PROVO — Five days before the general election, U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon's campaign circulated information Thursday that attempts to paint 3rd District challenger Democrat Donald Dunn as one of the main operatives in the so-called White House database scandal.
Dunn, who worked for President Clinton's political director when Republicans claimed the White House database was used for Democratic fund-raising, denies wrongdoing. He said the office followed legal advice and only gave out names of people who attended White House events.
Dunn actually takes heart in Cannon's campaign tactic while also calling it "scuzzy" and "last-minute sleazing."
"No one is surprised by this, and no one is shocked," Dunn said. "There is no reason, using sound political judgment, to do this if you are up by 20 points. They have to know something, and I'm excited by it."
The campaign for Dunn, a former spokesman for the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, said it shows Cannon is worried about a come-from-behind win by Dunn, who dumped more than $200,000 into TV and radio ads in the last week.
Dunn also said it is an example of the two-term Republican congressman's "obsession" with hard-ball partisan politics and attacking the president and first lady.
Windsor Freemyer, Cannon's chief of staff in Washington, D.C., defended Cannon's timing in bringing up Dunn's role in the White House, saying it isn't dirty politics to talk about Dunn's duties while he worked in the White House.
"This wasn't going to be an attack, but it was going to say, 'You were an inside player,' " said Freemyer. "This information is in the Library of Congress. We are just saying what the committee that investigated (the White House database scandal) said in its report."
Cannon's campaign manager also said today that a tracking poll done Oct. 16-20 showed Cannon still with a large lead over Dunn.
The report indicates White House staffers may have violated federal law by gleaning information from the database for the DNC. Dunn, as a person who was included in the investigation, disputes the report and says the probe "was a big fishing expedition."
The congressman's staff told the Deseret News Thursday that Cannon planned to say in a debate Thursday that part of Dunn's duties when he worked in the political affairs office was to answer the queries from the Democratic National Committee about who attended White House functions.
Cannon did not approach Dunn's job history as a White House staffer during the KSL Channel 5 debate.
But a three-page document about the investigation into whether White House staff — including Dunn — violated federal law by using government equipment or staff time to help Democrats raise money was circulated Thursday night.
"Boiled down, it seems a new White House database referred to as 'WhoDB' was shared, in violation of the law, with the Democratic National Committee and other Democrat organizations," says the document released by Cannon's campaign. "It was revealed in an 82-page deposition given to the House Government Affairs and Oversight Committee that Dunn was the 'point man' for development of the WhoDB."
Freemyer said Cannon wanted to point out that Dunn was a "big dog" in Washington, D.C., when he worked at the White House — and regardless of his moderate political stances would align himself with Democratic leaders if elected.
"We wanted to draw a distinction between the teams," she said. "He climbed the ladder in the Clinton White House, yet he's worked hard to distance himself from Clinton. This makes the point that he was a political insider on the Clinton team."
According to Dunn's deposition in front of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the congressional panel that probed the use of the White House database, he was indeed the contact person in the political-affairs office when the DNC called for information from the database.
Dunn says Cannon is dramatizing his job as assistant to the political-affairs director. "He makes it sound like I was a confidante with the president," he said. "I was really the guy who helped answer the phone."
Also, Dunn said his campaign will create a link to his deposition that was taken during the probe. He said he doesn't have anything to hide. "I've got zero dirt."
Dunn challenged Cannon to also provide links on his Web site to any depositions of court cases he's been involved in.
Marcy Everest, a political science professor at Weber State University, said such last-minute campaign moves usually indicate that tracking polls show the race could be tight.
However, she said, Cannon may also be trying to lock up GOP support while also trying to persuade undecided moderate voters who look at the Clinton-Lewinsky saga with distaste that Dunn played a role in the Democratic administration.
E-MAIL: jeffh@desnews.com