St. George • No contest.
With one exception, that sums up this election cycle’s races in southern Utah’s Washington County, where voters haven’t elected a Democrat in more than 50 years.
County Clerk/Auditor Ryan Sullivan and county Assessor Tom Durrant are running solo. Fellow Republicans Gary L. Christensen and David A. Whitehead, the county recorder and county treasurer, respectively, are also running unopposed.
That said, voters actually have a choice in the lone Washington County Commission race, which pits GOP incumbent Adam Snow and what he bills as his proven track record against Democrat Chuck Goode, who wants to chart a different course.
Republican incumbent Adam Snow
Prior to being appointed to replace former Commissioner Dean Cox, who died from cancer in 2021, Snow served as the southern Utah director for then-U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart. He touts that experience, along with his previous private-sector prowess as a financial adviser and owner of his own real estate and development firm, as invaluable to voters
Despite his political experience, Snow said he had to be talked into serving as commissioner and doesn’t “enjoy the job all that much.” But he said he feels a sense of duty to serve because his family was one of the first to settle the area and he loves Washington County.
In running for reelection, Snow said his focus is to ensure the availability of water, pursue responsible economic growth and development and protect residents from bad ideas emanating from the nation’s capital.
Due to his connections to federal, state and local stakeholders, Snow said he has been able to help the Washington County Water Conservancy District expedite plans and secure funding for more reservoirs and other infrastructure that will help the county’s water supply keep pace with growth.
He is equally proud of his involvement in improving the visitor experience at Zion National Park, which attracts about five million visitors annually, generates nearly $950 million a year in economic output and is Washington County’s main economic driver.
Snow touts his expertise for helping Zion stave off implementing a timed-entry system to alleviate overcrowding. The commissioner argues such a system would have had a negative economic impact throughout southern Utah by not only dissuading tourists from visiting Zion but also encouraging them to steer clear of Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and other national parks.
“We want to make sure this is a sustainable and wonderful experience for people coming to visit our county,” Snow said. “So I’ve been able to hold off on some … very restrictive policies that would hurt our economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”
In lieu of limiting entry, Snow said the county is working with Utah Tech University to create a film that educates tourists about the best and worst times to visit Zion, suggests alternative hikes near the park and thus creates a win — not only for tourists but also for the county and its coffers.
In addition, Snow said he used his political connections last year to secure $18 million in state and Washington County funding, which will be used to design and replace the sewage system at Zion’s Temple of Sinawava and Riverside Walk. The alternative, he said, was to wait for the cumbersome federal government to eventually tackle the much-needed improvement.
Snow is also an advocate of the Northern Corridor Highway, the proposed 4.5-mile road that would cut across the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. He said the highway will ease gridlock and move east-west traffic in the county more quickly.
In 2021, the Trump administration approved the right-of-way for the highway, which triggered a lawsuit by national and Utah environmental groups. That led to the project being put on hold to provide federal agencies an opportunity to reexamine its impact on the Mojave desert tortoise and conduct a supplemental environmental study that would build on the original.
In August, Washington County officials sued the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish of Wildlife Service, arguing the federal agencies conducted an improper biological analysis that effectively derailed the controversial highway.
Snow cites the federal agencies’ actions as an example of egregious federal overreach and foresees the potential for more lawsuits down the road.
If reelected, Snow plans to continue to work on the same issues he has focused on during the past several years. However, he said he has no illusions about finishing everything on his to-do list or becoming a career politician.
“I just want to advance the ball down the field long enough so that somebody else can score,” he said, “and I’m happy to step aside.”
Democratic challenger Chuck Goode
Chuck Goode may have lost in his bid to unseat incumbent Washington County Commissioner Victor Iverson two years ago, and is an underdog to best Snow this November, but he still entertains high hopes.
As Republican-red as the area is, Goode is anything but blue about his long shot candidacy.
“A campaign is really more effective than getting elected,” the current chair of the Washington County Democratic Party insists, “because it gives you the opportunity to get your ideas heard. Utah is such a red state that Democrats don’t really get to [present their views] except during the campaign season.”
A retired aerospace software engineer whose resume includes stints at Morton-Thiokol in Utah and NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Goode often seeks otherworldly solutions to local problems. He insists Washington County’s infrastructure is not keeping pace with its population, which is projected by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute to grow from about 200,000 today to more than 464,000 in 2060.
Goode’s solution: look to the sun. He wants all new Washington County homes to feature solar power. While that would add to home prices on the front end, he explained, that cost would be offset by cheaper- to no-cost electricity on the back end.
He said that, in turn, would enable homeowners to have enough electricity to follow the lead of astronauts, who tap the humidity in the air inside the International Space Station to generate water for drinking and then recycle water for other uses.
Doing so, Goode argues, would make homeowners more self-sufficient and less reliant on water from the Washington County Water Conservancy District, which would then not need to spend a projected $1 billion to construct more water reuse reservoirs and related infrastructure.
Goode says the technology to draw water from air is already commercially available. He wants homeowners to purchase several Solaris Watergens, an atmospheric water generator, and place them in strategic locations inside their homes and garages. He said the generators cost about $1,700 each and produce up to five gallons of pure water per day.
He then advocates builders incorporate Hydraloops in the remaining homes projected to be built in Washington County over the next few decades. The recycling device, which costs about $2,700, treats and reuses water from showers, baths and kitchen and other appliances for flushing and other purposes.
“This [technology] not only helps with our pocketbook over the long term, but it also is sustainable and a better fit with Mother Nature,” said Goode, who favors requiring all new homes to cut water use by 50% through recycling.
In contrast to Snow, Goode opposes the Northern Corridor Highway and new road construction in general, saying building roads increases the demand for even more roads and leads to worse traffic gridlock. He favors securing more federal transportation grants to beef up bus and shuttle service, construct light rail and implement other mass transit options. He also proposes to implement a countywide traffic system that improves traffic flows and reduces congestion.
“We need to embrace the technologies that eliminate the cost of energy and water and gasoline for working families,” Goode said. “I am familiar with these technologies.”
To ease the county’s affordable housing crunch, Goode said he would amend land use regulations to facilitate the construction of higher-density, middle-income housing in commercial and mixed-use zones. He also pledges to promote zoning incentives for middle-income units in new developments and reduce or eliminate impact fees related to middle-income housing.
Goode sums up his campaign with a quote from the late Democratic Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone.
“Politics is not about money,” he quotes Wellstone as saying. “It’s not even about winning. Politics is about improving people’s lives.”
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