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A well-known conservative, nonprofit group is putting its support behind a controversial Republican candidate for Utah's legislature. Democrats say the move confirms what their internal polls indicate: their party is becoming more competitive.
That group is the Utah Eagle Forum. This week, it sent out a mass e-mail to the hundreds of people on its list, telling them they need Republican Chris Buttars back in the Utah Senate.
Democrats say it's a sign conservatives are worried.
Last February, a comment Buttars made, calling a piece of legislation a black baby and "a dark, ugly thing," stirred controversy and put a target on him.
Democrats hoped it might make him vulnerable in his reelection bid. But a Dan Jones poll last month for KSL and the Deseret News appeared to show him out of danger and well ahead of Democratic challenger John Rendell, 55-to-27 percent.
Yet, the conservative Utah Eagle Forum sent out an e-mail this week clearly warning of the risk to their agenda if Buttars lost, saying "we need him back" and asking people to find some time to contribute to his re-election or "pay the price."
"People who are working for various candidates contact and say to us, ‘Could you send out to all of [your] lists that so-and-so needs help.' The Constitution Party sends us things all the time and asks us. Republicans ask us. Democrats don't ask us because, I think, they think the people on our lists won't be interested," said Gayle Ruzicka, with the Utah Eagle Forum.
Democrats believe the e-mail, in its tone and its wording, shows that the political landscape is changing on Utah's Capitol Hill.
"The two polls I know of, that have been run internally by different groups, were a much broader sample size than the Deseret News poll. Both show either a dead heat or Rendell ahead," Utah Democratic Party Chair Wayne Holland said.
If you'd like to see the e-mail, click the related link to the right of the story.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
