Boss Godfrey crudely manufactures and fabricates a bogus Governor Huntsman "endorsement"
We've had several communications this afternoon from gentle readers reporting that The Boss Godfrey campaign is now resorting to desperate political dirty tricks.
The word is that the Godfreyites are using one of those infernal autodialer machines, to deliver a purported Governor Huntsman endorsement of Boss Godfrey to lumpencitizens who are so unfortunate as to find their phone numbers listed on the publicly-available registered voter lists.
What these evil Godfreyites are doing is misrepresenting the facts -- i.e., LYING. What they've done is to "cut" a few pro-Godfrey words from a generic speech made by Jon Huntsman a few weeks ago, during the Amer Sports ribbon cutting. What they've done with that is to launch a robot phone-dialer spam campaign, based on some crude cut/pastes, and have similarly produced at least one now-running highly deceptive radio ad.
We've talked to the press spokesman for Governor Huntsman's office within the last hour, where the phones have been predictably "ringing off the hook" about this. She assures us that the matter appearing on the radio, as well as the content included in the autodialor spam, is entirely unauthorized by the Huntsman administration.
She also assures us that Governor Huntsman HAS NOT ENDORSED BOSS GODFREY!
Update 11/1/07 6:08 a.m. MT: This morning's Standard-Examiner reports that Governor Huntsman's office "asked" Boss Godfrey yesterday to "pull" the unauthorized autodialer spam message. Godfrey's campaign, which is being run by a $6 thousand/month campaign management professional, with experience in major camaigns all over Utah, feigns innocence, claiming it was all a big mistake. Here's Godgrey's lame excuse for his campaign's latest breach of campaign ethics: "Godfrey said his campaign staff wasn’t told it needed permission to include the sound bite in the phone message."
Yeah... that's the ticket. Right.
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33 comments:
I thought that Governor Huntsman had endorsed Mayor Godfrey, he is that on DVD of the first debate. Is it that same clip? Hmm. . .Anybody know if it's going to be in the paper tomorrow?
I received a phone message about 3:00 p.m. today stating that it was John Huntsman calling and talking about all the wonderful things Godfrey is doing for Ogden.
My instant reaction was that Huntsman will never get my vote.
Now in reading this Blog I find that the message was doctored.
Doesn't this deliberate attempt to misrepresent Governor Huntsman's comments come under the heading of criminal activity?
Interesting part of the law comes into play here.
The message has gone out over telephone lines and radio. That is a lot more serious than the culprits could have imagined.
Let's hope the U. S. Attorney has jurisdiction over this one. And that he isn't interested in playing Godfrey politics.
This is going to be real interesting to hear how the Mayor wriggles out of this one.
Godfrey's lawyer established in Parley Baldwin's court that he and he alone is responsible for his own campaign so I don't see how he is going to be able to blame it on a "Committee".
This is going to make all the national news media.
That should confirm what some of us have been saying for a long, long time which is that we need an honest person in charge of Ogden City government.
When FDR ran for a third term, H. L. Mencken joked that he supported FDR's reelection. "He ought to be made to bury his own dead horse," Mencken cracked. "It would be cruel and unusual punishment to permit anyone else to take over the autopsy."
Mencken's words came to mind as I read Ed Allen's Flowers-&-Darts paean to primogeniture. Ed's justification for a third Godfrey monarchy? "It basically boiled down to a desire to continue the momentum, maintain the powerful team he has recruited and finish what he refers to as 'a good start.'"
No thanks, Doc. Another four years and that dead horse will be us, buried deep in tetrachloroethylene-tainted native soil.
This has made my day!
People can no longer pooh-pooh the many charges that Ogden's Mayor prefers to always be on the shady side of accepted rules of conduct.
Now maybe someone will listen to the facts about the Mayor's method of conducting not only Ogden City business but even his own campaign.
The big question is who in Utah government in the elected official category, such as County Attorney deCaria or Utah Attorney General Shurtliff, will be forced to actually do something about Godfrey's infraction of the law?
I certainly hope the Governor won't be willing to accept just an apology from Mayor Godfrey for misrepresenting the facts.
If Huntsman does that he better kiss a second term in office goodbye.
moroni -
I like your anology of Mencken's words for Roosevelt to the present Godfrey situation.
For justice to be served, Matthew Godfrey should have to stick around in office for a very long time to pay off the bills for the Junction and his other RDA schemes to handle the disaster that has been created for the rest of us to take care of.
I'm gonna predict that this WON'T show up in the SE tomorrow, and that soon the SE will endorse Godfrey for Mayor. That's what kind of newspaper the SE is.
Question. Does the SE print letters from non-subscribers as well as those of subscribers?
Just curious.
JUST bow down and kiss my ring because I"M THE KING
I called Schwebke today with the ad/dialer story. Very incurious. I had to tell him several times that what Gofrey had done is WRONG!
"Pls verify it yourself, Scott, with the Gov's office, and then write an expose."
Scott: "I don't write expose's...I just write the truth".
Well, Scott, if you write the truth, that WILL be an expose, won't it?
Grieling answered the phone...I shoulda told him first.
I haven't heard the radio ad or gotten the robo call, but what I suspect has happened is that Godfrey's paid professional [Republican] campaign managers have, as Rudi suggested, cut and pasted some of Huntsman's specific comments in such a way as to have them appear to be a much broader endorsement of the Mayor than they were when originally made. And I also suspect that the robocalls do not say, specifically that the Governor has endorsed the Mayor's re-election bid. They probably begin by asking people to "listen to what Governor Jon Huntsman has to say about Mayor Matthew Godfrey." They endorsement they leave it to listeners to infer from what follows.
If the Governor's remarks, however cut and pasted, came from public statements at public events, the Godfrey campaign flacks do not need the Governor's permission to use them.
And, Slimey Slimey, I doubt they constitute criminal conduct, even if they go out over phone lines or radio waves. It is not illegal to lie on the airwaves or on phone robocalls. If it was, three quarters of the Utah House and Senate and two thirds of the Congress and the entire Bush cabinet and the President and all of the major Republican presidential candidates would be behind bars as I type. Gov. Huntsman may conclude that he has been defamed in the ads and phone calls, but his remedy in that case lies in a civil suit, not in a criminal action.
It just is not illegal to lie during campaigns. Unethical, yes. Illegal, no.
The problem with Mr. Godfrey is his very weak grasp of what ethical conduct requires of a public man. Naturally, he will have hired campaign consultants who share his views in that regard. But there's a big stretch between unethical campaign conduct and actionable criminal campaign conduct. Based on what I know of the robocalls and ads so far, he's crossed an ethical line, but not a legal one, unless perhaps Gov. Huntsman wants to sue him for defamation. [Certainly I would consider any claim that I supported Godfrey's re-election to be defamatory.]
Sharon:
What I think Mr. Schwebke may have been trying to say was that he is not an investigative reporter, he is simply the beat reporter assigned to Ogden City government. Expose's generally result from investigative reporters digging into something, not from beat reporters covering city government day by day. The SE does not as a rule do investigative journalism. Or not much of it.
However, seems to me that if Rudi's information is correct, that the Governor's office is going on the record to say he has not endorsed Mayor Godfrey for a third term, and that his phones are in fact "ringing off the hook" with people who've gotten the calls or who've heard the ad, asking the Gov "what the hell hey Monk?" then that itself is a story. Whether the SE or Mr. Schwebke realize it or not remains to be seen. Certainly a little judicious checking with the Governor's office should reveal whether that's all true or not.
But again, I doubt very much the Godfrey campaign or its paid professional [Republican] campaign managers have done anything illegal in this. They can probably tell you to within half a centimeter where they fatal line between "unethical" and "illegal" campaign practices is. Especially post Abrahmov. Knowing exactly where that line is and keeping the Godfrey campaign just a smidgen --- but no more than a smidgen --- on the good side of it is part of what Mayor Godfrey is paying his consultants north of $55K for. But we shall see...
rudi:
Wake up.... Its republicans that are corrupt and that raise taxes and create big government!!!!
oh you're right... democrats don't lie... let's see what was the quote?... "I never had sex with that woman"? Yep Mr. Clinton is a shining example for you democrats.
Amazing. At the end of the article Godfrey adds "I'm grateful to the governor for his support"--again trying to give people the impression that Huntsman has endorsed him.
Does he ever say anything that isn't intended to deceive?
Yeah, this is unethical. But there's also another problem. It's clear that the governor's office isn't happy about this, and the governor is a powerful fellow. It is in Ogden's best interest for our mayor to remain on good terms with the governor. Mr. Godfrey has made it clear that he puts his own reelection ahead of Ogden's best interest.
Hi,
Interesting discussion. Did you know that there is a new non-partisan, non-profit org that has started the National Political Do Not Contact Registry because politicians are exempt from the Federal DNC list?
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
Dan,
right on target re: Godfrey's comment about the governor's support. Be sure to check out Godfrey's statement in the Weber Plus section about how his administration has taken the lead in transparent gov't because when a developer (no mention of who, but don't worry, the mayor is all about transparency in government) brought a proposal to the city that they knew would be controversial they asked that developer to go around the city and give presentations for four months and gather input from the citizens before putting together a final proposal.
Gee, it looked to me like the Mayor himself was the one giving these presentations and providing lots of false information and refusing to turn over city records and e-mails relating to the whole proposal. Does Godfrey really believe himself?
Dan,
You are hitting the nail on the head, as ususal.
Of course, Godfrey's behavior is unethical! What part of honesty has he ever understood?
Curm: I HEARD the woman in the Gov's office (twice) say that Huntsman had not given permission for the dialer or the radio ad. "The Gov. was told he would appear in the DVD only".
Godfrey is a sneak. A SNEAK! What an awful label to have.
After this stunt the SE should not find it difficult to call for the voters to put Van Hooser in the mayor's chair.
If they do endorse Godfrey then we must assume that the editors of the SE have no moral compass, really don't care abut serving the best interests of Ogden, and are Godfrey lemmings too.
Since we know they read this blog I sincerely hope they will take a hard look at all Godfrey's manipulations and dishonesty with the Council and the citizens.
If they do, they cannot and must not endorse Godfrey.
BTW The president of the U.S. is limited to 8 years. The mayor should be limited to 8 years also. Otherwise a dynasty is created. And with Godfrey, the Allen clan, Geigers and a few other sycophants, the dynasty is already in full swing.
With a sociiopathic personality at the helm of the dynasty, fear among city employees will escalate and the vengeful acts against perceivd 'enemies' will escalate.
Is Ogden in America or nyet??
I fear Government at all levels. All levels have become runaway trains and the complacency over the years has allowed it to position itself for victory if a citizen uprising should occur. Not too much longer and we may be calling America the U.S.S.A.
Salt Lake Trib's K. Moulton has the story of the Governor telling Godfrey to pull his implied "endorsement" calls. Link here.
It covers pretty much that same ground, but contains two additional bits of information. First: " The auto-dial calls, in which a computer calls thousands of phones in minutes, were finished by the time Roskelley spoke with Godfrey. " Or in plain English, having already completed all the bogus "Huntsman endorsement" robo-calls, Godfrey has now agreed to stop making them. How magnanimous.
The SLT story also reports that Hizzonah has also agreed to stop his radio ads that use the governor's mythical "endorsement" of his re-election.
There is much else of interest in the SE this morning, including front page story about Ogden landing a major food distribution facility [basically, warehouse and truck loading facility] west of the interstate, relocated from Centerville I think. And the SE has published its main "Election" supplement which has all the candidates' own statements included, and long profiles of Van Hooser and Godfrey as well. Worth the price of admission. Also, many election related letters to the editor today as well.
The food service company story is here. You'll have to spring for the election supplement. Too many links to post.
Like it, hate it, tolerate it, be infuriated by it, put up with it... whatever describes your view of the SE, it is the only game in town.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the following in the middle of the SE's Godfrey profile:
Bonnie Galbraith, who is a member of the City Landmarks Commission, said she supports Van Hooser, whom she described as “very sensible, honest and open to the ideas of others.” “I’m for economic growth but not at the expense of our tax base and infrastructure that I feel has been neglected over the last eight years,” she said. Galbraith said she voted for Godfrey in the last two elections, but has been disappointed by his performance over the past four years. She believes the mayor has kept the public in the dark regarding several projects. “I think there is too much cronyism in his administration,” she said. “He didn’t turn out to be what I had anticipated four years ago.”
Well turns out the paranoid ones of you were wrong about the Standard.
Gotta say the gov. seems to have a selective memory about political endorsements and use of public speech.
This was in a SLTrib article:
When pressed at a recent news conference on whether he is uncomfortable being drafted as a spokesman for vouchers through careful video editing, his answer was less than satisfying to voucher supporters.
"I don't think there's much I can do about it," Huntsman says. "As a public person, you're out there, what you say is recorded and filmed."
Huntsman's spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley says the Governor's Office did not approve the ad, but "The governor has said that anything in the public domain - people are welcome to use."
If you had read that would you think that Godfrey would need to get permission from the Huntsman to use his words? The article also points out that:
What you don't see is the part of the news conference in which Huntsman tells Utahns it is OK to vote against vouchers.
"Whatever you think is right, whatever you can justify, is the right answer for you," Huntsman says in the portion voucher supporters edited out.
Seems the gov is trying to have it both ways. Either it is OK for people to use your words that are in the public domain or it is not.
I am not an Ogden resident and don't have a dog in this fight, but I am not surprised with the reaction people here are giving to this issue.
The poster formally known as ARCritic.
OK, I read todays trib article and it seems that the comments were not from a speech that was in the public domain but a recording made specifically for Godfrey's campaign. This surprises me even more that the gov would be upset. If you specifically recorded something for someones campaign would you be surprised that they then used it again for their campaign?
Just read the SE article too. So the gov recorded something specifically for Godfrey's campaign but that the statement was to be a general statement about Ogden not anything specific about Godfrey even though the gov knew that it was specifically for a campaign piece? And then the comment "“If the governor endorses a candidate, use of his voice and picture has to be approved by the governor’s staff,” she said." but since the governor is not endorsing a candidate does the candidate still need to get approval? The quoted statement does not address that.
I imagine I will catch a lot of flack for seeming to defend Godfrey, but I think it is as much Huntsman's problem as Godfrey.
This is just the typical lyimg little matty mo. The damage is done, he accomplished what he set out to do. Now he just says I'm sorry.
His high paid campain professionals knew this wasn't the right way, rather did they? Calculated.
How convenient that the Governor happened to be in India and that all the phone messages were delivered by the time that his office knew what was going on.
It hasn't taken Huntsman long in office to turn into a fence straddling politician like most elected officials turn out to be.
He is taking a page out of Senators Hatch and Bennett's prescribed conduct.
Why on earth did Huntsman make the DVD for Godfrey when in private he ridicules Godfrey but then in public he supports him in a DVD session..
And I had such high hopes for him.
After the Voucher debacle Huntsman should go back to "diplomatting" overseas. He is not doing too well locally with diplomacy.
I particularly enjoyed Matthew's profile, in which he stated that the $80K he makes as Mayor is a pittance compared to what he could be making in the private sector.
I assume he bases this assumption on his storied career prior to fuggering Ogdenites for eight years–he was shitcanned from to job to job for incompetence, insubordination, and insolence. Now he's leveraged you and me till doomsday in order to fund his "visions". Helluva a CEO you got there, Squirrel Patrollers.
Oh wait, I get it, he'll be rolling in the dough once he's paid back the scratch for all the sweetheart, backdoor deals he's been handing his cronies while supposedly serving his constituents.
Tuesday can't come soon enough.
A hearty welcome back, Stacey/ARCritic.
Beaver: Many allusions to Elder Godfrey's checkered pre-mayoral resume get posted here, but can you give specifics? We're all ears.
You people crack me up. Huntsman doesn't endorse anyone. Look it up.
The EXACT words from Huntsman's spot (which he GAVE to the Mayor) are:
"The progress in Ogden has been tremendous for the state of Utah. Ogden has become a major hub of the ski industry under the Mayor's leadership. We are truly excited to see these high paying jobs come to Ogden, and the rennovation of the downtown area"
That's it. It's like 30 seconds. It's from the DVD. Huntsman MADE the spot for the Mayor.
On Godfrey's Re-election:
There's a letter somewhere in the blizzard of letters in the SE this morning that says in essence that a Van Hooser mayoral term will not mean an end to Ogden's growth, but it will mean a difference in how that end is pursued. That struck me as exactly right, and as raising an issue that goes beyond all of the specifics about how many policemen were or were not hired, when a gun shot counts as a gun shot and when it doesn't, what the real size of Ogden's debt is and who is to be believed about that --- the state auditing agency or a Mayor in trouble for re-election --- and so on.
That overarching issue is this: can Ogden be well governed, can it continue its growth, under a Mayor to whom honor is too often a stranger and ethical conduct too often a mystery too deep for him to solve, under a Mayor who has surrounded himself with others who also seem unable to grasp the simplest concepts of decency as they relate to public men. People like Mr. Patterson who sought to use a Council member's child's drug problem against the Council member; who has just recently tried to get a state employee's supervisor to take action against him because the employee endorsed Van Hooser [though Mr. Patterson and Mr. Godfrey had no problem with that state employ taking public stands on public issues when he was on the Council and voting, more often than not, to support the Mayor's plans for the Junction]. Other close associates of the Mayor have tried to intervene with the management of private businesses to get their employees removed or at least silenced for opposing the Mayor's plans in public. Decent people do not do things like that, not even during campaigns, yet the mayor has surrounded himself with people who do.
A mayor with a working sense of honor would not use the public community TV channel to oppose a school bond issue, and then deny supporters the chance to reply on that channel. Mayor Godfrey did. A public man with a working sense of ethical conduct would not use city water bill inserts and the city website and taxpayer financed newspaper "informational" pages as his personal campaign vehicles. Mayor Godfrey did. A mayor with a sound grasp of ethical principles would not arrange insider deals for his cronies and supporters. Mayor Godfrey has. A public man with a good grasp of what honesty in office means would not continue to insist, on the city's website, that his pet project for a gondola would connect downtown Ogden with Snow Basin when Snow Basin management said repeatedly it would not, to the point that Snow Basin management had to contact the Standard Examiner to let the public know that the mayor was not being truthful. Mr. Godfrey did. [Mr. Trentelman wrote the story.]
When I was growing up in the fifties, one of the commonplaces of the day was that one of the things that set America off from the Soviet Union was that the latter's communist government believed that "the ends justify the means," and that Americans did not. Sadly, Ogden now has at its head a Mayor, seeking a third term, who does believe that the ends justify the means, that he has on all public matters, the Light, the Truth and the Way, so that any means are justified to secure those ends.
I doubt he was raised to behave that way. I am not LDS, but one of the things I like about its teaching is the challenge it poses for children to "Choose the Right." Not a bad standard at all since it introduces the idea that idea no matter who is watching or not, no matter whether you are sure you will be not be caught or not, no matter how badly you want to do something or not, you know you are doing wrong when you do it, and that alone should be enough to stop you from it. More than enough. The standard is, in adults, called "honor."
Sadly, the Mayor seems not to have a sense of honorable conduct and what it requires. It matters to him whether someone is looking or not, hence his almost pathological emphasis on secrecy in office. Based on his actions, his penchant for cronyism, his dissembling, and more, he seems unable to "choose the right," to behave ethically when he sees, or thinks he does, a faster surer way to achieve his ends by doing otherwise.
Such arrogant contempt for principled conduct almost always leads those who practice it to over-reach themselves, at great cost in the end not only to themselves and their families but to the people they claim to serve. Ask Jack Abrahamov about that. Or ex-Congressman now prisoner Duke Cunningham. Or ex-Congressman now prisoner Ney. Or Congressman Jefferson. Or Senator Vitter. Or Alberto Gonzalez. Or any of the public men [or women] who stay in office so long that they become convinced the rules do not apply to them, that whatever they do is acceptable conduct simply because they do it.
Mayor Godfrey has been wielding power now for eight years. That is long enough. The corrupting nature of power has clearly begun to erode whatever ethical standards he brought with him when he first took office. He has done some good things in that office, but now, I'm afraid, the best way to protect Matthew Godfrey's legacy as mayor is to break the hold of power upon him, and put the reins in new hands, in the hands of someone who seems to have a much sounder grasp, based on a life-time of hard-won experience, and based on a respect for the principles of open government and separation of powers, of what ethical and honorable conduct requires of a public person.
All the specific criticisms of the Godfrey administration that have been discussed here, many of which [though not all] I agree with aside, the Mayor's inability to know what honor requires of public men and to act on that, and his penchant for surrounding himself with men who have no objection to behaving shamefully for political ends, would be enough to convince me to vote for Van Hooser.
Which, come Tusday morning, I will do. It is time for a change. It is time for the cronyism to end.
Here's his extensive experience (admittedly, as I know it).
First job out of school was at Iomega: Claims he quit not long after being hired ... have heard he was fired due to his attitude. (Gave him real-world experience in dealing with others while exhibiting a holier-than-thou complex.)
Ogden Econ Dev Office: Confirmed fired, purportedly over insubordination and something about using city resources and time for his personal agendas. (Here's where he got his real training.)
Ran up credit cards as an aspiring slum lord. (The inspiration for his eight years of filching the public pocketbook.)
And now it comes to light from his profile in today's hamster cage carpet, he helped around his boyhood home–digging a sewer trench (the source of his integrity) and patching the roof (where he spent many hours gazing at the beautiful landscape and dreaming of scarring it with a gondola to nowhere).
Hell, based on this, my summer schlepping snowcones qualifies me for appointment as a Supreme Court Justice, or least Governor.
Curm: Terrific piece; wish it could run in Op-Ed. I wish the Allens had to write it 100 times on the blackboard.
Beaver: Many thanks. That is the stuff of juicy investigative reporting, at least for a newspaper with resources and depth to pursue it. Sadly, there's no such rag in the Top of Utah. If the Trib really cares to snag Ogden subscribers, it's a great opportunity. Are you listening, Ms. Moulton?
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