U.S. Senate candidate Brent Ward is making a frontal attack against fellow Republican and front-runner Joe Cannon. Ward's aim: To get out of the Republican State Convention.
"Why am I doing it? I want to win," says Ward, a former U.S. Attorney for Utah, whose criticism of Geneva Steel owner Cannon is exceeded only by his attacks on Democratic front-runner Wayne Owens."Joe thinks this is a tea party. It isn't. It's a campaign. The gloves are still on, no blows below the belt. We go bare knuckles when we face Owens this November," says Ward. His criticisms of Cannon are fair and accurate, says Ward.
Ward criticizes Cannon in a series of small brochures mailed to the 2,500 GOP state delegates who will vote on the Republican Senate candidates June 27. Cannon is also criticized in a smaller mailing - to about 400 delegates - by conservative Utahn Lee Twitchell, which talks about Cannon giving to Democratic campaigns in the past.
Twitchell has no connection to the Ward campaign, Ward says. "But I've read (Twitchell's) letter, it looks fair and accurate and appears to be information delegates should know," says Ward.
While not referring to Ward by name, in a letter to delegates aimed at countering the anti-Cannon literature, Cannon says "some of the candidates" are violating the Utah Republican Party's ethics pledge - a document signed by all the major GOP candidates that basically says they won't say nasty, untrue things about each other.
"If you haven't already received negative literature, both signed and anonymous, attacking my character and integrity with half-truths, mistruths, misquotes, innuendos and phrases taken out of context, you soon will," writes Cannon.
Such a charge makes Ward see red. "He (Cannon) says those things about my mailings when they are absolutely true and accurate. He doesn't even have the guts to say it's me he's talking about. It's pernicious. He calls `some candidates' liars and slanderers. He's the one who violates the ethics code."
The first Ward flier criticizes Cannon for the amount of money - "almost all of it out of his own pocket" - he's spending on the race. The flier says Cannon is
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spending about $12,000 a day, and that he'll reach the $3 million mark before the state GOP convention. It asks how a man who spends so much on his campaign can control Congressional spending.
The second flier says Cannon's TV advertisements show Geneva Steel - where Cannon is the major stockholder, current chairman and former president - with no smoke coming out of the mill's stacks. "That's unfair," says Ward's flier. It goes on to say that much of the air pollution in Utah County comes from the mill and that Owens will "win" the environmental debate this November because of Geneva's pollution if Cannon is the GOP candidate.
The third flier says that Cannon gave $3,000 to then-congressional candidate Owens in 1990. It asks how Cannon can possible effectively criticize Owens' Washington, D.C., activities in the fall campaign after giving to him two years ago.
The fourth flier, to be mailed this week, doesn't mention Cannon by name but warns delegates not to flock to the candidate who "has the highest name identification or trumped up support in the polls."
Ward cites sources in the fliers for his statistics and says all statements are true and fair. Ward admits that Cannon is the GOP front-runner but adds, "his support among delegates is dwindling and he's reacting."
In ending his letter to delegates, asking them not to believe criticism of him, Cannon says: "As a state delegate you are the judge and jury. If you support positive political campaigns, then . . . insist that the candidates stick to the issues . . . not tear down their opponents."