A Snyderville Basin man has organized a group calling itself the Park City Patriots, aligning the startup with the Tea Party movement at a moment when like-minded activists across the country are eager for message-sending Election Day results.
Brian LaFave, a 40-year-old maintenance worker who lives in Elk Meadows, started the group in late September. He said there are approximately 10 people active from across the Park City area. The group’s page on the national Tea Party Patriots website late in the week listed LaFave as the founder of Park City Patriots and as its only member.
He said the Park City Patriots has not yet scheduled an event. He would like to have thousands of people, perhaps more than half of the Summit County population, join the group eventually.
“If you’re an American, you should be in the Tea Party,” LaFave said in an interview. “It’s the only way to stop the government from taking over every aspect of your life.”
LaFave is originally from Michigan and has lived in the Park City area for one year. He is a Navy veteran.
He said he considers himself a “Republican-leaning independent” who is a conservative on fiscal matters and national security but is more moderate on social issues. LaFave said he has no current political ambitions. He had not previously been a figure in local political debates.
The Park City Patriots group arrives on the political scene a month before an Election Day with local, state and federal candidates on the ballot. The local and Statehouse candidates have not painted themselves as adhering strictly to the Tea Party platform, but Mike Lee, the Republican nominee in the Senate campaign, has done so. Lee is seeking the Senate seat now held by Bob Bennett and is widely seen as the front runner in the campaign.
LaFave said he has not met the candidates and is not prepared to offer endorsements yet. He said he looks for “honesty in our elected officials, for once,” when considering candidates at the different levels of government.
“We’re not looking to overthrow anything. We’re not looking to take over anything. We’re looking for reasonable controls on what the government is allowed to do to us,” he said.
It is not clear what sort of response the Park City Patriots will receive given the political makeup of the area. Park City proper is one of the few Democratic strongholds in Utah and the Snyderville Basin, while more conservative than Park City, typically displays a moderate voting pattern. Democrats hold a 4-1 majority on the Summit County Council.
Political positions in Park City are nonpartisan, but Mayor Dana Williams recently endorsed top-level Democrats and none of the members of the City Council seem to lean toward the Tea Party platform.
But there is anecdotal evidence of growing frustration, particularly with the way local budgets are being handled. City Hall’s budget negotiations in the spring and summer were the most difficult in years, drawing criticism at the outset after an increase in property-tax rates was proposed and then leaving some unconvinced that the final spending plan was appropriate under the economic conditions.
LaFave said the Park City Patriots will be less attentive to local-level issues like the City Hall budget than the group will be to national discussions. He said, though, members of the group will likely attend City Council meetings.
“I haven’t seen too much out-of-control craziness in Park City,” he said.
LaFave said leaders in the local governments are more accountable to voters given the size of the community.
The Park City Patriots is at least the second local group formed in recent months that is aligned with the national Tea Party movement. The S.T.A.R. Forum, standing for Save the American Republic, is active in Summit County.