SALT LAKE CITY — Testy exchanges marked the first debate in the gubernatorial race between GOP Gov. Gary Herbert and his Democratic challenger, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, Thursday.
The debate, set to air at 8 p.m. Monday on KUED, Ch. 7, comes after two weeks of news reports raising questions about whether campaign contributions to the governor influenced the award of state contracts.
Tension over ethics and other issues surfaced again and again throughout the hourlong debate that included questions on a wide range of topics from University of Utah political science students.
Corroon said in his opening statement that he wanted to "bring honest, ethical government to the state of Utah," and that state leaders "are out of touch" with the issues facing the state.
Herbert complained in his closing statement about Corroon's "negativity in this campaign up 'til now through the campaign and today is outstanding. And I think, disappointing."
The sparring between the candidates started with the first question, not surprisingly about their stands on campaign finance reform.
Herbert said he's "not so much into campaign donation limitations but I am into transparency and openness. I think that serves the public well." He said he was the first candidate to voluntarily post a donor list on his campaign website.
Corroon countered by bringing up the controversy centered around $87,500 in contributions to the governor from the winning bid team for a record $1.7 billion roads contract, including $50,000 from a single company head who met privately with Herbert twice.
"We have meetings, we have big donations and then we have people getting contracts with the state of Utah. That raises red flags," the mayor said. "I think that shows poor judgment and poor leadership"
Corroon also repeated an offer he made Wednesday to give back any contributions of more than $10,000 if the governor would do the same, along with cash from companies doing business with the state.
Herbert said if Corroon "feels like he should give that money back, let him do it. I'd like him, in fact — if he believes what he says — to practice what he preaches."
The governor said making a "leap of logic" about his contributions is "salacious and it's an attack on my integrity."
After the debate, the governor told the Deseret News that Corroon's effort to cap contributions mid-race is "a political stunt" and that you "don't change the rules in the middle of the game as we're coming down the home stretch."
Corroon told reporters after the debate the offer was still on the table. He also rejected the governor's description of him as negative. "I'm being a realist," the mayor said, adding the governor appeared to want "to put his head in the sand and pretend we have no issues."
In his post-debate interview, Corroon also brought up the $13 million settlement quietly negotiated earlier this year with one of the losing bidders for the record roads contract, a deal the governor did not know about until last week.
"He's the one who didn't know that $13 million was being paid out to somebody because they lost a contract," the mayor said.
Herbert had suggested several times during the debate that Corroon didn't understand some issues, including the need to offer long-term tax incentives to companies willing to relocate in Utah. The mayor termed the incentives "corporate welfare."
They also were at odds over the disposal of nuclear waste in the state. Corroon criticized the governor for not acting quickly enough to stop a recent shipment of depleted uranium and promised, "I would lay myself across the tracks" to prevent future waste from coming to Utah.
The pair then bickered over when each had accepted campaign contributions from the company that handles nuclear waste disposal in Utah, EnergySolutions, formerly Envirocare.
The back-and-forth between the candidates didn't end with the debate. Both campaigns fired off news releases afterward touting the results of their own polling.
The state GOP released a new poll for Herbert showing the governor with a 20-point lead over Corroon. And later, Corroon's campaign announced its poll showed the race had tightened to a 15-point gap.
Neither campaign shared all of their poll results. Herbert's pollster, Dan Jones & Associates, recently conducted a poll for the Utah Priorities Project that gave the governor a 21-point lead over the mayor.
That poll, part of an effort by the Utah Foundation, the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, the Deseret News and KSL to identify key issues in the governor's race, was taken just as the controversy over campaign contributions was unfolding.
The campaigns both said their new polls were conducted this week.
Herbert and Corroon are vying in this November's special gubernatorial election for the remaining two years of former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s term.
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