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John Daley ReportingThe race for Salt Lake County Sheriff is heating up. The challenger is raising questions about whether incumbent Republican Aaron Kennard is out of touch, something the Sheriff and his supporters deny.
Golf, it's become an issue in the Sheriff's race after Eyewitness News reported that incumbent Republican Aaron Kennard, according to scores posted on the Utah Golf Association website, had been golfing 18-rounds on 13 weekdays during the previous 10 weeks.
The Sheriff says he's always reachable by cell phone or pager.
Aaron Kennard, (R) Salt Lake County Sheriff, Sept. 29: "So this job does not suffer one iota from my golf."
His opponent, Democrat Jim Winder, has seized on the issue. Today he got endorsements from three police and fire unions. They contend the Sheriff is out of touch.
Shawn Roberts, Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriff's Federation: "The Deputy Sheriff's Federation feels that Jim Winder is a leader, and we need a leader that's present and accountable."
The Sheriff and his defenders point out that one of those groups, the Deputy Sheriff's Federation, was formed by Winder himself.
The Sheriff, who returned our call to him late this afternoon, told us he has the endorsement of numerous police organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police chapters representing Deputy Sheriffs and Corrections workers, and the public employees union, among others. Kennard says those endorsements and others "tells me the people are on board and we're doing the job. He's trying to make issues...the real issues are not the endorsements."
The GOP's county leader dismisses Winder's endorsements as election year politics.
James Evans, Chair, Salt Lake County Republican Party: "This is typical democrat politics where they can't campaign on the issue so they try to publicly malign republican candidates. So there's no news there. I mean they don't have any issues to run on other than to personally or professionally attack republican candidates."
Election Day is coming up; it's just four weeks from yesterday, on November 7th.
