[UPDATE] Hello? Hello?

Surprise!

As is known by now if you're in Provo politics, Mayor Lewis Billings isn't making a run at a fourth term despite being all in less than two weeks ago. Twitter, blah blah, Herald story, blah blah.

What I found remarkable were the number of calls to people who should absolutely know this stuff ahead of time in which the conversation went a little like this:

Me: "Hi, this is Joe from the Herald. Interesting that the mayor decided not to run again, isn't it?"
Person: "No, he's running."
Me: "No, I got it confirmed. He's not running."
Person: "..."
Me: "Hello?"
Person: "I'm going to need to check on that."

Freaked me out enough to check the jail and court records to make sure the Provo mayor hadn't gotten himself into trouble. (Don't worry, he's clean.)

UPDATE:
There is no chance Lewis Billings is going to be the lieutenant governor. First of all, two Utah County residents in the governor's office = legislative poo storm the likes of which you haven't seen since the last time you dropped M-80s in the toilet without checking first. Second of all, Billings would get Herbert absolutely nothing in the 2010 election. He needs help in Salt Lake County and some combination of moderate/name recognition/women thing and Billings does none of the above. No offense.