow; it’s based entirely on a rather unhelpful primary debate, when there were more candidates in the race. I have no idea what the two campaigns have done at the retail, door-to-door, person-to-person level.
The Alpine Education Association has endorsed both candidates, which tells you they’re both insiders.
I always hope the best candidate will win, but I don’t know who that is here. If I were able to judge, the questions and issues I’ll list below, in discussing Seat 7, would figure prominently.
I don’t get a vote, and I’m not offering a prediction.
Seat 7 (initial five-year term, then four-year terms)
This one’s on my ballot. Both are insiders; both have the AEA’s endorsement.
At last week’s candidate event (we call them debates, but they rarely are), I heard both candidates respond to a number of questions, including questions which are uppermost in my mind. (I supplied two questions.) I also was able to speak to both individually, before and after the formal part of the evening.
They both impressed me as intelligent, well-prepared, and well-qualified. I left pleased, convinced that I couldn’t make a bad choice with my vote in this race. I can’t guess which will be better in office, and we must vote before we have any real data on that. But both impressed me, and both have strong resumes.
Here are my top issues:
What are the candidates’ thoughts and priorities with respect to choosing a superintendent for the new district? And a new business manager, the moderator added that evening; having the right person in that position has been crucial in the Alpine School District. The new school board will make few decisions as consequential as those. Both candidates pleased me with their answers.
What are the candidates’ thoughts on their roles as the people’s representatives, elected to govern the people’s school system? That they are such is a sore subject for many insiders and is contrary to official training new school board members have received over the years, but it’s codified in state law now. Neither candidate inspired complete confidence here, but their answers were generally sound.
Do the candidates understand the ongoing fiscal challenges posed by Utah’s intentionally perverse and confusing Truth-in-Taxation law? Both seem to. A related question is equally important, if not more so. Can they explain it clearly and tirelessly to the voters, media, and others? This ability and inclination to explain is crucial, but it didn’t happen at last week’s event. I look for this in mayoral and city council candidates too, because bad things happen when officials and voters alike don’t understand how these things work.
Do the candidates wear the popular STEM blinders? Science, technology, engineering, and math are essential, and I’m fond of them all. I was a hard-core math geek in my youth. But, untempered, STEM ultimately produces high-tech barbarians. We need to emphasize the arts and humanities too. That’s a longer discussion, but I’ve been wearing a button that says “STEM not STEAM—be human” to writer events for a reason. Maybe it should say SHTEAM, so I don’t have to explain that A is for arts and humanities, but that doesn’t change my point. In any case, I chatted with both candidates about their commitment to arts (including music) programs in the schools, and I didn’t see any red flags.
My vote: I haven’t decided yet. Two good choices.
My prediction: Theler will probably win; his campaign has seemed more visible. But if Jones is the underdog some think, she is a highly-qualified, impressive underdog.
Finally, I repeat this public service announcement . . .
Important! The Utah County Clerk must receive your mailed ballot by Election Day
I wouldn’t be confident that the US Postal Service will deliver a ballot mailed after Wednesday, October 29, by Election Day, November 4. But you can always use a ballot dropbox such as the one at the American Fork Library (right next to the drive-through book return bins) until the polls close on Election Day.
Previously, mailed ballots had to be postmarked no later than the day before Election Day. This clever change for 2025 is brought to us by the Utah Legislature.
Thanks for reading!
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