Dirty Republican tricks in Utah

I received an email this morning from Senator Jim DeMint describing a stealth and illegal attempt to derail the campaign of Utah Senate candidate Mike Lee.  Here's an excerpt:

Dear Friends:

I don't normally tell you about the political games being played in specific campaigns around the country, but today is an exception. Something happened in the Utah Senate race last month that you need to know about.

A political mailer was sent out to thousands of Utah delegates right before the May 8th Republican Nominating Convention, which smeared Mike Lee -- the strongest conservative in the race. Negative attacks occur in politics all the time, but this one was very dirty ... and very illegal.

The mailer was designed to (a) look like it was sent by Mike Lee to attack Senator Bennett and (b) to use Mike's church affiliation to promote his campaign -- something that is seriously frowned upon in Utah politics.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, "GOP delegates saw the use of the religious symbols as inappropriate and the direct-mail piece -- purporting to support Senate candidate Mike Lee -- may have been among the factors that cost Lee his front-runner status at the Utah Republican Convention earlier this month, according to a survey by Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy."

Whoever sent this mailer knew that it would damage Mike Lee's campaign at the exact moment when he needed the support the most. If this mailer had not been sent, it's very possible that Mike Lee would have gotten the 60 percent he needed to win the nomination at the state convention without a primary.

Fight Back. Support Mike Lee.

What upsets me most about this anti-Lee mailer is that whoever sent it didn't have the courage or the integrity to identify themselves. It was sent by a group called Utah Defenders of Constitutional Integrity, but no such group exists.

This sneak attack was launched by a bogus group in direct violation of federal campaign laws, which require groups to register with the FEC and provide contact information on all political communications.

We did research using the postal permit used for the mailer and found that it was produced by Precision Strategies in Alexandria, VA. We've called to find out who hired them but nobody is talking.

This is the kind of Chicago politics that you and I have come to expect from President Obama and the Democrats, but not in a Republican primary.

You can contribute to Mike Lee through DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund here.