St. George • Observers have turned to unflattering terms to describe the contentious campaign to fill three open seats on the St. George City Council.
Nasty, ugly and heartbreaking are a few of the more popular adjectives applied to this year’s City Council race. And while opinions differ about who is responsible, most agree this is no run-of-the-mill election.
“I’ve been involved with city politics for a long time, but I’ve never seen an election like this one,” said Sarah Ostler, diversity club representative for the Utah Tech Student Association. “This is one ugly election.”
Others share Ostler’s bleak assessment, including St. George Mayor Michele Randall, who recently proclaimed on Facebook “I’ve never seen an uglier campaign.” Former St. George Mayor Dan McArthur echoed Randall’s concerns, lamenting the polarization that now plagues municipal politics.
“We’re looking at a whole different time than it was [when I was mayor],” McArthur said. “People get angry, they won’t compromise or try to come to the middle … which makes it tough.”
Indeed, this year’s campaign has been marred by a citywide vandalism spree involving the theft, alteration or destruction of hundreds of campaign signs. It has divided residents and also triggered overheated rhetoric and half-baked accusations on social media.
Two sides of the divide
Support for this year’s candidates is largely divvied up into two competing camps. One faction, which includes Randall, backs incumbent Council members Dannielle Larkin and Jimmie Hughes and St. George Planning Commissioner Steve Kemp, all of whom want to stick to traditional municipal business.
The other, led by Council member and conservative firebrand Michelle Tanner, supports Paula Smith and Brad Bennett, who are eager to tackle typical municipal matters but are also willing to take on more social and cultural issues.
Even though all the candidates are Republican and municipal races are ostensibly nonpartisan, this year’s council campaign has become as political as it is nasty and polarizing.
Supporters of Smith and Bennett often portray the council incumbents, especially Larkin, and Kemp, as “woke” tax-and-spend liberals who support drag shows and side with groomers who are intent on corrupting impressionable children and undermining the moral fabric of the community.
Conversely, opponents often paint Smith and Bennett as being in league with Tanner to seize control of the council and advance politically extreme far-right views such as making St. George a Second Amendment “sanctuary city,” changing the name of Utah Tech University back to Dixie State University, and marching in lockstep with former President Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda.
Geoff Allen, an assistant political science professor at Utah Tech University, said he hasn’t seen so much rancor over elections before but adds the contention is not wholly unexpected.
“The dirty secret of American politics is that there have never been nonideological elections at any level except for, maybe, small-town mayors or something,” he said. “One of the …reasons this is so contentious is because it looks like it is going to be a close election. I know that rancor is much more common when you have what is perceived to be a tight election.”
Targeted by vandals, smeared by critics
Larkin, the leading vote-getter in the September primary, has emerged as a top target.
Vandals recently altered all of her large campaign signs, attaching smaller signs to them that alleged she supported all-ages drag shows in city parks. In addition, thousands of notes with the same accusation have been posted on car windows all over St. George, most recently at last week’s council candidate debate at Utah Tech University. That same message is also being broadcast via electronic signs affixed to a truck making the rounds downtown and in city neighborhoods.
(Dannielle Larkin) A campaign sign for St. George City Council member Dannielle Larkin is shown to be altered.
One Facebook post on the Southern Utah Politics website obliquely referenced the “A” grade she received from Equality Utah to accuse her of marching with Black Lives Matters while “that organization burned America’s cities to the ground” and advocating “for men to play on girls’ sports teams.”
“If you vote for LA Larkin, don’t act surprised when SG (St. George) looks more like CA (California),” the post states.
For her part, Larkin said critics are misrepresenting her views. She said her vote last spring to overturn the denial of a drag company’s application to stage a show at a city park was to ensure the city’s code was applied evenly and to safeguard freedom of speech and expression. As for her policy of inclusion toward the LGBTQ community and other underrepresented groups, Larkin makes no apology, saying she believes everyone deserves a seat at the municipal table and to be heard.
Utah Tech University professor Dee Murray, a Larkin supporter, and her students got an earful last spring when they attended a St. George City Council meeting packed with Tanner supporters.
“It was hideous, an absolute clown show,” she recalled. “People were screaming at the mayor and the [council]. My students were embarrassed and felt so ashamed. “I thought, ‘How am I going to teach civics and about how to be civil when these citizens can’t be civil?’”
On the other side of St. George’s divide, Bennett is also being targeted. Vandals recently spraypainted the names of Kemp and Larkin on one of his signs. Another was impaled with a railroad stake. All told, he estimates he has had more than 100 signs stolen and many others vandalized, some as many as four times in the same location. Like Larkin, he doesn’t know who is responsible and has filed police reports. But even though some of the vandals have been caught on camera, St. George police say they have been unable to learn their identity and make an arrest.
Others have labeled Bennett and Smith as puppets under Tanner’s control. Even though both have appeared on Tanner’s podcast and have her endorsement, Bennett said such insinuations are false.
“There will be no puppeteering of any kind because I won’t stand for that,” he said, adding that he may differ with Tanner on some issues and will base his votes on the United States Constitution.
Dana McCabe, a staunch Smith supporter, attributes the heated campaign tactics to Mayor Randall’s decision in May to temporarily halt the public comment portion of council meetings, which she said stoked opposition.
“The sad part was, all the council members except for Michelle Tanner went along with it,” she said.
Conversely, longtime St. George resident Stacy Lee blames Tanner for the discord, saying the council member’s whole life is motivated by her anger. She compares Tanner to Kari Lake, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert.
“She wants to be as nasty and famous and as famous for being nasty as those women are,” Lee said.
Return to rancor
As contentious as the campaign season has been, the candidates were on their best behavior during their most recent debate. In her closing remarks, Larkin made a plea for civility and she and Smith exchanged a hug.
A day later, the rancor and rhetoric returned in full fury. In her podcast, Tanner noted the debate moderator, Chuck Goode was a Democrat, which she said explained the leftist questions asked the candidates.
“So you want to talk about softball questions,” she said. “You want to talk about questions that have nothing to do actually with the City Council’s role. I mean, they kicked this off with questions about environmental sustainability and inclusion and LGBTQ …
“Why on earth would you try to purposefully divide by calling out differences,” she added. “I mean, would someone ever say, ‘What are you going to do to include heterosexuals in our community?’”
