This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

There are all sorts of angles one could take when covering politics in Utah County.

You could talk about the bankruptcies filed by some elected officials, tax liens against others, a U.S. senator defaulting on his mortgage obligations, a former county commissioner charged with posing as an authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in an alleged fraud scheme, or the large number of Eagle Mountain mayors facing legal or personal problems over the years.

But for this column, I thought I would narrow the focus to one legislator in northern Utah County and a pattern of phony communications that bash his opponents and, in the end, help him to victory.

In Utah County, that sort of thing seems to work really well.

Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, was first elected to House District 57 — a district that in itself has a quirky history — in 2012 and has established himself as one of the most ultra-conservative voices in the Legislature.

Greene is one of those legislators who is considered either really, really good or not, depending on how far right on the political spectrum the evaluators might be.

He was listed as the top legislator in the House recently by the tea party-leaning UtahGrassRoots.org, but was one of only nine House members — out of 75 — not honored in the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce's "2016 Business Champions" list.

He came into the Legislature after a couple of confusing years in that district. A previous representative, Craig Frank, had to leave the House when it was revealed he didn't live in his district. Frank now is chairman of the Utah County Republican Party.

Frank's replacement, Holly Richardson, left in the middle of her term to help run the failed Senate campaign of Dan Liljenquist in the 2012 Republican Primary against incumbent Orrin Hatch.

Because of some ill-thought-out — some might call them goofy — comments he has made during his time in the House, Greene has been considered vulnerable for an incumbent and in both of his re-election attempts he has had challengers within his own party.

But because he can be considered ultra-right wing in an ultra-right wing county that tends to judge its Republican candidates through purity tests, he also has been seen as a safe bet when it comes to retaining his seat.

This year, his opponent in the Utah County Republican Convention was Xani Haynie.

Greene trounced her in the convention, where the delegates tend to be much more extreme than the more populous GOP primary electorate. Normally, his 68 percent to 32 percent margin would have given him the nomination outright. But Haynie also went the signature gathering route, a new option made possible by the controversial Count My Vote compromise passed by the Legislature in 2015.

The primary was much closer, with Greene ultimately winning by about 5 percent. But, during the campaign, Haynie appeared to have momentum and some Republican observers predicted an upset of the incumbent.

Then came Greene's email to legislative colleagues asking for campaign contributions to help him defeat someone who, he said, wasn't really a Republican but got on the ballot through Count My Vote.

He described Haynie as "a former Democrat who has not even voted herself since 2008."

Someone copied that email and sent it to Haynie, who responded on her Facebook page, including images of her voting registration which showed she always was a registered Republican. She then explained she was politically inactive for a few years because she was battling ovarian cancer.

But the damage may already have been done from the email to legislators painting Haynie as (funeral march music here) a former Democrat.

We've seen this playbook before.

Two years ago, Greene had two opponents in the Utah County Convention — Richardson and John Stevens.

Shortly before the convention, delegates received a letter in their mailboxes purportedly from the Florida-based conservative think tank Foundation for Government Accountability.

The letter, on the foundation's official letterhead, endorsed Greene in his House race, calling him a solid conservative. It criticized his two opponents.

It turns out, the letter was a fake. The foundation does not make endorsements.

An attorney for the foundation later filed a complaint with the Lieutenant Governor's Office, claiming its name was falsely used and without permission.

It was never proven who sent the letter so no action was taken.

But only one candidate benefited from it. And Greene ended up defeating both opponents in the convention. —