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SALT LAKE CITY — The GOP race for Utah attorney general is becoming one of the dirtiest in years.
Candidate Sean Reyes calls ads from a mysterious outside group defamatory, and he's trying to put a stop to them. In the meantime, his opponent's campaign says they had nothing to do with it.
The ads are being shown and heard all over Utah's airwaves, implying Reyes is unethical. Reyes calls it a smear campaign, which is damaging his reputation.
It stinks, and that's why people are real turned off by politics.
–Sean Reyes, GOP AG candidate
"It stinks, and that's why people are real turned off by politics," he said Thursday.
Late that same afternoon, his attorney sent a letter to KSL and other broadcasters, saying the ads are "defamatory" and demanding stations stop airing time or face legal action.
"Not only do they distract, but they destroy in the meantime," Reyes said. "They destroy people's reputations, and that's very, very troublesome."
Utah's elections director said his office could find no basis for the alleged impropriety referred to in the ad. "We reviewed it. We didn't see any violations of the statute," Mark Thomas said.
The group behind the ad is a Nevada-based SuperPAC, which is linked with other Republican operatives around the country in a group called It's Now or Never, Inc.
related:
Campaign finance issues dominate debate in attorney general race
he Republican candidates for Utah attorney general spent nearly an hour in a debate Tuesday trading the same barbs that have marked their campaigns in recent days.A loophole in the law allows the SuperPAC to spend unlimited amounts of money, without disclosing who is paying for it. It's an exploding problem, according to political observers.
"SuperPACs (are) not accountable; and they're only built for one thing, and that's to tear someone down," said Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah.
The Nevada-based group spent more than $70,000 on the ads on KSL TV and KSL Radio. But Reyes' opponent's campaign managers maintain they had nothing to do with it.
"We had nothing to do with those ads, and we're actually really proud of the fact we've been running a really positive campaign from the very beginning," said Jessica Fawson, manager of the John Swallow campaign
KSL asked to speak with the candidate Swallow himself, but we were told he was unavailable. At first it was because of a family trip, and then Fawson told us he was "dealing with issues" related to the special session of the Utah Legislature, held Wednesday.
KSL's attorneys are currently reviewing the cease and desist letter. But the timing of all of this is not insignificant: the Utah primary is just five days away now, Tuesday, June 26.
