Paul Taylor writes:

Paul Taylor
County Delegate, OR16

I have watched with growing dismay as screeds have been flung about on blogs, mailing lists and web sites accusing Parley Hellewell of dirty campaigning. My dismay has been both with the tone and approach of the accusers, and with the question of whether they are right. I have spoken at length with Parley to get his view on the matter, which I will share below. I will follow my reporting of that conversation with my own editorializing—please note the separation! I am not representing Parley or his campaign. I have decided to vote for Parley, I’ve stated this publicly, and I reaffirm it now.

I told Parley that I intended to disseminate what I learned from our conversation. I did not record the conversation word-for-word, so I will not quote his answers directly.

First, some background for the uninitiated:

April 14: Someone circulated through US Mail a vicious personal smear letter against Margaret Dayton to some of the county delegates in Senate District 15. (I did not receive a copy, and haven’t seen it.)

April 18: Parley sent an email to delegates saying “I would encourage you to reject this recent attack on a fine, reputable, capable candidate.”

April 20: Greg Soter wrote an email to delegates passing on a message from Margaret’s sister-in-law urging that the letter be ignored.

April 22: Dan Barrus wrote to the utahcountygop email list, passing on a message from Greg Soter. Greg describes an ad run against him during his 1998 campaign against Parley by an “anonymous” group. He represents this ad as telling blatant lies about him, that he “never could find out” who ran the ad, he strongly infers the ad lost him the race, blames Parley for the ad, and compares the ad to the smear letter against Margaret. Dan in his commentary strongly insinuates that Parley was behind both the ad and the
letter: the title of his email is “Hellwell’s Opponents Have a History of Being Ambushed near the Finish Line.”

April 25: Ivan Keller, legislative chair for Leg District 60, sent an email to delegates urging that the letter be ignored.

April 25: Daniel Thompson, representing a new group called “Truth in Politics,” emails the delegates, announcing a $10,000 reward for info on the smear letter, AND announcing their intention to raise money for a reward for information on the 1998 ad against Greg Soter.

April 26: “Truth in Politics” announces that the “case” of the 1998 ad was closed; that they had received anonymous tips from people at Parley’s house on the night of the primary in 1998 who said Glenn Way, who they describe as “Hellewell’s campaign manager/adviser for the 1998 election,” had announced that he was the mastermind behind the ad.

They also report that Glenn Way spoke with them on April 25 and told them that he was behind the ad, that the ad was not deceptive or anonymous and had followed then-current laws in posting the ad, that he had not given his name at the time because he was a sitting legislator, and that “Parley Hellewell had no clue that I was involved in that ad until a couple of weeks ago.”

Truth in Politics declares “This case is now closed,” and says that those who contributed information will be given their share of a $1,000 reward.

Since then (this is now April 28th) I have seen claims that Parley has known for eight years that Glenn had run the 1998 ad, and had still paid him for services in 2001 and 2002; that Glenn had paid for the attack ad; endless comparisons between the 1998 ad and the Margaret smear letter; and even posts that Parley was personally handing out copies of the Margaret smear letter at the Noni delegate meeting.

Oh, and also on April 26, another email from Greg Soter, mostly full of negative material aimed at Parley based on their campaign eight years ago, and referring again to the 1998 ad as the reason for his loss to Parley.

I understand there were statements made on the topic on KNRS 570 this morning, including about 10 minutes of explanation from Parley. I didn’t hear that, so I don’t know what was said. I did, though, have a long
conversation with Parley this morning, seeking again to find out his side of the story.
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I asked Parley when he found out that Glenn Way had been involved in running the 1998 ad. He said he found out last Sunday, April 23rd.

I asked about the informants who claimed that, in Parley’s home in 1998, Glenn had announced his involvement in running the ad. He said he hadn’t heard any such conversation, that Glenn had only been at the house a short time that night; he said he had been upstairs a good part of the evening and may have missed it, but that he didn’t believe the alleged “announcement” had occurred at all.

I asked how he felt about the ad, and whether he felt it was inappropriate. He said he did feel it was inappropriate, and that he thinks Glenn Way and Richard Moss also think it was inappropriate.

I asked if Glenn Way was Parley’s campaign manager in 1998, as the Truth In Politics site claimed. He said no, that Harry McKinley was his campaign manager in 1998, and that Glenn was an unpaid volunteer on the campaign. I asked if Glenn had had access to campaign funds, and he said no.

I asked about the group who posted the ad being anonymous. He said that the day after the ad was run in the Utah County Journal, the Journal published the names of the 20-plus people who comprised the group “Citizens for Utah’s Values in Education,” who had run the ad, and that the list included the
name of Richard Moss, who apparently paid for the ad. I asked if Richard Moss had worked on Parley’s campaign in 1998, and he said no. He said he did know that Richard Moss and Glenn Way were close friends.

I asked what Parley had paid Glenn Way for in 2001 and 2002. He said he had paid him to write campaign literature, and to work to keep Parley unopposed in the 2002 election.

Parley offered some additional perspective on the ad, and those that ran it. He said during the campaign Greg Soter had stated repeatedly that he was not supported or endorsed by the UEA, despite the fact that the UEA had endorsed Greg in writing, and was actively distributing campaign materials for Greg. Parley said he believed this frustrated Glenn and Richard, leading them to run the ad, which asserted that the UEA did endorse Greg and another candidate, David Cox, attributed a long list of liberal positions to the
UEA, and urged voters to vote against the candidates the UEA endorsed. (David Cox, by the way, won his race.)

I also learned that despite Greg’s claim of not having time to respond to the ad, which ran the Sunday before the Tuesday primary, Greg did manage to run a much larger ad in the more widely-circulated Daily Herald on Monday, blaming the previous ad on Parley, and denying that he had been endorsed by the NEA. (Which was technically correct – he had been endorsed by the UEA.)

Parley said of why he felt Glenn and Richard had run the ad: they were young, they were new to politics, they hadn’t yet learned the damaging nature of negative campaigning to all the parties involved.

I asked what his intentions were toward working with Glenn Way now that he knew he had been involved in running the ad; he said he thought very highly of Glenn, and that he wouldn’t damage his friendship with him over a mistake in judgment made eight years ago. He said he knows Glenn made a mistake, and that Glenn knows it was a mistake.

Parley also told me that Glenn initiated the phone call to Truth in Politics as soon as he heard they were looking for information about the 1998 ad, and before they offered the $1000 reward.

Also, when Parley heard they were raising money to find out who wrote the Margaret smear letter, he called Daniel Thompson of Truth in Politics and offered $1000 toward the cause. Daniel said for him to bring the check to him. When Parley arrived 15 minutes later with the $1000 check, Daniel told him they wouldn’t accept his donation.

Five days later, Aaron Campbell, the other half of Truth in Politics, called Parley back and apologized, saying they would accept the money, which Parley promptly delivered. Parley received a call shortly afterward from a County GOP representative, asking if Parley had donated. When he said he had, the
representative said that was good, because Truth in Politics had called asking the party for a donation and they had said they would only donate if they accepted Parley’s donation.

Oh yes, and I asked him about the accusation that he was handing out the Margaret smear letter at the Noni gathering. Parley said that Ivan Keller asked him about the letter at the gathering, said he wanted to send out a condemnation of the letter but hadn’t seen it, and asked Parley if he had it. Parley gave Ivan his only copy. This was apparently known to Bryan Chapman, who Parley called when the rumor started. Bryan admitted that he had told some people that Parley was passing out copies of the letter.
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Okay, now for my commentary. The accusations against Parley are about negative campaigning. This is what I see with regards to negative campaigning in this race.

• Someone wrote a vicious, anonymous, personal smear letter against Margaret Dayton.
• Parley, Ivan Keller, Greg Soter and others denounce the smear and negative campaigning in general, urging that it be ignored.
• Far from ignoring it, Greg Soter, Truth in Politics, Dan Barrus, blogger UtahConservative and many others seek to tie the smear to an eight-year-old campaign ad, and pound, over and over, the drum of Parley as a vicious, sneaky, dirty campaigner.

I haven’t seen any negative campaigning in this race from Parley, or from anyone in his campaign. I haven’t seen any negative campaigning from Margaret, either, except for some barbs about Parley pulling out of the race and coming back in.

What I do see is Greg Soter running a negative campaign. He started running negative pieces about Parley before the smear letter. Now he is trying to make this campaign about his campaign eight years ago. He has had willing help from the anonymous UtahConservative, and from the high-sounding Truth in Politics group that only investigates “cases” involving Parley opponents, by paying off anonymous tipsters to give information about an anonymous group whose members readily identified themselves upon being asked.

Greg and his friends point out that whoever wrote the smear letter “must have got the list from SOMEwhere,” hint, hint, while Greg posts his accusations to the same delegate list which he therefore obviously has
himself, and Truth in Politics posts to the same list with they obviously have, and Dan Barrus posts to the utahcountygop forum formed by a post to the same delegate list by the same Daniel Thompson of Truth in Politics! (And yes, I have the list, too!)

Another favorite insinuation of theirs seems to be, regarding who wrote the smear, “Just ask yourself who benefits from it the most,” while they are working overtime to make sure it is their candidate who benefits the most.

It boggles my mind that Parley is being crucified as a negative campaigner when I haven’t heard a negative word about Margaret from him or anyone in his campaign. How ironic that to believe Parley has been involved in negative campaigning, you have to disbelieve his word directly, and believe instead the word of negative campaigners.

It also boggles my mind how difficult it has been to get information on the real issues in this race sorted out from the blizzard of accusation and innuendo, generated apparently because Greg Soter is still trying to win his 1998 campaign.

Fellow delegates, please try to look past the garbage and make a thoughtful decision between two fine, capable candidates. I haven’t seen one bit of plain evidence that either candidate has been involved in dirty campaigning. If you believe either candidate, you have to believe what they say about each other, which is overwhelmingly positive. Don’t take the easy way out of your choice by believing the smears against either candidate—let your job be hard, and try to choose between these two experienced, conservative candidates based on the subtle ways in which their voting records and intentions differ.

Paul Taylor
County Delegate, OR16

Update:

Paul Taylor
County Delegate, OR16

A slight correction to my previous email: I said the Journal published the names of the 20-plus people who comprised the group “Citizens for Utah’s Values in Education.” They did not print the names in their paper, but made the list available to those who requested the list. Both Parley and Greg Soter requested and received the list of group members. As stated below, Glenn Way’s name was not on the list.