GOP Senate candidate Joe Cannon says a dirty-tricks campaign being waged against him as the Republican State Convention nears is responsible for an anonymous facsimile sent to the Deseret News on Wednesday morning.
The five-paragraph fax is addressed to just "Joe" and signed "Bob." The language suggests it was a memo meant for Joe Cannon and hints it was written by fellow GOP Senate candidate Bob Bennett. Cannon says he never received the memo; Bennett says he never sent such a memo.The fax says Cannon approached President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in July or August 1987 seeking financial help in buying Geneva Steel. Hinckley rebuffed him, the memo says. It goes on to say that state GOP delegates are talking about the incident.
Cannon is displeased with the nasty nature of the memo, especially coming as it does just a week and a half before delegates vote on the four major Republican U.S. Senate candidates. Cannon is leading in various delegate polls, and Bennett is running second. The memo could be meant to harm both men's campaigns.
While much of the memo is false, Cannon says he did keep President Hinckley - a longtime family friend of the Cannons - informed as Cannon and his associates moved to buy the old steel mill in 1987.
"We approached literally dozens and dozens of financial institutions in July and August of 1987, inquiring if they may be interested in investing in (the purchase) of Geneva."
One of the entities approached by Cannon's associates - not by Cannon personally - was Zions Securities Corp., the investment arm of the LDS Church. "We talked to them, but we never really imagined at any time that they would want to invest. I never, never asked President Hinckley if the church would want to invest. My conversations with him were along the lines of, `We're trying to buy this steel plant, it has a big impact on Utah, I thought you should know.' Keep him informed as a courtesy, that kind of a thing," Cannon says.
Since he never asked President Hinckley for financial help, President Hinckley never "rebuffed" him, as the memo says, Cannon added.
Mike Tullis, Bennett's campaign manager, said he, too, is upset over the memo. "We absolutely never sent it. Why would we? This (convention) fight isn't between Bob and Joe, not as we see it. So who did send it? That's an interesting question."
Cannon said: " This is just a dirty trick aimed at getting something negative about me in the press. But I don't see how it can work. This is not negative. I never asked President Hinckley directly for financial support."