In my home in Heber Valley, I saw an ad on TV – three ladies snarking at an outdoor table about how Evan McMullin must be a hypocrite, must be a Democrat in disguise, must not be a “real” Utahn. One of them seems to think McMullin is in his own intellectually elite bubble without a sense of the people (aka Republicans) he hopes to represent. The ad also included a cut-and-paste TV montage of McMullin supposedly calling Republicans racists.
The ladies at the table then exchange gossip that implies McMullin thinks he’s somehow an anti-Republican, erudite “other” which makes him not right for Utah.
As Bryan Shott reported in the Salt Lake Tribune Oct. 11:
“Last week, McMullin’s campaign sued several Utah television station and the Club for Growth [the funders for the commercial] over an ad he claimed is ‘deceptive.’ In the ad, McMullin’s comments during an appearance on CNN in 2017 are edited so that he says, ‘the Republican base is racist — these bigots’.”
The-cut-and-paste clip of him speaking was a clumsy attempt to put attitudes in his words that do not represent him or his campaign.
This past week I have also received two large attack ads in the mail – funded by the Club for Growth and Crypto Freedom Super PACs. They trumpet McMullin as “a bully”.
Lest we assume that those funding organizations are simply anti-McMullin, Bryan Shott also notes:
“This isn’t the first time Club for Growth has stepped in to support Lee. Last summer the group’s PAC sent mailers attacking Republicans Becky Edwards and Ally Isom as they were considering challenging Lee for the Republican nomination.”
Despite appealing to Utah’s Republican base with these two most recent mailers, it is obvious that the message is much broader. The groups providing this misinformation have already demonstrated they will attack Republicans. The only Republican they will not attack is the incumbent – Mike Lee.
Because of the unique body politic in Utah, between the two major contenders, Evan McMullin is the candidate with more integrity and more commitment to our state, and – dare I say – to our country as a whole. We need better leadership. We need a “Utah” way, not a partisan way which has not been well-served in recent years.
“We have to be willing to make a change,” McMullin implored voters here on a recent fall night. “We have to be willing to stand up to the broken politics of division and extremism.”
As McMullin himself stated on October 11:
“This is the kind of leadership we need across the country as well: cross-partisan leadership, leaders who will unite rather than divide. ... I will be talking with Republicans, Democrats, Independents. ... We are having this conversation across the political spectrum. ... The whole purpose of [my candidacy] is to unite in this era of division and offer greater leadership to the state and to the country.
Boy, do we need it!
Linda Hoffman Kimball
Linda Hoffman Kimball is an artist and writer living in Woodland.
