This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker was famous for riding his bicycle to work.
His successor, Mayor Jackie Biskupski, has a different style. She is driven to the office by a bodyguard assigned to her by the Salt Lake City Police Department.
The security detail came after a gunman in Orlando, Fla., killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in June. Biskupski made national news in November when she was elected as Salt Lake City's first openly gay mayor. Earlier this week, she married her lesbian partner.
The mayor's spokesman, Matthew Rojas, said it was the police department's idea to supply Biskupski with a bodyguard after the massacre in Orlando.
For security reasons, neither the police nor Rojas would explain the extent of the security detail, although the mayor's spokesman said it was not a 24-hour assignment.
Such mayoral protection is hardly unprecedented. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson was given police protection for a time after San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated in 1978.
But former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was perplexed when told about the security detail for Biskup- ski, noting police resources are limited.
"Who does she think she is? Deedee Corradini?" Anderson said, referring to an alarm system the late mayor had the city install at her home during her tenure.
After Biskupski's election, she was given an office at City Hall for her transition. During that time, the locks were changed. That caused some gossip among city employees about the mayor-elect being overly cautious. Rojas said at the time, though, that the lock-changing project had been ordered before she was elected.
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My new best friend • I recently received an email from former Utahn Karl Rove, famous as former President George W. Bush's campaign guru and known as "Bush's brain."
Rove, who founded the American Crossroads super political action committee, said he wanted to reach out to me because conservatives need to stick together.
"Recent events show, now more than almost ever before, we need more grass-roots Republican leaders like you to step up and take action now," he wrote. "From Nevada to New Hampshire, Pennsylvania to Florida, Ohio to North Carolina, dozens of our Republican senators and Senate candidates are fighting in battleground states against some of the most extreme liberal Democrats you could imagine."
That scared me. But the interesting thing about the email asking for money to help the Republicans in November is that he never mentioned Donald Trump, the GOP standard-bearer as the party's presidential nominee.
The message instead focused entirely on electing Republicans to the Senate.
"With 24 Republican seats up this year, every single Senate race matters," Rove said. "Control of the U.S. Senate depends on Republican victories this November."
He did say Republicans have an opportunity this year to "gain the White House, defend our Republican Senate majority, and protect the future of the U.S. Supreme Court." But the whole fundraising pitch was for Republicans in the Senate.
That theme parallels calls by growing numbers of GOP types that they forget about Trump this election and focus on electing down-ballot Republicans to the Senate, House and state offices.
Rove might not be so friendly to me if he knew my background.
I'm a Skyline High graduate. Karl is an alum of rival Olympus.
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Outsourcing • Salt Lake City played host this week to a major convention at the Salt Palace that brought in more than 5,000 visitors.
The convention was for the American Society of Association Executives, whose attendees decide where to book future conferences for their particular associations.
The gathering offered a grand opportunity for Salt Lake City to showcase itself as a great place for conventions. So who was hired to supply the crew and equipment for the main stage at the convention? LMG, a Las Vegas company that shipped its gear and employees to Utah's capital for the show.