Gene Kinney, the Grand Junction mayor who voted to move a tablet listing the Ten Commandments from City Hall, lost his bid for re-election this week. Working against him was the Christian Coalition, which sent out 7,000 letters urging his defeat. Kinney’s council decided to keep the tablet; voters decided not to keep Kinney.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Salt Lake City, not too far north and west of Grand Junction, has taken on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by proclaiming to the world that Salt Lake isn’t really a dry, conservative, boring place. He’s trying to convince Olympic fans that they can have a roaring good time in his home town.

Among other tactics, Ross "Rocky" Anderson has challenged Utah’s alcohol laws. He wants the complicated rules changed before the Olympics — presumably so more liquor can be sold to visitors. LDS leaders have a different opinion and have issued a statement urging the state to keep its strict policies. Other mayors from around the state have sided with the church.

Anderson doesn’t think it’s fair that the world thinks of Utah as a Mormon state and Salt Lake City as the capital of a Mormon empire. Anderson is not a member of the church; 70 percent of Utah’s residents are, and they tend to be a monolithic political force.

Money is a powerful force as well, though, and a divisive one, as Montezuma County residents have learned while debating whether we should host the Iron Horse Motorcycle Rally. Multiply those potential profits almost unimaginably, and the Salt Lake dilemma comes into focus.

For many people, alcohol consumption goes hand in hand with sports. If fans can’t imbibe at the arena, they want to stop by a bar afterward. It’s difficult to get a drink in Utah — although it’s far from impossible — and Anderson is afraid that difficulty factor will reduce the profits residents of his city might otherwise garner from the 2002 Winter Games. Perhaps that’s true, although the Olympics are a strong draw, and vacationers rarely go home with money in their wallets, no matter where they’ve visited.

But drunken debauchery is clearly outside the comfort zone of most Salt Lake City residents, and that preference should be respected even if they didn’t have a moral objection to the consumption of alcohol. Applying economic pressures to ethical decisions is a questionable tactic. Anderson, as mayor, has a right to try it. The voters who elected him have a right to protest loudly and to enforce the same consequences that his Grand Junction counterpart has experienced.