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Utah Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon says he's trying to stay neutral in his brother Rep. Chris Cannon's primary battle, but it didn't come across that way in comments he posted online last weekend questioning his brother's challenger.
Cannon appeared to poke all the vulnerable spots in the campaign of John Jacob, commenting on allegations involving his employment of people with questionable immigration status and his published remarks blaming Satan for his campaign's financial problems. Joe Cannon starts off his post noting Jacob's "obvious problems."
"In your interview with Jacob did you ask him why he supports a 'Disneyland day pass' approach to illegal aliens? This approach is worse than any amnesty proposal," Joe Cannon wrote on the conservative Web site, Humanevents online.com.
Joe Cannon also raised questions about Jacob paying under the table a Chilean couple here on non-work visas and through a company created to possibly skirt immigration and tax laws.
The party official - who is barred by party rules from picking sides in an intraparty race - was responding to a blog post by a user named John Hawkins, who complained that Joe Cannon, a member of the board of directors of the Deseret Morning News, may have had something to do with a story in that newspaper about Jacob's past gambling. The newspaper ran an editor's note disclosing Joe Cannon's position.
"Draw your own conclusions," Hawkins wrote. "I've interviewed Jacob and I'd love to see him replace Cannon, so we can get rid of one more guy in the House who shares Ted Kennedy's views on illegal immigration."
In a post after Hawkins, Joe Cannon says that "to blame all of your business failures on the devil is also not typical of believers . . .. Personal responsibility is a hallmark of Republican philosophy."
Joe Cannon said Monday that Hawkins "ripped me," and "it really made me mad," and he felt he needed to respond.
He said that he has been careful not to publicly endorse anyone in the campaign and is staying neutral. That said, he added, "I happen to share my brothers' views on immigration, and that may have come through."
In a later interview Monday, Cannon did say he has assisted his brother behind the scenes though he did not describe how.
Jacob's spokeswoman Hayden Hill says Joe Cannon has "obviously crossed the line."
"I think it's pretty poor form for the person who's supposed to be representing all Republicans to pick a side, especially in such a heated primary election. . . . I think some of the things he says in this blog are inappropriate."
And former Rep. Merrill Cook, a Republican who lost his bid for the 3rd Congressional District in convention, charged that Joe Cannon has displayed no impartiality in the race.
"My experience with Joe is that it's not at all unusual for him to behind the scenes do some pretty awful things," Cook said. "It's very inappropriate, but I'm not surprised he's doing it."
But former Utah GOP Chairman Craig Moody says he doesn't believe Joe Cannon did anything wrong.
"I know how difficult a position you can find yourself in," Moody says about staying neutral as a party official. "I understand that with your brother running, how much more difficult that could be."
Cannon posted to the "Right Angle" blog on the Web site of the conservative magazine Human Events.