GOP senators, congressmen slam Owens for 'politics of personal destruction'

GOP senators, congressmen slam Owens for 'politics of personal destruction'

(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Republican members of Utah's congressional delegation stood in support of GOP 4th District candidate Mia Love on Wednesday and slammed the campaign tactics of her opponent, Democrat Doug Owens.

"Utahns want and deserve a positive campaign focused on issues and solutions, not attack ads and the politics of personal destruction," a news release from Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Reps. Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and Jason Chaffetz said.

All but Chaffetz held a news conference at the Utah GOP headquarters downtown, where they expressed their concern about the tone taken by Owens, who lags behind Love in both the polls and in fundraising.

Owens has TV commercials that reference statements Love made during her 2012 effort to unseat Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, about wanting to do away with the U.S. Department of Education and privatizing Social Security.

Love, who had a speaking engagement and did not attend the news conference, has stopped short of saying this election that she still holds those views, though she has said she wants more local control for schools and will protect Social Security for senior citizens.

Bishop said Love's statements have been taken out of context. On education, he said, she is being portrayed as being against education, an implication that is "clearly unfair and inaccurate."


Utahns want and deserve a positive campaign focused on issues and solutions, not attack ads and the politics of personal destruction.

–Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Reps. Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and Jason Chaffetz


But Bishop could not say what Love's position is on doing away with the federal agency.

"In conversations I have had with her, no, I have not heard her actually making that kind of blanket statement. Although, all of us at one time or another have said, 'You know, get rid of Washington.' That doesn't mean you want to bomb the place," he said.

Hatch said Democrats use similar tactics around the country.

"Whenever they can't win or whenever they're slipping behind, they come up with these phony arguments," the senator said. "I don't like it. I don't think it belongs in our state. In fact, it is beneath the dignity of her opponent."

Owens said he has "never attacked my opponent personally" and won't do so. But, he said, "to claim you're being attacked to avoid answering a policy question is not good enough for the voters. Voters deserve straightforward answers."

He said it was "telling" that Love did not appear at the GOP news conference. Utahns want a representative who will stand on his or her own two feet, Owens said, "and not rely on others to take questions from reporters."

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Lisa Riley Roche

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