Vandals broke the windows at the Salt Lake City campaign headquarters of Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg early Saturday morning.
Six windows were broken and rocks were found inside the office at 243 E. 400 South, said Catherine Sant Marr, the communications director for Bloomberg’s campaign in Utah. The building is set back behind a small parking area, across the street from the City Library’s main branch.
The vandalism happened, Sant Marr said, sometime between 4:30 a.m. — the last time the office’s security company checked on the building — and 7 a.m., when the first staffer arrived for the day.
Salt Lake City police are investigating, Fox13 reported, but there was neither video nor witnesses.
Lauren Littlefield, Utah state director for the Bloomberg campaign, said in a statement that her staff was “disheartened” by the vandalism. “We know that emotions can run high in politics, but we also know that even when we disagree, Utahns and common ground in civil discourse.”
Littlefield continued that her staff is “laser focused on Super Tuesday” on March 3, when 14 states — including Utah — will hold presidential primaries.
Sant Marr said the vandalism didn’t slow down the work on the campaign. “We have an office full of volunteers, making calls,” she said.
The vandalism happened less than 48 hours after Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, held a campaign rally in Salt Lake City.
In the last two weeks, acts of vandalism were reported at Bloomberg offices in Toledo, Ohio; Youngstown, Ohio; Knoxville, Tenn.; Ann Arbor, Mich., and Flint, Mich. In those cases, words like “oligarch” and “corporate pig” were left on posters or in spray paint; the Salt Lake City vandals just broke windows, Sant Marr said.
On Friday, after the Knoxville incident, Bloomberg’s campaign manager, Kevin Sheekey, issued a statement that implicated, without evidence, supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“We don’t know who is responsible for this vandalism, but we do know it echoes language from the Sanders campaign and its supporters,” Sheekey said, urging Sanders "to immediately condemn these attacks and for his campaign to end the Trump-like rhetoric that is clearly encouraging his supporters to engage in behavior that has no place in our politics.”
The Sanders campaign declined to comment about Sheekey’s accusations when asked by reporters for The New York Times and NBC News.
Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and Fox13 are partners in a content-sharing agreement.
