Border towns in search of new leadership
 
By Jane Zhang
jzhang@thespectrum.com
 
ST. GEORGE -- The man in a light blue shirt stood upright next to a half-open door, looking guardedly at two unexpected visitors.

Behind him in the living room, a bowl of green apples sat on a brown, wooden coffee table. Above a couch hung three portraits, including one of Rulon Jeffs, a former prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

No, Joseph Barlow Sr. said, his brother Dan Barlow wasn't in. And he was sure the former mayor of Colorado City for 19 years didn't want to talk to the media. "But how are you?" a reporter asked Hildale's councilman of 41 years until two weeks ago. "No comment," he said.

The St. George house covered with white siding has become home for two of Colorado City / Hildale's most prominent politicians since Jan. 10, when they were ousted from the FLDS church by the prophet, Warren Jeffs.

Along with two of their brothers and 17 other men, Dan and Joseph Barlow were stripped of their priesthood, their wives and children and their right to live in the polygamist enclave on the Utah-Arizona border.

Since their resignation, however, Hildale and Colorado City officials have been stumbling to fill the unusual void in an otherwise stable administration. Most of Hildale's five council members and Colorado City's seven council members have stayed in power for decades, enjoying elections without challengers.

Dan Barlow, who always received at least 98 percent of the cast vote in his elections since 1985, filed papers by the Dec. 10 deadline for his reelection this year, town clerk Kevin Barlow said. Unless the former mayor submits a letter of withdrawal, he said, Dan Barlow's name will remain on the ballot. While residency is a requirement to run for city council, Kevin Barlow said, Dan Barlow is still a registered voter in Colorado City.

If Dan Barlow withdraws -- which the clerk thinks is likely -- the only name on the ballot for the March 9 election will be Edson Jessop, the vice mayor who has been on the council for 19 years. Donald Richter, who serves on the town library advisory board, has filed as a write-in candidate, said town clerk Kevin Barlow.

In Hildale, mayor David Zitting said, the city council will vote on Feb. 17 to fill the position vacated by Joseph Barlow, whose term would have expired in two years.

Both Zitting and Kevin Barlow said the councils enjoy stability because residents appreciate the cooperation within small-town councils.

"Townspeople have expressed a vote of confidence," Kevin Barlow said. "It's not the typical infighting you would see in some cities."

But Benjamin Bistline, a polygamy historian who lived most of his life in Colorado City, said the secret of stable administration lies in block vote.

"(Residents) just do what they are told," he said. "They vote for whoever is on the ballot."

Most of the 10,000 residents in Hildale and Colorado City belong to the FLDS church, which owns most of the area's land and houses through the trust, United Effort Plan. Women disobeying men and men disobeying the prophet risk losing their homes and their family.

Still preaching polygamy as a central tenet, the FLDS church traces its roots to Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since 1890, the LDS church has officially abolished plural marriage and members practicing polygamy have been excommunicated and barred from LDS Temples.

Women in pastels pull their long hair up in buns or back in braids. Clean-shaven men wear short hair and long-sleeve shirts that are buttoned up to the neck. Occasionally, as outside cars passing through interrupt the tight-knit community, boys in jeans and girls in ankle-length dresses stop their play and stare.

The area is heavily Republican, with about 400 registered voters in Colorado City and about 350 in Hildale. And Democracy works well in Hildale, Zitting said.

"I'm never told whom to vote for," Zitting said. "I've never heard anybody else being told whom to vote for. If other people have, I can't speak for other people."

The mix of church and state makes election "a cut and dry issue," said Jay Beswick, an anti-polygamy activist who has helped women flee polygamous marriages.

As an elected official, he said, Dan Barlow could have stayed in the area even after he was ousted from the FLDS church.

"The fact that he didn't (shows) that the leadership of the church has absolute civil control of the city," Beswick said.

As long as the church controls the land and property, he expects little change will come with a few new officials.

"It's business as usual as long as Warren (Jeffs) is in charge," Beswick said.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Wednesday, January 28, 2004
 
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