As the argument over whether Republicans recruited a "mole" in Wayne Owens' staff boils down to the word of two men, Owens said Friday night that he personally believes "someone from the Bob Bennett campaign" broke into Joe Cannon's offices and into Owens' Salt Lake campaign headquarters.
Owens' charge comes in the latest round of arguments over what he describes as "Republican dirty tricks." Republicans say Owens is just losing his grip on reality as he sees his U.S. Senate campaign headed for defeat in Tuesday's election.Owens said he believes someone from the Bennett campaign - "not Bob Bennett himself" - broke into Cannon's campaign headquarters twice before the Sept. 8 primary and entered Owens' South Salt Lake headquarters earlier this year. Owens has no direct proof but says other mysterious actions in the campaign, coupled with his latest charges of a Republican "mole" and "Bob's past life" in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s lead him to such conclusions.
Cannon's offices were apparently entered twice - although former Cannon campaign manager Jim Young says no evidence points to Bennett. Owens' offices were believed entered, Owens says, after campaign members who had taped doors before leaving one night found the tape on the back door broken the next morning.
Friday night, Owens stared running a new TV ad that accuses Bennett of bringing Watergate-style "dirty tricks" to Utah.
Replied Bennett spokesman Gregg Hopkins: "We categorically deny having anything to do with break-ins in the Joe Cannon campaign. We categorically deny having anything to do with any break-ins in the Wayne Owens campaign. Obviously, this campaign has taken a heavy toll on Mr. Owens and we are just not going to respond any further to these unwarranted charges."
A side light to the latest charges are claims - made by the man Owens accuses of being a Republican "mole" - that an Owens' aide, Dave Saybolt, sexually harassed as many as five female employees of Owens, and that Owens didn't respond to the reported incidents in an appropriate manner.
Owens denies the last charge, made by former Owens fund-raiser Mark Linebaugh, saying after learning of the incidents he personally spoke with Saybolt - a campaign fund-raiser for Owens - demoted him, placed a woman in charge of his fund-raising staff and gave her "complete authority" to fire Saybolt should such incidents happen again. "I spoke with her this evening; she says Dave has been a model employee, no such incidents have occurred again," said Owens.
In the past several days, Owens has spoken with two attorneys; both say "that I followed not only the letter of sexual harassment law, but the spirit of the law as well" in dealing with the Saybolt matter. (Saybolt has a history of problems in Washington. See accompanying story.)
Thursday, Owens and an aide, Matt Krusko, called a press conference to say that Linebaugh, who quit Owens' campaign in early September, was recruited by a member of GOP Rep. Jim Hansen's staff - Bill Simmons - to be a "mole" within the Owens' organization. Key to the allegations is that Linebaugh, while still working for Owens, gave Simmons a copy of an Owens' fund-raising brochure and met with GOP leaders in Utah to discuss how to damage Owens' campaign. Those allegations and Simmons', Hansen's and others' responses were carried in Friday's Deseret News.
Linebaugh flew to Utah late Thursday and Friday afternoon held his own press conference. Linebaugh denied all the charges laid on him by Owens and Krusko.
Linebaugh says he never gave Simmons, any Republicans or anyone else any copies of the Owens brochure until after he left Owens' employment. He gave Simmons "only one or two copies" of the brochure. He had about 200 to 250 copies of the brochure in his car after he quit the campaign and he freely admits giving those out "to anyone who wanted one."
The brochure wasn't widely circulated but was used in East Coast fund-raising, Owens says. The brochure was no secret. Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson wrote a story on the brochure that was published Sept. 3. Owens doesn't deny anything in the brochure - which has been reproduced and mailed out to Utahns by the Republican Senatorial Committee in an attempt to misrepresent his positions and damage his campaign.
"I spoke about eight of the 10 issues in the brochure in my speech before the Utah Democratic State Convention, carried live on KSL-TV," says Owens.
The controversy now boils down to who one believes is telling the truth - Linebaugh, who admits he's a Republican and quit Owens' campaign because of "philosophical" differences with him, or Krusco, who still works for Owens.
Owens says Krusco's account of events rings true for several reasons:
- While Linebaugh says he quit because of inattention to sexual harassment within the office and because of strong disagreements over how the brochure was being selectively used - in a resignation letter to Owens, Linebaugh doesn't cite the brochure at all and only mentions the sexual harassment matter "in one of 17 paragraphs."
- Krusco's account of how Linebaugh told him the Republicans were going to use the brochure against Owens "has come true - they using the brochure to seriously misrepresent my views," says Owens.
Linebaugh says Krusco is simply making up the alleged conversations. "(Krusco) told me he'd do anything he could to climb the ladder in Washington," Linebaugh said.
Linebaugh says that while he did talk to Krusco - an associate in Owens' fund-raising office in Washington, D.C. - about his dissatisfaction with his job assignment and with how the campaign was being run, he never told Krusco he was working with Simmons to discredit Owens - as Krusco says he did - and never told Krusco that he had flown to Utah in early September to meet with GOP state chairman Bruce Hough to plan strategy to damage Owens chances at the polls.
Hough categorically denies ever meeting with Linebaugh; Line-baugh denies meeting with Hough. Hough says he'll take a lie detector test. Linebaugh says he might, but wouldn't promise Friday to do so.
Linebaugh, in a long statement, says he quit after becoming disillusioned with Owens - the man and the politician - and because of the sexual harassment matter. "These girls were friends of mine. I'd worked with some of them for a year. They were being mistreated (by Saybolt) and Wayne wasn't doing anything about it," Linebaugh said. Linebaugh said two of the women have given him permission to name them and talk about the charges, but he didn't want to do that, saying Saybolt and Owens should talk about them. Owens said he's dealt responsibly with the matter and didn't plan to comment further. Saybolt couldn't be reached for comment.