Leaders Say They're Wrongly Listed as Endorsing Rocky

Leaders Say They're Wrongly Listed as Endorsing Rocky


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Three prominent individuals deny they endorsed re-election of Mayor Rocky Anderson and they have asked that their names be removed from his supporters' list in his campaign literature.

They are Andrew Tobias, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee; Bonnie Dew, the state black affairs director; and Michael Styles, chairman of the Utah Democratic Black Caucus.

Sheryl Ivy, Anderson's campaign manager, said the three cases resulted from miscommunication.

"There certainly were oversights, but they were perfectly innocent misunderstandings on our part," she said.

Tobias met the mayor at a gay Pride Day gathering and liked what the mayor had to say. But Tobias said he cannot endorse Anderson since the mayor backed Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's election bid.

Bonnie Dew, whose boss is Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt, was shocked to see her name appear on Anderson's campaign literature.

An Anderson campaign coordinator was able to get the support of Bonnie Dew's husband, Gordon Dew.

"My husband endorsed and signed and they assumed -- I don't know why, maybe they just thought a good wife just goes along with her husband -- that I also endorsed him. But I didn't," Bonnie Dew said.

"That was an oversight on our part," Ivy said.

Styles said, "We weren't ready to endorse anybody yet. However, my name appeared on Mayor Anderson's list that I endorsed him. The point was that we haven't endorsed yet, so my name shouldn't be on there."

Ivy said that based on numerous telephone calls and e-mails from Styles indicating that he liked the mayor, Anderson's campaign concluded that Styles was a supporter willing to have his name included on campaign literature.

The municipal primary is in October and the election is in November. Molonai Hola and Frank Pignanelli are challenging Anderson. The filing deadline for the mayor's race is Aug. 15.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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