Two organizations, within blocks of one another, billed themselves Wednesday as the place to go to meet City Council and mayoral candidates.
On one side: the Eagle Mountain Citizens Coalition that met at Eagle Valley Elementary School. Its long-planned event attracted about 35 residents and half of the 14 vying for City Council and mayor.
On the other: Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, who along with a local homeowners association, sponsored an alternative event at a city park. It was hurriedly thrown together earlier this week and came complete with food and drinks. It drew the biggest crowd - 50 to 70 voters. But it attracted only one mayoral candidate and two council contenders.
Some candidates, such as Donna Burnham and Eric Cieslak, didn't want to pick sides. They attended neither.
The emotions raised by the dueling events mirror fierce community struggles over who supports whom, and who is being truthful.
For example, a "concerned citizen who doesn't like being lied to" sent a community-wide e-mail on Aug. 18 that accuses the citizens coalition of lying to residents. It lambasted the group for supporting a slate of candidates behind-the-scenes, while purporting to be unbiased and nonpolitical.
The e-mail - later found to have been authored by Daniela Camacho, wife of Edwin Camacho who is one of 11 City Council candidates - attached a letter from the coalition's vice president, Joan Jones, who encouraged members to vote for Richard Culbertson, Linn Strouse, Robert DeKorver and Ken Hixson.
"Although this coalition was likely created with the best of intentions, it appears they have become the very thing they despise and fight against. . . an interest group," she wrote. "If they really cared about the community and the citizens, they should have truly remained impartial."
Others have raised concerns that the coalition's president, Wendy Nabhan, and its secretary/treasurer, Eric Gardner, appear on a DVD - it's posted at http://www.eaglemountainpromise.com - touting the slate of candidates in question.
Heather Jackson, who is running for mayor, and council candidate Camacho, said they would have felt uncomfortable attending.
But Jones emphasized Thursday that the coalition had nothing to do with producing the DVD. The coalition, she said, has not yet supported any candidates, and it might never do so. Her letter supporting the slate of candidates, she said, reflected her personal opinion.
And while she said the coalition is careful not to sling any mud, Jones also alleges that developers want her group to disappear because it looks out for open space..
And for Camacho, pre-primary politics is disheartening.
"I've been told the politics in Eagle Mountain are dirty," he said. "But I didn't know it was going to be this bad."
sgehrke@sltrib.com
