Farmington mayoral candidate's math error led to inaccurate claim

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A math error is to blame for an inadvertent campaign claim made by one of Farmington’s mayoral candidates, David Pritzlaff.

Last week, Pritzlaff mailed campaign material to homes and businesses around Farmington. In it, he claims to have been “acting Mayor of Farmington fifty percent of the year in 2009.” And while it is true that he did serve as acting mayor during his term as a Farmington city council member, Pritzlaff was not in office in 2009.

Pritzlaff was elected to the city council in 2004. He took office in January, 2005, and his term continued through Dec. 31, 2008. He sought reelection in 2008, but came in third behind current council members Julie May and Terry Donnelly. May and Donnelly took office Jan. 1, 2009.

While he was in office in 2008, Pritzlaff served as acting mayor when then-mayor Kevan Soderberg was out of town. Soderberg had taken a new job out of state, and missed much of his last year as mayor. In the 2008 election, Todd Larson was elected as mayor. Larson, too, took office Jan. 1, 2009, and is the incumbent in this year’s mayoral race.

Pritzlaff said he did not mean to imply he had been acting mayor while Larson was in office. He said, the error in his campaign literature was merely an adding mistake.

“I did the math, thinking four years from when I started in 2005,” Pritzlaff said. “It’s a mistake on my part. I just did the math wrong.”

Larson, though, was not happy with the implication. Larson’s older daughter, Miranda, had gotten the mail when the flyer came. She read it, and brought it to her dad’s attention. At first, Larson admits he thought it was kind of funny, but he was also upset by it.

“I don’t like the fact he says he was acting mayor for half of my first year,” Larson said. “I would have hoped he would get his facts straight before putting out something that’s going to all of the homes.”

Larson said he had to “set the record straight” while he was out campaigning over the weekend, as several residents asked him about the discrepancy.

Tags: local government, news, farmington