Bob Bennett didn't think Watergate would go away this year - 20 years after the event itself - and it won't, thanks to his Democratic opponent, Wayne Owens.
Owens started running a 60-second radio advertisement Friday criticizing Bennett's Watergate connections.As soon as Monday, a 30-second television spot on the same subject will start running. (For a review of Bennett's involvement with Watergate please see accompanying story).
Kay Christensen, Owens' top aide, says if Bennett had not chosen to emphasize his "outsider" status and his desire to change Washington and Congress, "we may not have had to talk about this."
But, says Christensen, the public needs to understand the irony of a man who "was the ultimate Washington insider running as a vehicle for change."
Bennett says he believes, and his polling backs him up, that people are not interested in a 20-year-old scandal that he was dragged into, had no prior knowledge of and is in no way responsible for.
But, says Christensen, Bennett "says he wants to clean up Washington and Congress.
"Well, the people of Utah have a right to know what he means by `clean,' what he means by `change.' "
The ads refer not to the specifics of Watergate and the so-called "Milk Fund" scandal, but aim more directly at how Bennett is explaining them today, says Chris-ten-sen.
Bennett's "political ethics" are relevant to the election, says Christensen. And she maintains that those ethics are reflected in how Bennett deals with his past - both the acknowledgment of it - "in some instances (Bennett) just says he had no connection to the matter at all . . . clearly not accurate" - and his explanations.
Bennett says he told the truth about his involvement back then and has told it consistently ever since.
No charges were ever filed against Bennett, either in the Watergate matter or the Milk Fund matter. In fact, while Bennett did testify before some committees on Watergate, he was never even called to discuss the Milk Fund matter by the committee that investigated it. (The Deseret News has previously reported on the Milk Fund matter).