Former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker endorses Mayor Erin Mendenhall's reelection 

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• Benjamin Wood
• Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall poses for photos with former Mayor Ralph Becker after receiving his endorsement for her reelection campaign on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.

WASHINGTON SQUARE—The reelection campaign of Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall picked up a notable endorsement on Thursday from Ralph Becker, the city's former mayor from 2008 to 2016. Becker completes a hat trick for Mendenhall, who was previously endorsed by former mayors Palmer DePapaulis and Ted Wilson in her race against another former mayor, Rocky Anderson.

Introducing Becker at a press event outside City Hall, Mendenhall described him as "perhaps the greenest mayor in Salt Lake City's history," citing his work to create the city's first protected bike lanes, build the S-Line Streetcar and fund the expansion of the Green Line Trax to Salt Lake City International Airport. Becker then praised Mendenhall for her civility and leadership during a series of crises during her first term (alluding to but not specifying the COVID-19 pandemic, earthquakes and a major windstorm).

"Her temperament, her judgment, her ability to build relationships is without peer in all of my public life," Becker said.

Becker said that he has known both Mendenhall and Anderson for a long time, and admires and respects each of them. But he reiterated Mendenhall's ability to work collaboratively in his determination that her reelection is best for Salt Lake City.

"Mayor Anderson was a leader in his time—which was 20 years ago—and he did advance Salt Lake City in many ways," Becker said. "He also had an approach that was combative with many of the people Salt Lake City needs to partner with."

Asked to respond to Becker's decision, Anderson told City Weeklythat Salt Lake was, years ago, "a shining example to the nation" after leaders worked together to provide supportive housing to the chronically unsheltered. But that came to a "grinding halt" between 2010 and 2019, Anderson said, a period when Becker (and then Jackie Biskupski) was mayor and when Mendenhall was a member of the City Council.

"As we can all see with our own eyes, the city has botched it all, leading to the many homeless encampments in parks, neighborhoods and elsewhere, leading to a far worse quality of life for residents and businesses, while brutalizing the unsheltered community. The city also permits rampant drug trafficking and conspicuous abuse, leading to a vastly degraded city," Anderson said. "We all need new, effective leadership for a vastly different, effective, evidence-based approach from years of city failures and irresponsibility."

Becker did not issue an endorsement during the 2019 election cycle, which saw an open-seat contest after Biskupski declined to seek a second term. Asked why he choose to involve himself this cycle, Becker pointed to the circumstances of the race, in which two candidates with mayoral experience—and track records—are facing off.

"To me, governing is what this is about," Becker said. "Campaigns are about getting elected, getting enough votes. But governing is a bit of a different responsibility and mindset."

The Mendenhall campaign has collected a daunting list of endorsements, including all seven members of the City Council, most of the city's community council chairpersons, the city teachers union and other labor organizations and the bulk of the city's representation in the state House and Senate.

"We’re a blue dot in a red sea and when we forget that, it’s a disservice to the people that we serve," Mendenhall said. "No matter how strongly we feel about our principles, our job as mayor is to make progress for our city."

Mendenhall said that she has worked hard to deliver results and to "rebuild" necessary relationships with the state government and other partners, pointing to recent progress on sanctioned camping, street and infrastructure improvements, transit expansion and the increasing likelihood of a second Olympic Winter Games.

"The city is moving forward and I won’t let anyone take us back," Mendenhall said.