Three women, one who is a Republican, are upset at GOP state treasurer Ed Alter for saying that Attorney General Jan Graham may be more likely to heed a request to investigate him made his Democratic challenger, D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli because they are both women.

Last week, after a press conference where Pignanelli criticized Alter for printing a state-mandated unclaimed property list with a big picture of Alter on the front, Alter told a TV reporter: "I suppose the attorney general, being a fellow woman Democrat, that they'll expedite it (Pignanelli's complaint).""I hope Ed Alter isn't implying that because he is a male Republican that in the performance of his official duties he shows favoritism to fellow male Republicans," said Genevieve Atwood, a former GOP state legislator and her party's 2nd Congressional District nominee in 1990. "It is absurd to accuse any elected official of such conduct."

"As a lawyer and a nurse, I am offended Ed Alter presumes women discriminate in favor of women," said Elizabeth Willey, a former vice-chairman of the state Democratic Party.

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"I'm outraged that the state treasurer would make such a bigoted and cruel statement. How dare Ed Alter accuse the only woman to hold statewide office of giving preferential treatment to another woman," said Rep. Mary Carlson, D-Salt Lake, president of the Utah Women's Political Caucus.

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